Kids Say the Darndest Things

I know I've posted a lot about the little munchkins lately, but I'm getting all sentimental as my time with them winds down. It's weird to know I'll never see them again and that I'll clearly remember them, but (as they are so young) it's unlikely they'll remember me. They're also just so freakin' adorable that I want to use this post for selfish, journal-related reasons--we have had some great moments this year!

The thing about the kids is that they are SO funny. I'm sure they'd be even funnier if I understood half of what they said, but I laugh a lot even without understanding. Some examples:

--When we were doing letter K and I had all of the pictures of my fam, one of the kids asked "Why do you have blue eyes and yellow hair?" The teacher's response: "Because she's a foreigner." Haha!

--In one of those pictures, my hair is straight and I'm all of 13 years old. One girl looked at it and declared "She looks just like my mommy!" (Her mom is Chinese...and at least 20, I hope!)

--When the kids first see me, they always run up and show me their zippers, buttons, dresses, and jeans (all words we've learned this year). It kind of reminds me of how we would see our childhood dentist at temple or the JCC and immediately show him our teeth.

--When singing the ABC song, the older kids like to yell out things that begin with each letter as we get to it (it's not the standard American version of the song; it's much longer). Lately, Billy has been saying "YOGA" for letter Y and then immediately goes into a yoga pose. Apparently he takes classes with his mother in the evenings...

--I showed the older kids a video of Lucy (our family dog) eating peanut butter. They LOVED it for several reasons, including that the Chinese teacher's English name is Lucy. Now they constantly ask to see Lucy and then all make licking motions with their tongues.

--I change clothes every afternoon so I can leave my work stuff at school. When I emerge from the teacher's closet, Billy always exclaims "Alison, you look so bee-you-tee-ful!" and then the other kids follow suit. (Apparently gym clothes are a novelty here, as Adam noted).

--Today I asked the baby class who wants to come to America with me. They all said no at first, but then Simon said he wouldn't want to go because his mom buys him new toys. I told him that we have toys in America, and then he said he'd come. Hannah said she would come if I buy her a butterfly dress. Julie said she would come if there is ice cream. And Dora requested the steep price of 3 dresses.

--The teacher who will be taking my place came to do a demo lesson last week. (They hire early here!) The following day, Clive asked "Where is Rebecca?" When I told him she is a new English teacher and will come when I leave next month, his face fell and said "You go to America?" He then gave me a huuuuuge bear hug. 

(Side note: I made Rebecca promise to bring her computer once and a while so that I could possibly Skype with the kids. Thank goodness for technology!)

I love that I walk into the classroom to screams and shouts of "Alison! Alison!" It's such a bright spot every day and makes me so excited to be at school (and off the subway). In the small class, they always run up and show me their clothes and tell me stories that I don't understand. I usually say "Oh WOW" and act excited because they're excited, and that tactic works just fine. However, 2 kids would always repeat the same thing over and over, and when I finally asked what they were saying, it turned out to be "BIG HUGE FEET!" So random.

Now that we've been doing the same routines for so many months and the kids really do know the days and months, they have started little jokes that make them all dissolve into giggles. The older kids started say "FLyday" because someone slipped up once (big supplies there, huh?) and now we all discuss where we will fly on Flyday. The smaller kids say "Washday" instead of Wednesday because of another slip up and then all make hand-washing motions. It's refreshing and exciting to me because they have to own the original term in order to understand the joke about it. Yay for teaching successes!!

You're probably bored to tears with such a long, picture-less post, so thank you for reading and humoring me :) They make me crazy sometimes, but I love [most of] these babies!