1st Grade Lunch

So, yesterday William and I went to have lunch with Aaron and his class. Interesting experience, as always. My outlook on the event was somewhat altered by the fact that I was recovering from a "migraine hangover", still suffering from a pounding head and queasy stomach. The walk up the 3 flights of stairs to his classroom felt like about all I could handle for the day, and I still had yet to sit in a room with 25 1st graders for 30 minutes... I ran out of time at home to fix a lunch for William and I, so I asked Aaron to buy us a school lunch from his account. Back down the 3 flights of stairs, picked the sac lunch (pb&j, fruit, goldfish crackers, chocolate milk) and labored back up the stairs to be seated by a boy who apparently had some intestinal trouble and needed to frequently release gas. Did I mention that it was over 80 degrees in the room and I was already feeling nauseous?

It's always fun to watch Aaron interact with his classmates. He's pretty much the same as he is at home, and I'm grateful for that. He seems confident, friendly, engaging, at ease with everyone. There were two little girls sitting at the table behind him who kept tapping his shoulder to ask him questions or make various comments. He would turn around and politely answer or smile. After a while, he turned to them and said "Do you know what 320 + 320 equals?" They giggled and said "Nooooo" to which he quickly said "320 + 320 = 640" and turned to flash me a smile real quick before getting back to his lunch. Oh, the giggles and oohhs and ahhhs from the girls! Apparently, math skills are impressive to 1st grade girls. They responded by asking him a serious of math questions, "what's 1000 + 1000", "what's 2000 + 2000?". Every time Aaron answered, they responded with glee, muttering about how smart he must be and how could he possibly know answers that were in the THOUSANDS!?! Aaron did not seem oblivious to their response, but it also didn't seem to ruffle him at all. He would just look at me and smile and shrug his shoulders, as if he didn't quite understand what the fuss was about, but was enjoying it none-the-less.



I took joy in watching that fun interaction! But, I was also monitoring how quickly I could exit from the warm and smelly room without seeming like I didn't particularly want to hang out as long as I could with 25 six and seven year olds. I respect their laid-back teacher even more, after watching her take time to interact with each child with warmth and respect. I'm grateful for the environment he's in at Lee School, and am glad he's chosen his intellectual skill to impress the girls, rather than the many other boyish behaviors he could choose (and probably will in the future...)