"At Your Age, You Always Know What's Usual..."

I recieved a phone call very early this morning, it was the school district I grew up in, asking me to come substitute fourth grade at in my old school. Happily, I got dressed and went in to school and got ready for the day.

I learned something about fourth graders today. They are very big into routine. I spent my entire day learning about what the class "usually does" or what the teacher "normally" lets them do. It started off with me passing their morning exercises back through the rows and one boy muttering, "This isn't how we usually do this."

I ignored it and went on with the day. I was then informed that the teacher usually lets them read in a special area at the back of the room when they are done working, which I didn't allow because I wanted things as controlled as possible. She usually reads to them right after lunch, which I didn't know so I went right into the spelling test and read to them after science.

Normally the social studies class gets to play games after they are done with their work, which I let them do at first, but then they became raucous and had to go back to their desks. Their teacher knows when to get them ready for bathroom breaks and who is supposed to pass out what at the end of the day so it does not become a free-for-all like my day did.

All in all, it was a fairly "unusual" day, for me and them.

Mrs. Rice

On October 21, Nathan and I will be married three years. Despite that, I am rarely, if ever called Mrs. Rice. My father did it once as a joke shortly after my wedding when we went to my grandma's. He walked in the house before me and said loudly, "I have brought Mrs. Rice." My good friend Bonnie got married shortly after me and there were a few phone calls in which we referred to each other as "Mrs. Rice" and "Mrs. Engstrom."

After that it didn't really happen until this year. I was speaking on Facebook with my friend Pippa, whom I haven't really had any contact with in a few years. She commented that she was not seeing anyone and followed it with "Not like you, Mrs. Rice." Which made me giggle.

In spite of my affinity for my maiden name, I do like being called "Mrs. Rice." So today, I got my fill of it for now. I substitute taught for a fourth grade class at Waterman Elementary for half the day. Conveniently, I live a block from the school. So I spent the morning hearing "Um, Mrs. Rice..." It was kind of nice.

I hadn't realized though, how much babysitting even fourth grade takes. I always thought that by that age they are out of it a little bit. Oh well, it was still fun.