But, What Happens Next?

As I type this I sit sipping my coffee as I do every morning at 5:18 AM.

Oh, it's not that I'm uber-regimented in the time that I wake up each morning. Having an alarm sound at 5:00 AM would actually be a luxury. Instead, I've become nocturnal.

Those of you who have itty-bitties at home (or have in the past) can feel free to shout out an, "Amen Sister" after my next line:

Teething is cruel and unusual punishment for all those involved.

Holy Moly! I don't recall the Boy being this miserable. They screech, they cling, they fall to the floor in misery. All. Day. Long. And then night comes. And we give them a heaping helping of liquid Tylenolish-type-product (since real Tylenol and Motrin are banned from stores) and pray that it is the miracle drug that will allow them to sleep through the night, but alas it wears off during the Witching Hour and the screeching hour begins again at 2:00 A.M.!

And when your head is spinning with to do lists and there is a lengthy syllabus sitting in a binder with an abundance of mandatory reading to do and the 3rd grade assessments aren't going to magically correct themselves...you say screw it and get up.

And that is when I start watching the clock and waiting for an acceptable hour to push the start button on the coffeepot. I've officially deemed that to be 5:00 AM and so...

As I type this I sit sipping my coffee as I do every morning at 5:18 AM.

Except the chaos known as "morning rush hour" at our house will not ensue afterwards on this day because today is yet another snow day in my district (and a whole bunch of y'alls districts too).

If this were not a public blog I would probably have tossed a few bad words into that last phrase.

To recap: We've had winter break. We had 2 snow days last week. We had MLK day on Monday. We have another snow day today. Throw in your usual weekends and my schedule and routines are all discombobulated.

And if you have been reading along for awhile then you know girlfriend here is nothing without her routines. Plus this is the "magical time of year." The months of January through March are always long, but the kids are always in such a great place to learn and we make so much growth.

Curses to you Mother Nature. She will also be the one who decides that it will be 90+ degrees in June when we make up these snow days. Boo Hiss!

Do you want to know the real reason that I'm bummed about the unexpected day off?

It's the same reason that I suspect many of my kiddos will be bummed (Maybe I'm kidding myself and they are all jumping for joy in their pajamas right about now, but I do think there will be some disappointment.)

It's because I want to know what happens next in our current read aloud.

It's also because I am having so much fun reading this book to them.

It's because of The BFG.

I love me some Roald Dahl. My husband read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to our son last summer and they both really enjoyed it. My class was way into it this year too. As for Matilda? Swoon! Love the book. Love the movie. James and the Giant Peach? Classic! But The BFG is new to me. It's been in my class library for years, but I've never read it.

My team teacher insisted I give it a try. Eh? I wasn't all that interested.

We've recently started to mix and match our two classes and she has taken over science and I have taken over writing. We started by creating heart maps of things they love to inspire their writing and almost all of her kiddos included the BFG. I figured if her peeps loved it so much then mine would too.

We are about a third of the way through the book and it. is. awesome!

They all sit there with their eyes one me, hands in their laps and mouths open like little statues mesmerized by my reading. They frequently break their frozen gazes to drop their mouths open wider while quickly looking around to see their peers reactions to certain lines and for fits of laughter.

We are loving it!

I have plans next week to do a writing activity with it. I'm going to take each of their photos in the same position as that of the little girl on the cover. I am then going to create some writing paper using the image on the cover minus the little girl and then attach their pictures to the giant's hand.

I love altering book covers and adding their images and this one begs for it.

For those of you in younger grades who want to do something similar, my favorite book cover to do that with is Harold and the Purple Crayon. Just add your little ones' heads in place of Harold's and have them do an illustration in purple crayon. Super cute!

And now I need to come up with a plan to tell the Boy that we have a snow day when he wakes up. It will very much be equivalent to those Disney commercials where the parents surprise the kids with a trip to the Magic Kingdom and then immediately throw them on a plane. He will be THAT excited.

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE READ ALOUDS?