Watch Out! First Grader's are Honest...

As a first grade teacher everyday is full of stories and when I share these stories I hear, "You should write a book with all the things kids say." There's no doubt the book would be a laugh a minute! Some stories are about the bathroom, body functions, stories from home and many others. One thing true is the stories are ALWAYS bluntly honest!

First graders really don't understand or even know they should filter their thoughts. What they're thinking is what you'll hear!

A few years ago I had a student we'll call Trey. Trey is the son of a close friend. Trey's family and my family were close for about 4 fours prior to having him my class. I had also met and become friends with the extended family and even visited his grammies house and his aunt Linda's house WITH TREY. One morning Trey came in to school bubbling with a story.

"Mrs. Frazier, this weekend I am going to my aunt Linda's house, she's my mom's sister and her husband is my uncle Phil. I am going to see my cousins Stew and Aaron! We can go boating and we can go swimming in my grammies pool. They live about 2 hours away we are leaving right after school."
It was so hard to listen without smiling and pretending I didn't already know all about his family!

A sweet girl we will call Isabella came into the classroom and wrapped her arms around me excited to to be at school. As she hugged me she sweetly commented,  "I love your tummy, it's squishy like my mommy's." What better compliment can you get from a 6 year old!

There are so many stories between these stories and today's, but today's comment really was a barrel of laughs and 100% honest.

At the end of the day as we were lining up to go home I noticed 2 boys pushing each other around in line. As the class began to leave I stopped these 2 boys.  As we chatted it became clear some hitting had also been involved. Who did the hitting was a bit fuzzy. After a few teacher tricks and one last chance to be sure we were sharing the events as they happened, Cam said, "OK, I hit him." I thanked Cam and we talked about the importance of being honest. I looked to Oliver and asked one final time, "Oliver, did you hit Cam?" Oliver replied, "NO, I didn't have a chance." That was it, nothing more simply, I didn't have a chance.

Kids will share more than we expect. Trust me if you read the newspaper or a book in the bathroom, your child's teacher probably knows!

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