Jeffrey

I'm a little bummed today because one of my favorite students at Sylvan had his last day yesterday. Jeffrey has been coming for about 6 months, and he cracks me up all the time. When he first started he would come in and tell us that he had a different name that day. Some of the popular ones are George Washington, Noah, Zia, and lately, Old Man Jenkins. When I tell him to write his name on his paper he would insist on these names so I finally told him he could put whatever name he wanted as long as he also put Jeffrey. The other day he wrote Old Man Jakins and underneath in quotations "Jeffrei" He heard somewhere that boys spell their names with an i and girls put a y at the end of their names so he insists on putting an i at the end of his name. He comes in everyday with a wild story that he has made up about the other teachers. He also tells us everyday that he is 17 years old and in high school (7 yrs. old, 2nd grade). One day he came in and told the teacher at the next table that he was in college. I said, "Yesterday you said you were in high school." He looks at me and sticks his hands out in complete exasperation and says, "I graduated yesterday!" Like, duh, how could you ask such a silly question. For a while he had a hard time with rhyming words and he would say that rhyming words make him crazy and make his head hurt. On Monday, he did the funniest thing ever. I told him he needed to draw pictures on his sheet. He said that his brain told him to not draw pictures because it makes it like this, and he squeezed his fist and scrunched up his face. He said it makes his brain small. I told him that drawing pictures is good for his brain and will make it stronger. He said no, my brain will turn to water. I said, "I promise you your brain will not turn to water." At that the table of older kids next to us started cracking up and looking at us wondering what in the world we were talking about. So, anyway, after we debated and he finished the other parts of his sheet, all he had left was the pictures. I told him it did not have to be good and I started to draw some stick figures showing him that it didn't have to be nice. He said,"Wait, let me ask my brain if it's alright." At this point he starts humming to himself like he's talking to his brain. "Mmm Mm M Mmm Mm Mm." Then he announces,"O.k. my brain said it was o.k." I cracked up! I am so going to miss him. I love my job and I love that I get to spend time getting to know kids and helping them so much without all the work of full time teaching. I get to do what I love and stay home with Gabe during the day. I do miss dinners with my family but I try to make lunch our time instead. We are so blessed. God has given me everything I ever wanted and it is even better than I thought.