Kids Aren't Just Kids... Wednesday, October 27

It warms my hard Polish heart to be tutoring a small group of kids out in Asan at a church. The church is relatively small, averaging just under a hundred in attendance at a Sunday service, but it’s a close knit group of people. Students in one class are the siblings to other students in my other class, so it’s amusing to have them randomly question me about their older or younger sibling. I only have one boy in each of my two classes. They’re brothers, sons of the man who organized the English classes. Both are at the top of their class, both sit in the first seat on my left and both insist on always being my partner for class partner work.

Today the younger brother came to my class sick and unexpectedly I switched into older sister mode. That’s the thing with these kids that I find strange about myself. I am always trying to give them random advice and I always find odd ways to work advice-giving into our free talk time.

The other day I started a game using “Have you ever” as the bases as asking each other questions. Students had to fill up a board game full of empty spaces, using “Have you ever” as the start of each question. One of my middle schools students wrote down “Have you ever been drunk?” and with that I seriously could have slapped her on the back of the head. “Please don’t answer that” I blurted out.

In my elementary class I joked with my adorable little Katie about her arriving to class empty handed. She’s notoriously known for popping sweets during class but today she had no candy. “Where’s all your candy sweetie?” I asked her. “I’m on a diet” was what she responded with. I was shocked and she knew it. My jaw dropped to the floor and I sat there shaking my head in disbelief that a little 11 year old had just told me she’s on a diet. Turns out she was joking but for that brief minute or so when she let me hang there in pure shock, I didn’t feel good.

My Church Kiddies are a cute group of kids and though I jokingly threaten them by telling them I’ll kick them in the head if they don’t do their homework or that I’ll upper cut them if they come to class late again, I do care for them and would never hurt them. I was really flattered when I returned this past Monday from being away (cause of my accident) and was greeted by all their smiling faces. They always make it a habit to stand curb side and see me off after class. They love my little Gotti and I love the fact that even when I’m some distance away, I often hear one or two random students yell out goodbye to me in the distance.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Is there any way to skip the baby stage and jump right to just having a kid?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer