Western day

It's Hope Week at school and yesterday was Western Day.  Almost all the teachers dressed up.  I am probably the only one that grew up on a dirt road but I don't have any "western" clothes.  The teachers mostly wore aggressively pointy boots and straw hats with the brims squashed up on the sides.  Not the kind of clothes you'd ever see actual cowboys wear, but it's an elementary school.

My boys came in for literacy and one of them was carrying a red bandana.  He said, "Do you know how to tie this?  Like a cowboy?"  I said I did.

I said, "My dad is a cowboy."

"He is not!"  One of them was vehemently suspicious of me.

I said, "He is.  So is my brother."

"No.  You are lying.  You are a big fat liar."

I thought the big fat was hurtful and unnecessary but I pulled up my blog on my computer because it is a good way to win arguments.

I scrolled for pictures of my dad.  I found one and he was wearing a cowboy hat.  "See," I said, triumphantly.  I showed them a picture of Tabor for good measure.

The one student was still not having it.  He said, "Does he ride a horse?  Unless you show me a picture of him on a horse, I won't believe you."

I told him, "I'm not going to give you a smiley face today.  Just for doubting me."

Every day he brings a chart from his teacher that tracks his behavior.  I can either circle a smile, a neutral face, or a frown.  It's so dumb but it works like magic.  If he ever gets out of line, all I have to say is, "Where did I put your chart?" and I look around for it and he immediately shapes up.

He likes getting those smiles.

I found a picture of my dad, horseback.  Both boys said, "Whoa."

I don't think they intended a pun.  

For the rest of literacy, they talked with a sort of twang and called each other partner.  They swaggered around the room and said they were cowboys.  The doubter asked me, "Has your dad ever shot anyone?"

I said, "No."

"But, is he a bank robber?"

There's reality and then there's 3rd grade reality.  They don't always intersect.

(And I gave him the smiley face at the end.  He's that cute.)