Conversations I've had lately

...With the kids at school:
I was working with four students on reading and we talk a lot about vocabulary. One of the words was pigment, so I asked what it meant. Noone knew so I said it meant color. One of the boys looked at me and said, "Miss Black is a pigment." "What?" I replied. He laughed and said, "That was a joke." Well, the joke was on me when I finally got it 15 minutes later.

I was teaching math to a bunch of 4th and 5th graders when I made a comment about what they would be doing later in the day. Six heads looked up from the table and said, "How'd you know that?" I said, "I'm a teacher, that's how." Two of them said, "Are you a mom too?" I said, "No," but after thinking a second I replied, "Would I be a good one?" One boy said, "Oh, yeah!" I guess the requirement for being a mom is knowing what will happen in four hours.

I have two kindergarteners in afternoon that are just adorable. A couple of weeks ago everyone is school was sick, so kids were gone a lot. When one of them was gone, the other one just kept asking for him. He couldn't quite learn without the other person. Then the next day the one who was sick came to school and the other one stayed home. "Where is John?" he asked. I said he was probably home sick. I heard, "You know the one I mean? The one with the blind eye." Right, cause there are so many kids in my group. I couldn't help but laugh. Last week, they were both in group and one called the other by name. The little boy looked at his friend and said, "How do you know my name?" Really?! We've only been in school 112 days. They are so funny.

...with Grammie
I took her peanut butter cookies and the next time I went she had eaten them all and wanted to know if I had brought more. I told her I would make Valentine cookies and asked if she would help me make them. "No, but I will eat them," was her response.

Our school has a program for deaf children, so I am slowly picking up more sign language. I learned the other day that the sign for stubborn in the same as the sign for mule. I was telling Grammie and she thought it was pretty funny. This led her to remember the fact that John bet a friend he could take his mule into the hospital and show it to his newborn twins. He won the bet much to the chagrin of the nurses who were working. Anyway, I told Grammie that I got my stubbornness from her and she agreed. Then I told her I hadn't really had a chance since my other grandmother is German. Grammie agreed. She said that I got double the stubbornness and didn't stand a chance.