Class Clown

Lots of little boys are silly.  Potty talk is always funny to them, as is being naked, falling down, and acting generally unruly at any and all given opportunities.  Joey is no exception to this boy stereotype.  In-fact, I think he's the poster child for all things silly.  He's had a great sense of humor and funny little way about him for as long as I can remember, and turning 4 years old has not stopped him from calling everything stinky, skunky, or banana. (each time followed by a loud belly laugh & usually a fall to the ground!)

I've gone back to teaching within the last month, and I've been blessed with not missing a minute with my funny boy.  That's right... I'm his preschool teacher for 4 glorious hours every morning of the week. (Don't worry... he's moving up to the Pre-K in a week, so he'll get to entertain another set of classmates and a different teacher very soon.)

Since Joey's been home with me for the past 4 years, he's been allowed to be silly much of the time.  That means falling down, making up words, adding stinky to every sentence that comes out of his mouth, etc. etc. etc.  However, we've had to have many talks about how we behave differently at school than we do at home, and Joey has quickly learned that being the class clown is far more exciting than following directions from his "mommy/teacher." (his school nick-name for me) 

So while the other children are sitting at tables quietly building, coloring, or manipulating small toys in an organized format, my son is tossing himself off the chair, knocking down block towers, or calling himself "banana-head."  And all the other children laugh of course, just encouraging him to do it more.

Last week we did watercolor paintings during art time.  I showed the children many different pictures to inspire them.  Some chose to paint themselves, their family, a favorite place, or object.  As I went around the room to write a caption on every one's paper I got responses like, "This is me swimming at the beach," or "I painted a mommy bird in a nest."  Joey's response: "Banana-skunky-stink-bread."  The three other children sitting at his table laughed which just encouraged him to say it again.  And again.  And again.  I couldn't actually write that on my son's painting, for fear of what the other parents might think as they viewed our classroom artwork in the hallway, but I also didn't want to squash his enthusiasm, and perhaps he really did paint a picture of banana bread.  So that's what I wrote.  Minus the skunky-stink part.

There are worse things I suppose, than having a child who is too silly for his own good.  I do wonder what Elementary School days will be like for Joey though.  Perhaps he'll chill out by then and save his silliness for at home or outside.  Highly unlikely I suppose.  I'm pretty sure we're going to be having a lot of parent-teacher conferences, and possibly some "Joey had to visit the principal's office today to talk about appropriate behaviors for school."  Yes, I see a lot of "appropriate behavior" talks in my future.  Perhaps I'll be able to win over his teachers with some of my famous banana-skunky-stink-bread...