he can fix anything....

At the very end of each day, I have my students gather all their things, pack them into their backpack, and put on their coats. We get our areas cleaned, put the chair on own desk, and line up for the bell. It is always interesting conversation during these last moments of the day. Everything is very low key and they find themselves full of random information that they feel they simply must tell me right now. The funny thing is, a chain reaction of conversation usually occurs. As an example - if little Billy were to blurt out 'Ms. Williams, I got a new dog over the weekend!' I would reply with something along the lines of, 'That's exciting Billy! What's it's name?' As soon as Billy would reply, every single kid who has a dog, once had a dog, or ever even though about having a dog feels the need to tell me their story. And lots of times, they want to do it all at once. It is sort of humerus to watch them waiting for their turn to tell me something. They stand there all jittery about to jump out of the skins for their chance to speak out. They look as though they will just scream if they don't get their turn at story time.

This afternoon I was pleasantly surprised at the topic of end of the day conversation in my class. One of the little boys in my class showed me his foam flyer that he had left at school on Friday. He was anxious to get it home. He looked up at me and said something about he didn't know if it would fly or not cause a part seemed broken. I told him to get some glue when he got home- that I was sure his mom would have some glue around the house to fix it. He looked up at me and said, my dad could probably fix it - he fixes everything that breaks around the house. This caused that chain reaction chat among my students where each one looked at him and said things like: my dad can fix anything too, my dad builds lots of things at my house, he knows how to take care of everything, and etc. They all smiled and got very excited as they talked about the wondrous things their dad could do for them. It was absolutely adorable!

There was one thing going through my mind the entire time my kids were talking about their dads. It's something my dad always said to me growing up, and still to this day - I can fix anything but a broken heart, and I can work on that as long as I need to. This has been true about my dad for as long as I can remember! My dad CAN fix anything. I swear to you, that there have been times when things have been broken, and just the mere presence of my father made them work again. Honestly! I have had a remote that just wouldn't work, told dad about it, when he walked in the room and picked up that remote - OF COURSE - it worked for him (and after that for me as well). There are so many things in this old house of mine that leave my mind boggled and frazzled that dad can solve and fix with ease. And let me tell you, he can hang a shelf like no other. I can NEVER get it that level when I do it by myself! My dad can fix anything! And...even though he always said he couldn't fix a broken heart, he sure has been known to help ease the pain of one. :) I'm a VERY lucky girl!

And it sure was nice to hear all those kids talking about their dads the same way I talk about mine. I'm happy to hear that my students have some good heroes in their lives. I sure do in mine!