I went to the Science Center with my son’s second grade class today as a chaperon. I found out I had chaperon duties when I arrived at the school in the morning in response to the invitation: “would you like to go on the field trip with us?” But I don’t mind wrangling a few brats for a half day – I wrangle 150 soldiers all weekend and it’s about the same job description…
Of all the great story opportunities from this little junket – I only lost one brat, and even then for only a couple of minutes – my favorite was the “ABC game” I played with my boy on the bus ride home. We were the last ones on the bus for the return trip due to the fact that the experts at the center lost my backpack, which they insisted I leave with them after lunch. (See Detroit Science Center Intelligence Story.)
So, now in the front of the bus, alone – or so I thought – with my boy,
he asked if we could play the “ABC game”, which we play by taking turns naming off a word that starts with successive letters of the alphabet. He says “A is for apple” and I respond with the most ridiculous word I can think of for “B”, like, “B is for botulism.” It makes him laugh, and occasionally, he learns a new word.
We easily got through the first time, but as you know if you’ve played this a few times, it can be difficult to get through the “X’s” multiple times in a row without repetition. So on the second run through, I broke one of my own rules and used “Xanadu.” (We don’t usually allow proper nouns.) He responded with “Y is for yankee” and I took a few moments to try to find a real whopper for “Z”.
The nice lady next to me (also a hijacked chaperon) noticed my struggle and offered up: “You could use Z is for Xylophone!”
I thanked her and switched games.