Along every Journey, you meet interesting people and hear all kinds of stories.  In their own words (and spelling) the following are from some of our adopted “Grandchildren”: 

“I enjoy seeing you, not that you talk about the words but you make us don’t have homework.”

 

“Thank you for giving your own time to be with us!  I will use character traits to wipe away all the bad parts of my life.  That will give me a bright future.  I hope everyone else will try!  Someday, I hope there will be no war.  We could all live together in a peaceful universe.”

 

“We named a worm after you.”

 

“Thank you for coming and talking to us about all those many important chricter traits of the month.  The one I remember most is the first one, respect.  That was the umbrella over everything.  Thanks a lot.”

 

“My heads’ going to break with too much information.”

 

“I am so happy you were able to come to our class and teach!  You really helped me.”

In talking to the class about setting goals for themselves, a little girl emphatically responded “I want to be a stat at home mom.”

 

“Thank you for teaching us about character.  You make me smarter every day!

 

Thank you so much.  I never new learning about character traits can be such fun.”

 

To her classroom “Grandparent”, “You’re the best definition I could find of the person I want to be when I grow up.”

 

“I had a lot of fun when you came to talk to us about character traits.  It is important to know about character traits because more people will like you and you will have more friends.  You will also be funner to be around.  Thank you much for giving up your time to be with us.  I really appreciate that!  What an act of compassion.  O a, sad that we won’t be meeting anymore.  You surprised us with fun books and gifts.  See you next time!  Your friend, …”

 

“You always come in and teach us cool things!  I enjoy it!”

 

“Thank you for coming into my classroom to teach us about character traits!  I enjoyed it very much!  My favortite was learning about dillegence!  I liked the books you brought in.  I also like learning about Respect!  I feel that this subject is very important in life.  Responsibility is also important!  I like learning about Honesty too!  I love you very, very, very, very much!”

 

“All of us will miss you over the summer, if the whole school knew you I’m sure all 500 of us would miss you too.”

 

And from some of our “Grandparents”….

 

“When I met my class for the first time I asked if it was OK for me to adopt them to which they agreed it would be fine.  When I asked why they would choose someone like me to come, one little boy said ‘because you know so much."

 

“So I’m driving home from one of my volunteer gigs—teaching lessons on citizenship and character to kindergartners.  Today’s lesson was on the word ‘Tolerance’.  The bumper sticker on the car in front of me says ‘Watch out for the idiot behind me.’  Somehow I was comforted that a group of 5- and 6-year-olds are, today, smarter than the old guy driving that car.”

 

“While driving my granddaughter to school we were discussing the word of the month ‘Compassion’.  It was beginning to snow, so I turned on the windshield wipers.  She replied how awesome that the snowflakes get to fly again!  She didn’t realize it, but compassion does indeed give those who have needs another chance to fly again when we do acts of compassion.”

 

“We went into a Bob Evans to eat lunch with my 8-year-old grandson and he turned to me and said, ‘Look Grandma, lots of elderlies are here.’”

 

“I took my grandson to the eye doctor yesterday.  There was a grandmother in the waiting room with her 15-month-old twin grandchildren.  My grandson got down on their level to talk and play with them, then turned to the grandmother and said, ‘Where did you get them, Babies “R” Us?’”

 

“Each year we’ve hidden a dollar bill on the floor of our third grade classroom when we were talking about Honesty.  The first two years it was immediately returned with a wide-eyed ‘Look what I found’ and praise from us for demonstrating Honesty.  This year, in the middle of a fire drill, when we returned to the classroom we watched a charming little girl pick up the bill and tuck it carefully under her workbook as if nothing had happened.  We were disappointed, as was the teacher, when we told her what had happened.  How wonderful it was to get an email from our teacher the next day to tell us that the bill had been given to her at the end of school, with the explanation that the finder ‘didn’t want to disturb us as we were racing through an interrupted session and story."

 

“Teaching Honesty last month a second grade girl at the back of the group raised her hand and said, ‘I am having so much trouble being honest.  It is just so hard for me.  I try and I try but do not always tell the truth!’  This opened a large discussion on telling the truth which was helpful to all the children.  One child said he was locked in the basement for the night if he did not tell the truth, so that opened a whole can of worms which we did follow up on.  Another said he was afraid to tell the truth…another can of worms.  We have found some good old-fashioned conversation with the children is really what they crave.  They may fabricate some, but the truth is in there somewhere.  Our group hugs, at the end of each session, are loved by the kids and they include each and every student, teacher and us….it is pretty awesome.  We are having a wonderful time.”

 

“We were teaching Honesty to our first grade class and at the end of our session we said we would let the kids ask us anything personal that they wanted.  We said they would have to then guess if we were being honest or telling a lie.  (I made Pinocchio noses for us to wear if we were caught telling a lie.)  The kids loved this role play and asked pretty common questions until one little girl asked ‘Do you and Nana sleep together?’  Well, we said they could ask us any question they wanted so we had to answer, after first looking at each other in shock and laughing out loud!  It’s certainly true that kids say the darndest things!  We then took the lesson to our third grade class and one of the boys asked Poppy if he had any regrets that he married Nana!     I think we had more fun than the kids!”

 

“My first grade class gives off a lot of energy, so when you are with them you can’t help but have fun.  After half an hour or so I am as energized as after a set of tennis.”

 

“I was using ants as an example of Diligence.  I talked about how they worked to build a big anthill.  I really went into it and they all got the picture.  A little girl who was missing a tooth said, ‘Grandma, I have a story about ants.’  I asked if she would like to share it and she said yes.  The little girl told the class that her dad went fishing with her grandpa and they were sitting and fishing when her dad said ‘Wow, something is biting me’ and her grandpa said ‘You got your butt sitting on an anthill!"

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