Funny Kids

Wow. I made it through the first full week of school. It was a mostly good week with just a little stumble toward the end. I'm learning so much each day and having to change so much across to US English in order for the kids to understand. A couple of days I got frustrated by holding up lost property and having no one claim it: "Whose jumper is this?" I asked. All the little kiddies thought to themselves "Jumper? What's a jumper? I don't have a jumper." And so we got nowhere until I remembered they don't call them jumpers, they're sweaters. Similarly, children kept complaining about being thirsty, so I told them to use the bubbler. Turns out they had no idea what I was talking about! They get their water from a drinking fountain! And of course, they don't have rubbish - it's trash or garbage. These are mostly things I knew in Australia, but it's hard to change the way you say things automatically.
When they sing "Happy Birthday" they don't do the Hip-Hip-Hoorays at the end either.
SO MUCH TO LEARN AND REMEMBER.
I'm also having to think through how I integrate the Christian side of things. I haven't been able to mention God in the public schools, but now I need to make sure that whatever I say is accurate with what the bible says and not just my personal views or the views I have grown up with. Plus, I don't want to swamp the kids with too much or confuse them to the point that they think God is disappointed when they play with their pencils when the teacher is speaking or so forth. While the little things may be frustrating for me, I don't think God really has an issue with it!
My class has been so cute this week in so many ways. We won "Luis the Owl" for having the tidiest classroom. The kids were SO excited. They have had some trouble with keeping their bags tidy, so I turned Luis to see all their bags and I told the children that Luis was feeling sad. I said that he looked like he was about to fly off. They all panicked and cleaned up the bag area. One little girl asked me how I knew he was about to fly off. I said that I could see it in his eyes! Another said, "He can't really fly, can he?" To which I replied, "Can't he?" I love it...they're so funny.
Another day, at lunch time, two children were arguing over the pronunciation of 'tomato', but had never heard the song "Let's call the whole thing off", so I intervened and showed them the song. They thought it was great!
I also heard the famous line from a Seinfeld episode "These pretzels are making me thirsty".
I'm having a ball and the kids are hilarious.
John is sorting out job options and has a full-time job at his disposal now. It's not quite what he had in mind, but at the moment, it's a job.