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| Judging by their favorite thing to say to each other, I think the "F.M." stands for "Fear Me". They are so strange. |
Every year, my school holds a floor hockey tournament. Each class is a team, and each class is responsible for coming up with a name, a poster, and the teacher picks captains to be in charge of the roster.
I look at this as a preview of what my parenting skills will be. A few teachers (well, maybe most of them) did the posters for the kids. Many of them looked quite professional and I can't be sure they didn't come from the UPS store printer. A few teachers (possibly all) created the rosters themselves. A few put themselves in charge of the team. I didn't. I told them who the captains would be, I printed the blank roster forms off of the computer, and I told them I'd cut the giant paper for the poster.
Then I completely forgot about cutting the paper..
My aide ended up cutting the 5 foot x 6 foot piece of paper you see up there and giving it to the kids. About a dozen of the kids stayed in from recess for 3 days to design and color it. As I sat there, munching on pretzels and Larabars (and reading slate.com) during my lunch break, I could hear them holding elections over the team name. Ballot voting was the democratic strategy they used. They came up with "Frozen Monkeys" on their own. They designed and colored the poster. They managed to sort out their differences and learned to get along in the process.
The day before each game (we had four), I'd give the captains a list of who was eligible to play. They worked on the rosters during lunch/recess and at home.
It's safe to say that I had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with any of it. I didn't even sort out differences they had mid-game. If someone wasn't there to play, they replaced the kid with someone else. I just watched them become little problem-solvers.
And you know what? We were undefeated. We won the 4th grade tournament.
I'm so proud of them. They did it all on their own. While it may not seem like much, this feels like my greatest accomplishment as their teacher this year. To know when to back off is just as important as knowing when to step in, right?
A helicopter parent is something I'll probably never be.
When I typed out the title "Frozen Monkeys" for this post, I thought, "Hmmm...that sounds like a drink." So I made this.
I really love the protein powder we have (Nitrean, vanilla), but I hear it's been discontinued. If this smoothie is pre or post-workout, I add the protein powder, and then there's the added bonus of it tasting like a milkshake. If it's just breakfast, I leave it out. The Greek yogurt and peanut butter packs enough protein to fill me up for a bit.
Frozen Monkey
makes 2 small or 1 large drink
1 banana, frozen and peeled
1/2 cup milk
2 T. peanut butter
Greek yogurt (optional)
1 scoop protein powder (optional)
Mix the banana, milk, peanut butter in blender until it hits the consistency you prefer. Add in the yogurt and protein powder and mix. You can also add in a few ice cubes if you like it extra frosty.
