Ketchup Explosion & Holiday Pictures

Big E is 5 1/2 years old and is in Kindergarten with other 5 and 6 year olds. What do we know about 5-6 year olds??? Hmmm let's think about it.



1) like to test limits

2) love to learn about things and their properties (explorers)

3) think the littlest thing is hilarious and will continue to do it until someone else stops them

4) last but not least, will do all these things to a greater degree the less supervision there is.



These are just some of the many things we know about little boys. "we" meaning other moms of boys and anyone else out there with the least experience with boys. That is why I would think that those with degrees in education would understand this . . . not at Big E's school apparently.



While standing outside "the best school" in the county, I was speaking with Big E's best friend's mom, who had been contacted at home b/c her son was squirting ketchup at lunch. When Big E walks out from school (4 hours AFTER lunch) he has ketchup on his face and shirt. When asked why, he tells me that best friend #1 did it.



As an aside . . . We hop in the car and I hear someone yelling Big E's name. It's his teacher calling out b/c my darling son left his coat (in 38 degree weather) inside. It wasn't his coat, but he DID forget it and we are going to COLORADO for the week. Not a place to not have a coat. We were able to get the coat, with an unhappy and hurried mom who needs to p/u Special K in 20 minutes. P/U time is a artfully crafted hour so I can p/u both boys, who are 20 min apart in 1/2 hour.



I digress . . . back to exploding ketchup . . . So best friend #1 squirts Big E with ketchup all over his face and light blue standard school attire shirt. "But, he wasn't trying to squirt me or anyone" Big E says. "it just went out the wrong end." Hmm this is starting to get interesting. I say nothing. "When you twist the baggies of ketchup, they explode" Big E says with enthusiasm and a great sense of knowledge. "They explode?" I ask. "Yeah, so we explode them into our mouth [best friend #1] just missed 'cause it went out the wrong end." he continues. I am actually trying not to laugh at this situation as I listen to the story and get a mental image of 4-5 5 year old boys twisting ketchup packets until they explode and catching the explosion in their mouth (by the way apparently the packs are NOT touching their mouths during these explosions, the contents are just supposed to land there.) Now, unfortunately best friend #1's explosion did not end up in his mouth but over my Big E. Also unfortunate . . . best friend's mom got called at home and he will have to eat in the office for 1 week.



Is this situation not the epitome of young boy exploration. This is experimentation of what happens to something under pressure. What a cool thing to learn. The environment is rich with opportunities for exploration and science. These same boys have tested what happens to all of their food trash when they put it into baggies and start swinging it around or stomp on it. How about when you mix a whole bunch of different types of food and drink and slosh it all together. Hmmmm a lovely mixture that little boys will find delightful and full of laughs. This is physics and chemistry . So where is the psychology of the whole thing? Not with the ONLY 2 teachers who are in charge of a whole room full of 7 classes of Kindergartners. Remember "what we know about 5-6 year old boys" #4? because we are also dealing with math . . . inverse relationship of supervision to this exploration behavior)



I have to say, I am not even angry. In fact, I think it's quite funny. It helps that Big E didn't get in trouble, but I have called best friend #1's mom to tell her the whole story so she can advocate for her son that he was NOT the only one participating, poor guy just got a bad ketchup baggie. Now that being said, we did have a talk this afternoon about "would you do this at home?" "would you have done this in Miss. M's class"(from last year). His answer is no. A small teaching moment.



My question is WHY would you leave only 2 teachers and the hope of parent volunteers to be in charge of at least 100 to 150 kindergartners and 1st graders. THIS is what 5 & 6 year olds DO. Why is it expected that these children are supposed to go from complete supervision, to the lack thereof overnight, and actually behave. ESPECIALLY when they learn that ketchup packets explode when you twist them. No one ever told them NOT to do that before.



So . . . as we drive to pick up Special K, Big E says . . . "so that is why my face looks like it was in a food fight for my picture today." Yes, it was a picture day and NO ONE thought to help my son wipe his face off BEFORE the picture or even before the end of the day. Merry Cheers of a festive background, with my handsome son (who just had his hair cut yesterday) in his light blue standard school attire shirt with KETCHUP all over his face and shirt. I can't WAIT to get this one.



I'll add pictures when they come in . . .

Trick-or-Treating Etiquette

Trick-R-Treating Etiquette . . .

1) ring door 1x

2) do not bang on door until someone comes

3) stay outside the person's house

4) do not be choosy about the treat you receive

5) do not look in windows

6) say thank you

Mad Monk's parents were in town for Halloween this year. We had a blast with all the traditional activities, including a few more . . . read down for the need for the the Etiquette portion.

First there was pumpkin carving. Big E thinks pumpkins stink so wouldn't touch the gooey stuff inside. It was to gross apparently. Special K, on the other hand dug right in . . . with a spoon. If Big E won't touch it, neither will he, but it isn't going to stop him from doing it :) When we pushed the issue, he pointed out that Mad Monk was also using a spoon. Touche.

Big E was very interested in designing his pumpkin though. Notice the "hook" on the side . . .

Then there was dinner. Since we enjoy making things festive around here, dinner was no different. We had Mummy Dogs, Witch's Fingernails, Bat Wings with Sauce and Witch's Brew. We had monster toes for dessert.

Now it's time to trick-or-treat. Big E is Captain Rex, from Star Wars. No one really knows who he is unless they suffered through the new animated Star Wars movie for their children. This causes a lot of explaining by a 5 year old when he is asked if he is everything BUT Captain Rex. Special K is "Darth Vaaaaaador" Now you have to say it in just that way and by lowering your voice when you say "Vaaaador" as low as it can go and say it very slowly. Most knew who he was.

Now both Big E AND Special K have trick-or-treated before. We've gone over the routine, they know the drill . . . or at least we THOUGHT they did until the first house, when they rang the doorbell 5 times and then started banging on the door. Mad Monk and Darling B look at each other and mention that we might need to refresh on our T-R-T skills.

At the second house, we hoped they'd use the few new skills we taught them in between house one and house two like ringing the door 1x, no banging on the door, saying trick-or-treat and thank you. They again rang the doorbell a couple of times b/c they were fighting over who got to ring it then immediately said trick-r-treat before anyone opens the door. When the nice woman opened the door then stepped back in to get the treats, my lovely Darth Vaaaaaador and Captain Rex walk right into her house then proceed to tell her what they like and what they don't in terms of the treats she was offering. Okay . . . now we need to talk about etiquette.

It got much better from there after a few houses of yelling trick-r-treat immediately following ringing the bell and looking in the windows so they can yell back -- some one's coming.

Grandma and Pap Pap stayed back at the house and Grandma put on her witch costume. We decided to stop by and trick-r-treat at our house when we passed by to the other part of the community. Special K didn't know who Grandma was and Grandma (the witch) kept saying in a Witchy voice, "don't you want to come in to my house?" Special K, very politely said no the first time. The second time, he said no a little louder. The third time he yelled NO! We thought he just didn't want to go in. Well, no that wasn't the case. He didn't know who the witch was and when she tried the 4th time he started crying. We realized then that we never have to worry about Special K going with anyone he doesn't know, he'll be very clear that he DOES NOT want to go. See we knew this "specialness" would be useful!

All in all we had a great night. So happy Halloween . . . and please use good trick-r-treating etiquette!