Aww, man.

[snarp]

My day off last week was Mr. K’s day, and he was already behind in this month’s material (due to misbehavior), so I had this complex catch-up plan ready to spring on him. And when he came in, his Mom said, “I’m sorry, but he’s not feeling well, so I think I’m just going to take him home.” He stood there looking at me pathetically, apparently not faking this time. Aww, Mr. K! Don’t be sick! You don’t have the vocab for that down yet!

Today Mr. Wow unbuttoned one button on his coat, said, “Jump!”, jumped in the air, unbuttoned another, and repeated the cycle. I said, “Monkey?” He said, “No! Mr. Wow!”

So I taught him to say “Are you a monkey/hippo/chicken/etc?” “No! I’m Mr. Wow!” This turns out to be a good exercise for soaking up excess Mr. Wow energy. He always wants games where he gets to dance. From somewhere he has learned dance steps for every letter of the alphabet, which he unleashed on me today, to his own consternation when he learned I didn’t know them.

His second class I ad-libbed a Shapes Dance to try and tire him out with - I held up flash cards and he had to say the name of the card and do the appropriate dance move. Week-before-last I brought out the shape cards again, and he remembered all the steps. Which I had made up in five seconds more than a month previously. He was very disappointed in me for forgetting most of them.

(Originally published at SarahPin.com. You can comment here or there.)