Popsicle Bribery

It never fails that every Tuesday night I want to lay on the couch and watch hours of mind-numbing TV and every Tuesday I manage to fight my natural laziness and go to ESL class (English as a Second Language). Some of you might be thinking…”YES! Heather is finally going to learn English”…alas, no. I help with childcare while the parents of 11-30 little people learn to speak or read English. It is a little self-serving on my part… I can’t afford to travel as much as I would like (once every few weeks) so I travel to a developing country over in the break room of a thrift store once a week.

Last night was no exception. I wanted to lay on the couch and instead Valerie and I held popsicles for ransom until the children paid-up with good behavior. It is amazing how motivated children can be by frozen delicious-ness. My favorite part of the night, by far, was when all of the kids discovered the frozen state of their little hands and decided to attack me with them. I’m sure it was a lovely sight for Valerie as I stood on a semi-reliable chair while all 11 children put their sticky frozen hands on me at one time. Good times.

My second favorite moment of the night was when Tiffany came back to ask the kids if they could help her think of words that sound the same but are spelled differently. Okay - maybe she was asking me, but the kids did way better than I could have. The answers ranged from really useful things like “blue” and “blew,” to “white” and “white.”

Now both of these stories are good, but they don’t compare to the night we tried to play Boggle with the kids. We found a Boggle game for sale in the store and thought that sounded like fun. So we sat them all down and opened it. Yeah, the box was full of steak knives. Yep - always a good time at ESL.

Next week is the big fiesta at ESL and it might be the largest ice cream/craft party ever thrown (in a thrift store). If you have any ideas for crafts or activities for kids ranging in age from 5-12 please share. We’re about one week past all of our good ideas and we could really use some help!