Tuesday, September 15, 2009

explaining the blog header

this boy cracks me up. last week, i asked his sister if she'd noticed more pencils around the house lately. it used to be that you had to hunt for one of those yellow sticks in our home. she paused a moment and said that yes, in fact, she had noticed that as well. now if these were brand new, long, hardly used pencils, i wouldn't have thought twice about it. i would have just assumed one of the kids hadn't managed to get their new pencils to school yet. but these pencils were obviously used, they were shorter, the erasers had been used, some even had broken lead, so i knew something was awry.

when ethan got home, i asked him about the sudden proliferation of pencils. he smiled sheepishly. then he began to tell me the glories of finding pencils in middle school. there are pencils on the floor everywhere you look! he doesn't pick them up in the bathroom though (THANK GOODNESS!), but everywhere else is fair game. he figures if you drop your pencil and you don't retrieve said pencil, you're forfieting your need for that pencil. and ethan's always been the sentimental type, so it totally makes sense that he would pick up the lonely pencils and bring them to a safe and loving home. he had noticed that he was amassing quite the collection (something else he's famous for–collecting collections), and decided he wanted to see just how many pencils he could bring home. i was discussing this subject with ethan's principal, he said there certainly are a lot of pencils in the hallways of the middle school, but his solution was to deposit any pencils he finds in the math classrooms. he knows they'll go to good use there! so i think ethan and i need to talk about this.

12 comments:

*Paula* said...

Now I have visions of hallways flooded with pencils. :o

Shelly Johnston said...

Oh Emily! That is a great story and an even better photo!!! Love it! Logan is also a collector of things. Last year he collected crayons in his classroom. And scissors he found on the floor. Things he found on the floor that no one claimed he put in his desk. Luckily he has a para to help him return his collections!

lisa truesdell said...

can.not.wait. to see that scrapped. =)

justem said...

love the photo. :)
i have to say...i know this trick. that's how i get all my pencils at school!! ;)

Natasja Cats - Verbeek said...

What a great picture and such a fun story!

Julie said...

This picture is so awesome!

Let him collect his pencils. It's free! And when he gets tired of doing it, you won't have to buy pencils for a long time.

Aly Dosdall said...

okay, this cracks me up! my 11 year old son did the same thing last year, but only in his class. he's got about 100 pencils! he asked his teacher about it and she said if he finds them to show the class and ask if it belongs to anyone. if no one claims it, then it's his to keep. funny!

nicole said...

this post totally has me cracking up - love the story! =)

Ronda Palazzari said...

see now i say bring them to the Art teacher!!!

i love this story. and i love that photo!!!

Julie said...

That is so very hilarious. Get that kid a dog already ;)

Joaniebolognie said...

OH MY this is so darn hysterical....my son Connor did the EXACT same thing when he finally hit the middle school. After awhile I didn't even have to buy a single pencil his 6th grade year!!!!! Great photo!

Kendra said...

Ha! Caelan did the same thing when he started middle school! He got tired of people borrowing his pens and pencils and not returning them so he collected those he found on the floor and loaned those out.