Kwane's sly way of telling us he's learning

I absolutely LOVE being around kids...especially when I can see the lightbulb go on. :) ...and today was one of those moments.

I went downstairs to the After-School Academy to get some footage of the mural the kids designed, drew, and are now painting. (I'll put it together in a post soon). As I stood watching three of the kids paint, Kwane stood beside me. Quite honestly, I wasn't paying him any attention whatsoever. I was focused on the mural painting for one, but I've also learned to ignore his antics at times when he decides to act out. So I guess I was unconsciously tuning him out.

I can't quite explain my brain, but I could hear him talking, but it was little one or two word phrases so I guess I thought he was just talking to himself figuring someone would notice and tell him to be quiet or something (it's a way to get attention). Something in my brain told me what he was saying was familiar, but I guess I was just too focused on other things to pay him any mind.

"Hey. Who?"

"Oh?"

"Me?"

"You."

"Yo.Yes."

As he spoke them in small sentences, his words somehow soaked in to my brain and I realized what he was doing. I quickly turned toward him with a big smile on my face. He returned my big grin and simply said, "I saw it," with a mischievous look on his face. It was obvious he knew that he was going to shock me with his statement.

See, on our After-School Academy blog we have a Story Time link (you can see it at the top of this page. I try to post a new read-aloud that I or someone else has read to our Flip video camera and loaded to the blog. It reminds me of Reading Rainbow. When I started doing it, I didn't know if it would catch on, but I figured it couldn't hurt and it didn't take a lot of effort.

Yo! Yes! has been up quite a while. I'd never heard any kids comment on the story so I didn't know if they were utilizing our Story Time posts. Evidently, some are. If they're like Kwane, they're watching it so much that they've memorized the words. Kwane has, at times, been one of our biggest challenges. But more and more often, we are seeing his mischievous nature come out as he slyly tries to tell/show us he's learning.

Yo! Yes! is one of my favorite children's books. I'm sure you'll love it, too. You can listen to it below. If you would like to be a guest reader for us, please read your favorite book, post it to youtube, and email me the link so I can embed it in our StoryTime link. We need new stories!