Black Pens or Blue Pens

As some of you might know I have been called to the wonderful calling of primary teacher of the six and seven year olds in the Desert Ward of the Meridian Stake. (I wanted it to sound really official.) As a primary teacher you quickly learn a lot of things. For example, if you let one of the kids go to the bathroom EVERYONE has to go the the bathroom, or if you let one of the kids play a game EVERYONE has to have a turn, "or it isn't fair". I have learned many such lessons in my last couple of months of teaching. However I would just like to relate one such lesson.


I have a little girl in my class who has the attention span of about ten seconds. That might even be pushing it. For the sake of the story we will call her Jane. On one occasion Jane's parents let her bring a notebook and pen to class to keep her entertained. During class everytime that I stopped teaching for more than a few seconds she would walk up to me and ask me to write down the words to one of the primary songs. I tried to appease Jane while trying to also keep all of the other kids' attention on the lesson. I have atleast six kids every week so sometimes that gets difficult.


I managed to get through teaching the class and when the second bell had rung, my amazing primary kids marched down the hall with their arms folded to go to sharing time. I take turns sitting next to the different noisy kids during sharing time depending on who is "demanding" my attention. I switch seats quite frequently. For some reason on this particular day I knew that I sould probably stay sitting next to Jane.


Jane refused to let me take her notebook and pen during sharing time. She was relatively quiet with them, so I didn't push her. In the middle of sharing time one of my other kids started to hit someone accross the isle and I turned to take care of the problem. I think that I looked away from Jane for less than 10 seconds. When I turned to see what she was doing all I saw was her look of innocence and the open pen in hand...she had written ALL OVER herself. Okay let me clarify. She had written all over her left hand and then up to her elbow and all the way to the sleeve of her cute little short sleeve dress. THESE KIDS ARE FAST!!!

Remind me when I have children to never allow anyone under the age of 15 to hold a pen.