Student of the Week

My grandson is student of the week in his class. 

This means that a large bulletin board is dedicated to him, his pictures, his interests, his family...anything he wants to tell his class about himself. 

In addition, he gets certain recognition and privileges as part of this week. One of those things is that family members, including grandparents, can come and have lunch with him, and can also share a story with his class if they like.

I went on Wednesday.

It was such fun!!!

Aaron was so attentive, clearly glad to be hosting me and showing me his world. He introduced me to each person in his class, made sure they knew my name was "Grammy", and told me every one of their names. He wanted me to know who his BFF was.

He made sure I knew all the lunch room rules, 

including when it was OK to talk, and when it was not OK to talk. That seemed to be a particularly important rule, because other children also pointed out the red, yellow, green color coding and what the implications were of each ranking. 

It was fun to note that no matter what the color code was for the table, the children would tell me out loud that, for instance, "We are red now. That means we can't talk AT ALL!"

Then they would go on to tell me the penalty for talking during the times when their color was red. If they talked, they might have to walk around the playground for 5 minutes of their recess instead of playing. If they talked again, they could get an additional 5 minutes of walking instead of playing. 

These first graders informed me that since their recess was only twenty minutes, it was possible to be required to spend as much as HALF THEIR RECESS walking, if they talked too much when they were in the red zone.

Which meant, for one thing, that 

they cared enough about me that they would risk getting in trouble in order to save me from embarrassing myself. 

It also meant that their world view includes the possibility that talking about rules is not the same as talking. Talking about rules is its own special category that completely is not covered by the rules against talking.

At any rate, I was totally welcomed by all in the class. I received hugs from some of the children, smiles and greetings from many, and their complete and undivided attention as I had the honor of reading one of the books Aaron loves when he is at my house.

I knew when I left home that I was in for a good time. I didn't know I'd get to see Aaron in a different light than I usually do, or how fun that would be. Thanks, Aaron, for making me feel so special!!!