Ever since I began working with kids, their awareness of the world around them has continued to amaze me. Not only are they much smarter than most people give them credit for, they also pick up on the tiniest details of conversations and remember them forever. And then they’ll blurt them back to you at the most inconvinient of times.
Case in point #1: Before every hour of swim lessons, we sing camp songs to the kids in our classes and then review behavior expectations. We introduce every song with a short little story, which we generally make up on the spot. I think there’s an unspoken competition between all of us to see who can come up with the most ridiculous story. Example: “Yesterday I was swimming in the ocean by my favorite beach, when suddenly I saw a whole family of sharks. There were baby sharks, momma sharks, and grandpa sharks. I tried to swim away, but they kept swimming after me. Then I sang this song, and then I escaped.” *Cue the camp song “Baby Shark”*
Most kids in the lesson stared at Mr. Sierra in wide-eyed amazement as he told the story, looking at him like he was some sort of world-famous shark fighter. Then, one kid who couldn’t have been older than six blurted out, “THAT’S JUST A STORY!” Us counselors looked at each other and snorted, trying to cover up our laughter. We feel so ridiculous telling these stories every day, and we often wonder how kids believe us. Apparently some of them don’t.
Case in point #2: It was my turn to lead songs on Friday, so in celebration of the day we sang a little diddly called “Party.” After singing, (“paaaaarty! (make sure your momma knows) paaaaarty! (so she will let you go)”) a small child raised their hand and commented, “but you shouldn’t party too hard, otherwise you won’t remember anything.”
A word to the wise.
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