Whatever it takes

The other morning, minutes after the bell rang, one of my boys said drearily, "I'm already bored."

I told him that if my kids told me they were bored, I would offer them an extra job to do.  A few other kids said their moms were the same.

I said, "You have an imagination, so you should never be bored.  Sometimes when I was in elementary school, I would pretend I was sitting in an office at work."

That little conversation carried over into the next day, when yesterday they collectively decided they all wanted to pretend they were on an airplane.  

Since they had all popped out of their seats incessantly to watch the snow earlier in the day, I also used my imagination.

(Can we just talk for a second about them popping out of their seats to see the snow.  These kids live in Utah.  They have seen snow!  Why must they go watch it?!?)

Anyway, back to my imagination.

I said, "Please make sure your seatbelts are buckled and your tray tables are in the upright and locked position.  Make sure all your personal items are stowed."

Most of them had never flown, so they kind of lost their minds about airplanes having seatbelts, but I told them they needed to be buckled up.

So they all sat down.  And stayed sitting.

When it was time for WIN time where they switch classrooms, I said, "Please gather your personal belongings and proceed to WIN time.  We know you have a choice when you fly, so thank you for flying with us today."

They loved it.

When they returned, I had them buckle up again.  Two girls told me impishly that they had cut their seatbelts. 

I said, "We can't take off until everyone is buckled."  

The rest of the class looked at them expectantly until they pretended to buckle up.

When anyone got out of their seats, I told them the captain had the fasten your seatbelt sign on, so they needed to stay seated.

Someone said they were flying 1st class.  Someone else corrected them that it was 3rd class (since 3rd grade) and that sounded even better to them.  

They wondered why I was up and walking and I said I was the flight attendant.  They said the papers I was passing out were snacks.

I said, "Don't eat them."

Do I think this will ever work again?  Probably not.  But we had one good day of children in their seats and that is worth a lot.