There is a wonder factor to a twelve year old boy. I love it. I am spending time with four of them up north this week and next.
They are: playing cards and flirting with cheating on each other. Catching frogs and building homes for them. Wondering why I go nuts when they try to use their nets to catch the hummingbirds at the feeder. Swimming with the dog. Building forts and swings in the woods and carving their names into trees. Building a bonfire every night. Whittling. Playing flashlight tag until midnight. Eating - constantly. Waiting for rain sometimes - no screens of any kind unless it is raining - so no movies, tv, gameboys.... Constantly testing their knowledge of constellations, music, fads - of anything - out on each other.
I am: bringing them to the library to (among other things) do research on the frog (excuse me, toad). Giving them oral quizzes on American jazz...I believe they now all know the difference between Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme. Forcing them to eat vegetables, take showers and check for ticks. Singing to them until their eyes roll back in their heads - especially opera. Playing cards with them - they play like a bunch of old grumpy men. Making them pick up - their clothes, their soda cans, the watermelon rinds off the lawn, their dishes. My nick-name - the enforcer.
They are: playing cards and flirting with cheating on each other. Catching frogs and building homes for them. Wondering why I go nuts when they try to use their nets to catch the hummingbirds at the feeder. Swimming with the dog. Building forts and swings in the woods and carving their names into trees. Building a bonfire every night. Whittling. Playing flashlight tag until midnight. Eating - constantly. Waiting for rain sometimes - no screens of any kind unless it is raining - so no movies, tv, gameboys.... Constantly testing their knowledge of constellations, music, fads - of anything - out on each other.
I am: bringing them to the library to (among other things) do research on the frog (excuse me, toad). Giving them oral quizzes on American jazz...I believe they now all know the difference between Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme. Forcing them to eat vegetables, take showers and check for ticks. Singing to them until their eyes roll back in their heads - especially opera. Playing cards with them - they play like a bunch of old grumpy men. Making them pick up - their clothes, their soda cans, the watermelon rinds off the lawn, their dishes. My nick-name - the enforcer.
3 comments:
It looks and sounds like you are having a great time! Boy paradise. Thanks for being the enforcer, and thanks especially for being so good to Alex and the boys. They'll never admit how much you mean to them. These are the memories and experiences that last a lifetime.
-Victoria
Yes, memories to last a lifetime.
How wonderful!
The dietitians of the world thank you for supervising healthy eating as well!
I agree: the wonder years.
It's why I love teaching sixth grade. 25 to 30 of them: talk about energy, ideas, and torturing them with singing! (Last year my favorite was "Gloom, Despair, and Agony on Me".)
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