ODDS AND ENDS

First off, if you notice I have updated the heading. This blog began all about weddings. But I have expanded to other areas of my life: teaching, cooking, what ever is happening with me. So the updated heading.

No weddings Wednesday, I was feeling yucky, so I didn't go in.

But Tuesday I was at school with the first graders. It had rained for almost two weeks and the kids were bonkers. The teachers were getting on each other's nerves, and no one wanted to be there. But we were.

I worked one on one with half the class on reading. Some with the booklet everyone was reading( more about that later), and some with extra help. Little K behaved well during our session. And again he asked if he could read another book. He has come so far. He WANTS to read. Ms. H and I are doing our jobs.

The booklet they all read was a story about an opossum. It told a little about what she ate, being nocturnal, being frightened by a dog and playing 'possum, and her babies. One little girl told me her fish would play possum, "he keeps floating on his side". All I could think was her fish kept dying and the parents were replacing them. I was wrong, she said when she tapped on the glass he would start swimming around. Still, seems strange.

I read the class Jack and the Beanstalk. The illustrations were incredibly beautiful and detailed. And sorry, I don't remember the illustrator's name. The giant ogre was disgusting ugly and scary, his wife was ugly, lots of images for the children to look at. As I read it to them, it struck me what a scary story this is. Little boys killed and ground into flour, Jack and his mother hungry, Jack being chased by the giant ogre, and Jack kills the giant ogre. And we make Jack the hero, yet he is a thief and a killer.

There is nothing PC about this book. It is wrong in so many ways. Who cares, they loved it, and so do I.