It was a weird week down here in K5. Not that every week in kindergarten isn’t weird, but when you have to send this in your weekly announcement, you know things are going downhill.
Somehow the boy’s bathroom in my classroom is the center of some strange energy vortex where every boy who enters is suddenly caught by a mysterious force and made to do something ridiculous, and I mean ridiculous even by five year old standards. I understand the playing in the sink, and using too much toilet paper, and even the occasional “accidental” intrusion of privacy. My class has even gotten used to ignoring the grunter who still occasionally serenades us with his efforts.
But while my bidet drinker seems to have found other more consistent sources of hydration, others have quickly stepped up to take his place. I did finally identify my floor pee-er (still don’t know how to spell that). And yeah, that was a fun note to send home to mom. Dear mom, your son appears unable to effectively aim his penis, please advise. And I am just going to add “If you can’t aim, you have to sit” to the list of phrases I didn’t anticipate having to keep handy in my teacher lexicon.
Back to the weekly class newsletter, and the orphaned undies. The lovely custodian who deals with my class came to my teaching assistant to tell her that she had found the underwear in the bathroom. I was already at lunch, which is both fortunate and unfortunate. Fortunate because I didn’t have to deal with it, and unfortunate because it would have been awesome to listen to my twenty year old TA (who I think my boys may have a bit of a teacher crush on) interview each boy about whether or not he had an accident and was still wearing underwear. Clearly from the note, no one admitted to having left behind their unmentionables, and surprisingly, no one else came forward to identify the bare bottomed bandit, hence me sending home the FYI announcement in my newsletter.
And that was far from the only interesting conversation from the week. There was the in depth discussion on the materials, design, construction, need for, and proper use of prosthetic legs. We also questioned the average age when grownups start wearing diapers again, and debated the percentage of grownups who will need to wear diapers again at some point in their lives. So, basically, a normal week in kindergarten.
In other news:
Lila may has started to practice with the JV girls volleyball team, which means that she and Hannah are on the same team for the first time. And no, why do you ask, what could possibly make that be awkward?
Lila also has been elected a Service Ambassador, which means she had to give a speech in front of her class about how she wants to help the school and be voted in. Here’s a link to the announcement from school:
Lila did have her first big, “I miss my Bend friends” moment the other day. She has made some amazing friends since arriving, but since her Bend friends weren’t communicating by text before she left, she has had some good friends fade into the background. Emails just aren’t the same, especially for a fifth grader, and so it’s a little sad to see those connections weaken.
Hannah seems to be in touch as much as any of us to her life in Bend, mainly because communication by text and video chat has always been the way her friends communicate. Her connections to home feel strong, and her connections to friends are getting stronger every week. She has good friends here, and we feel lucky that both of them have found such great new tribes.
Yes, Sara is still alive and well. Fifth grade here is the grade where they do all the extra things, like host puberty talks, elect service ambassadors, teach real science units, and go on week long field trips to work with a sea turtle research station. This all adds up to a workload that means she is the busiest of us all most days. But she is finding her routines, like yoga after school, and early morning weekend runs, and even the occasional day without her laptop.
In the five weeks since we got back from our monthlong break, we have also squeezed in a whirlwind weekend tour of Sao Paolo with Sara’s cousin Bert, enjoyed a weeklong visit from our amazing friend Kari, planned a big chunk of two major summer vacation trips and I have even managed to complete the process of qualifying for my Brazilian driver’s license. I’ll save those stories for another blog, or better yet, call me and I’ll fill you in.
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