Today's top 4 amusements

1. "The Pink Eye"

Lately, we've had the eye goop going around the classroom. It was so bad that we opened late one day to disinfect the room, and so that staff members could all get eye drops. So the five year olds were very concerned about this--"what is the pink eye?" "do the eye drops hurt?" "can we watch you put your eye drops in?" "if you don't spray this table, will we get the pink eye?" And so on and so forth. They all called it "the pink eye", kind of like "the gout" or "the clap", but different.

2. The new pencil sharpener

Our electric one bit the dust, so we went old school industrial--one of the mounted on the wall monsters that would sharpen steel into a finely chiseled point. Now, picture 10 children lined up, quietly and patiently, waiting to sharpen any pencil they could find. Now, picture this line never getting any shorter--they stood in line ALL DAY to do this. Oh to get such pleasure from such a mundane task.

3. The new faucet

The old one leaked, so a new one was installed. Imagine a line (like the pencil sharpener line, but without the pencils) to a child sized sink, with children holding whatever work would need water. And the pouring, and the refilling, and the pouring, and the refilling....it goes on and on....

4. Reading "Little House on the Prairie" aloud

Love that series, and read this one and "The Little House in the Big Woods" every year. I love how involved they get in the story, and how much they like the characters. Friday I got to read the chapters where Jack (the brindled bulldog) gets swept down the river,and is thought to have drowned. And then, I read the next chapter when he was found. Love their excitement when they figured out that it wasn't a wolf approaching camp, but Jack! Seriously wide eyes, like Christmas morning wide eyes of surprise.