The Why...

For the past 5 years I have been spending hours upon hours upon hours with five and six year olds. And, as you can imagine, they say some of the most hilarious, interesting and ridiculous things. I've decided after all this time to finally write them down some place so that years from now I can still remember them. Why do it on a blog? Well, I find these stories pretty entertaining and I figure other people will hopefully find them entertaining as well.

So let's begin...

One of my biggest struggles with my class for this year is that they really don't listen. Apparently, they think they already all that is going on and don't feel the need to listen to directions. They also feel forever entitled to "choice". Now, I think it is important to give kids choice, but it is another thing when they consistently expect it. Even when I give them choices for what they can be doing, it is not enough and they'll ask to do something different.

Which leads me to today's story...

In the afternoons after writing I give the kids a quick break before the last stretch of the day. They can either do a quiet floor puzzle or eat a snack. As kids were finishing up their writing and most were working on puzzles one of my boys came up to me and asked, "Ms. Jennings, can I play with the beach ball outside the classroom?" I laughed... yes, laughed, and replied, "no".
He then asked, "Can I play with the beach ball inside the class?"
I said, "No, you can go do a puzzle."
"Can I play with the geoblocks?"
"No, you can go do a puzzle."
"Can I play with the shape puzzle?"
"No..."

This kind of thing seems to happen a lot to me this year, but I have never had a kid be this insistant on doing something other than what he was told he could do. As I left class today and reflected back on this encounter all I could think of was, "This is my life."