Happy Feet

Happy nine year old feet...I swear, his feet grew in between the two socks...one is smaller than the other, and I measured them to each of his feet as I knit them! They were only about three days apart! No wonder he complains of growing pains so often!

The completed pair:

Nice.

This is what nine year olds do to amuse themselves and their step-fathers when they are bored.

Don't ask. They were clean and relatively new. What a relief, right?

The Bug has a new fixation:

Funshine Bear--remember these guys from the '80s?

He saw a Care Bear movie on the Disney Channel this morning and it is all he is talking about. He calls this one "sunshine belly". I told him tomorrow that we could go to "RGT" (this is what he calls Target) and see if we could find a stuffed one. I told his father about it...but left out the fact that when I looked it up on the ToysRUs website that I had to look under "Girls' Favorites" !!!

Speaking of RGT...I was there yesterday and dropped $110.00 on just school supplies for the two big boys! Remember the good old days when the schools actually could afford to supply crayons and pencils and pens?? As a teacher, I spend so much of my own money on classroom supplies that it isn't even funny because the school's just really can't afford it all. The $250 federal tax deduction I get to take doesn't even begin to cover it all.

Note to teachers...RGT has Papermate pens (blue and black) for 50 cents/ten-pack. And notebook paper for the same price/250 sheets. I'll have to get some when I go back tomorrow. The kids never have paper and pens for English class. Doesn't that blow your mind? I mean, its English...there is a pretty decent chance we'll be writing something every day!

I would chalk it up to the poor socio-economic status of most of my students...but the truth is, the middle-class kids don't come prepared either! It must be a teenage thing.

I've tried a borrowing system where they have to give me a shoe (hard to leave without a shoe) if they borrow a pen. Smelly teenage feet put an end to that brilliant idea! Then, I tried to sell them pens to teach them responsibility (25 cents a pen). That lasted until the first time a student said, "Mrs. F, I can give you a quarter, but it's my lunch money (reduced lunch price at my school). Since that day, I just give them away. And keep a cup of quarters in my desk for lunch money. I make it known that I always have lunch money if they need it in case they "forget"to bring it. I have at least one taker a day because they trust me and know that I don't expect it back.

I have regulars who "borrow".

The things we take for granted as relatively financially stable people amazes me every day.

It's humbling and sad.