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Thursday, April 24, 2008

School Bell

My kids make me laugh every day. They are just plain funny little people. Yesterday was an experience that just had me shaking my head and chuckling for hours though. Check it out.

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My kids set up a school room with rows of chairs and my chair at the front. They pulled out a ton of workbooks and packed backpacks full of them and some plastic food. Then announced they wanted to "play school". Okay... I asked them if they remembered that we homeschool. We kind of always do that, don't we?

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I guess not. It seems "playing" school means that you work silently, in a self-motivated way for hours. HOURS. Concentrating on workbooks that you scorn when presented by your mother. However, if your mother is "playing teacher"... then you will happily sit for hours. HOURS. You will even read and write without pretending that you cannot do so. You won't fall off chairs.

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Hey, eyes on your own paper!

My daughter looked up several times after diligently writing page after page to say, "Mommy, this is so much FUN." I would look up from writing letters and agree heartily. My daughter suggested we do this every day. Again, with the hearty agreement from me. Then she suggested that we should set up a chart so I, as the teacher, could put up marks when they do well. I said, "You mean like your 'real' point charts?" I asked if I could just give them 'real' points for being good in 'play' school. She found that idea perfectly acceptable.

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Oh, the other seats are not actually empty. Remember them? The slightly creepy imaginary friends that live in my walls? Their seats. They also behaved rather well. For them. They did asked to be excused for a few too many bathroom breaks, but I could live with that.

I have had some issues with a couple of those pesky friends lately. Like why is Les calling my daughter and badgering her into joining him at Hotel California? "No, Les, I WONT go with you to Hotel California!" She shouted into her plastic phone the other day. Plain creeped me out, Poltergeist style. And as for Morph... after I found out he has been reincarnated 12 times and remembers all his previous lives, AND worships five deities... (we've been learning about different religions - can you tell?) I am a little sketchy about his roll as my son's best imaginary friend. However, the imaginaries did fine "playing school" yesterday. Besides, we can't really control who our kids end up in class with can we?

2 comments:

K said...

: ) Love this. ~K

Maria said...

Is this, possibly, the same condition my 10 yr old suffers from. If someone else says "Hey let's do this fun educational project!" she's all for it, but if I say "Hey let's do this fun educational project!" she rolls her eyes and says "NOT school, Mom."

I figured if I didn't public school her it would save her from drudgery. Apparently not.