So, yes I lost my reading book with my reading group.  And yes, I did yell at one of the kids for not having his book with him.  Because he is not me and NO, I didn’t tell him that I lost my book!!  It’s none of his business.

Today was the last day of the book.  The kids read all the stories.  Tall Tales, indeed.  The book was hardly believable, but that is why they call them tall tales.

While talking to the kids about the book there was a reference in one of the stories about a sea creature that wrestled with the books character and fought so hard, the sea creature drowned in its own sweat!  The kids wrote this down as a poignant part of the book because it was SOOO unbelievable.

I explained to them that in reading, sometimes it’s “Go big or go home” in descriptions just to make the point as strong as can be.  I was asking them how hard would a creature have to work to literally drown in its own sweat?  This got them thinking.

In another part of the story they discussed how adventurous one of the characters was and I asked if they knew anyone in their lives who was adventurous?  Boy did the stories start rolling!

One thing you need to know with little children is they will throw anyone under the bus once they get started talking!!  In my group I have learned so much about these kids and their families and they ways they are parented.  It’s so fascinating to me.  Stories started flying today and by the end of our short session, I heard that one girls parents came from Cambodia and her mom  has scars on her back from being whipped.  And the boy in the group has parents who fled Iran because they were going to be persecuted for getting married and celebrating.  They fled to turkey and Siberia and then made their way to the United States.  His mom is working on her PhD and his dad is a general manager somewhere.

I looked at the other 3 kids whose parents have NOTHING on these other two kids and I explained to them how lucky they are to have the families they did.  But how brave the other kids’ parents were to endure and survive their circumstances.

We take for granted all that we have and we forget to work hard, because many things are so easily achievable here in the U.S.  When I see day laborers standing on the corner, I know they are hungry and will work hard for what they get doing an honest days work.

In the past weeks my kids have used the “I WANT” term a lot.  And for the most part they have gotten stuff with the promise of working for it later.  How silly is that?  As mom always said when we promised to fulfill our obligation ‘later’; “Eaten bread is soon forgotten”.

She’s right.

My kids have gotten their fill and FORgotten their obligations.  And who is to blame?  The parents that are too tired to argue.

Today was a good lesson in what we have and what we should be working towards.  These two kids have ended up in a nice area to live; so it is clear that their parents worked really hard to get here.  I respect them.

I know I’m supposed to be “reading” with them.  But to be honest, finding parallels in stories to help them understand what their reading is a good way to create interest in reading.  And though it’s mostly going over their heads, I enjoy the conversations.

Happy Wednesday