Unclear on the Concept

Having kindergarteners in my life is lots of fun. They are eager about life in general, but have a few misconceptions about it, too. Everything is new to them, but they have so much to learn!

Like . . . how to play tag. Freeze Tag, of course, means that when you are tagged, you are frozen until someone who is not “it” touches you to “unfreeze” you. So during before-school recess last week, the older kids were playing Freeze Tag, and Micah (one of the kindergarteners) was standing around needing something to do. I pointed out a 6^th grader who was frozen and waiting to be freed and told Micah to go unfreeze him. Before Micah could unfreeze the 6^th grader, however, he was tagged by the student who was it. He froze like he was supposed to. So far, so good. Then, I sent Kayley (another kindergartener) to unfreeze Micah, and that’s where things went wrong> Micah saw Kayley coming at him, figured that she was “it,” and began to run with Kayley chasing him. One of my 5^th grade girls was standing beside me and had seen the whole thing. She looked at me, and we both dissolved into laughter.

Or . . . the purpose of college: did you know that we go to college so that we can get refrigerators? A representative from Pensacola Christian College came to elementary chapel the other day to present the college to the kids. He started by asking why we go to college, and when he called on Taylor (another one of the kindergarteners), she eagerly informed him that we go to college so that later on in life we can have enough money to get refrigerators for our houses. Success has a new (or not so new) definition, folks!

And then there’s symbolism . . . Lost on the little ones, of course. Another chapel speaker at Christmas time was trying to give the students visual reminders of the true meaning of Christmas using various types of candy. He began by holding up a Baby Ruth candy bar and asking the students to fill in the blanks: “Jesus came to earth as a ___________.” He repeated his statement a couple of times, waiting for some bright student to read the wrapper and fill in the blank. While the older students were giving him blank looks and puzzling over the point he was trying to make, Taylor filled it in for him:

Speaker: “Jesus came to earth as ____________”

Taylor: “A piece of chocolate?!!!?”

Students and teachers: general and uproarious laughter from all who understood what had happened and from those just laughing because everyone else was laughing (they too were a little unclear on the concept).

Paper Stars

I don’t remember exactly how it started, but I’ve been seeing stars ever since. It probably was a product of my tendency to find something to occupy the idle hands and minds of those kids that I’m watching—whether babysitting or supervising in school or . . . well, you get the idea. Anyway, I began making paper/origami stars like my sister taught me this Christmas. Pretty soon I was addicted—and so were my students. They would sit at recess making origami stars instead of running around and playing house or standing around and talking about movies and boys and whatever else they felt like talking about. The addiction has worn off a little in all of us; but if one must have a fetish for something, I suppose that making paper stars isn’t a bad fetish to have. J