Laughing With Di – December 2017

Volunteering in Santa Clarita is very rewarding. A favorite is volunteering at the school where my grandkids attend.
So, let’s have a laugh.
Have you ever been critiqued by a group of five-year-old Kindergarteners? One volunteer day, my task was to help the boys and girls to think of nice adjectives about their classmate, who was the chosen “special person” for that day. They would raise their hand, tell me something nice, and I would write it on the board. Let me clarify, I would print it on the board. That’s where the trouble began.
I numbered each statement and encouraged my group to choose the one they liked to describe their classmate. I rarely find myself printing nowadays so my style was a little rusty and apparently left a lot to be desired to 5 year-olds.
When we exhausted their contributions, they decided to gang up on me! They began pointing out all of the printing errors I had made. Lo, and behold, I mixed lower-case letters with upper-case letters in the words. I guess that was as bad as mixing metaphors! I didn’t dot all of my “i’s”. I made loopy things at the bottom part of a “p” and a “g”. In fact, I had too many loopy things happening in all my letters, “d’s”, “f’s”, “h’s”, etc. My lower-case “q” was totally unacceptable. The teacher heard what was happening and came to my rescue. I certainly learned to be very exact with my printing skills and feel I can be judged again and pass muster. It was one of my funniest moments!
On another occasion, my husband and I volunteered for Science Eruption Day! Holy cow! It was very intense and a lot of fun. The science experiment at the table we were assigned was to demonstrate velocity and motion. Who knew what we had got ourselves into? The kids were to pick a balloon, blow it up, lightly seal it, stick the balloon on a string, and open the seal. As soon as the balloon was opened, it jettisoned up the string very, very fast!
You can guess that this was a very popular table. Every kid from almost every grade wanted to try the experiment. But, most of the little guys could not blow up a balloon. Not enough hot air! Since my husband and I are already full of hot air, (grin), we proceeded to blow up a lot of balloons. I mean really a lot of balloons. At one point, I was so “air-less” I got dizzy and had to sit on the floor and recoup.
For the last thrill of the morning, the Science Lady chose my husband to help her with a “dangerous” experiment probably because he was the only adult male in the room! She turned to my granddaughter and asked her if it was okay if she set her grandpa on fire. Her facial expression was too precious! The experiment went well (whew) and another exciting day at school was over!
I will leave you with a little anecdote that reflects the wonderful brain of a child.
“A five year old was listening to a Bible story. His dad read: ‘The man named Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city but his wife looked back and was turned to salt.’ Concerned, the little boy asked: ‘What happened to the flea?’
Keep smiling…and have a wonderful holiday season.