One of the most frequent questions we get asked is, "How are your kids? Do they like India? Have they acclimated to the new culture?" The answer is, "The kids are great and they adjusted to "all things Indian" quicker than I could have ever imagined. Kids are so resilient, aren't they? They hit the ground running and never look back.
But one of the ongoing things that I don't know if our kids will EVER get used to is the long bus ride to school. It takes them about an hour to get to school in the morning and about an hour to get home in the afternoon. No matter how "resilient" you might be, any way you look at it, that is just a stinkin' LONG ride! The older students on the bus pass the time by listening to their ipods or playing on their ipads. Some students use this time to chat with their friends or if you don't get car sick it's a great time to get some homework done. Sometimes the young children that ride the bus even fall asleep during the ride home from school! I've seen Mom's on a number of occasions have to climb into the bus to retrieve their "wee one" that is quietly snoring away in their bus seat. David is my "wee one" and he's only fallen asleep ONCE since we moved here. Most of the time he keeps up with the "Big Dogs" and we have to remind ourselves that he is only in kindergarten. If we were in the US he'd be going to school in the morning or the afternoon and then would have the rest of the day to "be a kid" and do whatever he wanted. Here, he leaves our house at 7:30 am and doesn't return home until nearly 5:00 everyday! I rest my case, that is a LONG day in any culture for a kindergartner!
Since David is too little to bring an ipod or an ipad onto the school bus and we've already established that he is not a frequent bus sleeper....he's pretty much left to self entertainment. As you can imagine, a six year old boy might get into some trouble from time to time on that bus ride. On occasion, he becomes the annoying little boy that pesters the older kids by threatening to wipe his boogers on them or by standing up in his seat. Unfortunately for David, he rides the bus with "The Informants" aka his three older siblings and they don't let David get away with ANYTHING! The second they step off the bus one of them will metaphorically speaking, "Throw David Under The Bus"...."MOM! David was sooooo bad on the bus today! He was trying to wipe his boogers on other kids and uh then he...." to which David will promptly interrupt and say, "NOOOooOOO Mom! I did not. I did not wipe my boogahs on anybody. They awr wying!!" Then in my best stern Mommy voice I will say, "David. Did you wipe boogers on someone?" "No, Mom. I didn't! I onwly twied. I was just kidding. I didn't weally do it to nobody. I pwomise!" Arghhh! So there you have it. This is what happens when a six year old boy is lead to his own devices and has to come up with his own entertainment for two hours everyday. Our new solution is that David always gets a window seat (because there are a million things to look at out the window to distract his thoughts from thinking that Booger Flicking is a good idea) and now one of his siblings always has to sit in the aisle seat next to him. As you can imagine, we basically need a flow chart to keep track of whose turn it is to sit by David. "Mom! No it isn't my turn. I sat with him yesterday." "No, Mom. It's actually Rachel's turn again today b/c she rode home with her friends in their car from school yesterday and so she skipped her turn last night. She has to sit by him again today." Oi Oi Oi! SERENITY NOW!!
Rachel, being the older and wiser of the siblings has started to use Huckleberry Finn-esque reverse psychology on the other children and she's got them convinced that she actually "Really LIKES sitting next to David." This has left Michael & Erica head scratching thinking, "Really? How can this be true but maybe Rachel you can skip your extra turn that we were proposing you had to make-up and maybe one of us can sit by David instead?!" That Rachel, she's a tricky one. Gotta keep your eye on that girl! :0)
Anyhow, our new system of sticking a sibling buddy next to David seems to be helping a lot and everyone is making the best of the long bus ride. (Now just to keep those "big kids" at the back of the bus to mind their tongues! All the kids have learned some (insert sarcastic tone now) FANTASTIC new choice words from those pre pubescent punks! But that's a whole other story! For now, enjoy the pics below!
But one of the ongoing things that I don't know if our kids will EVER get used to is the long bus ride to school. It takes them about an hour to get to school in the morning and about an hour to get home in the afternoon. No matter how "resilient" you might be, any way you look at it, that is just a stinkin' LONG ride! The older students on the bus pass the time by listening to their ipods or playing on their ipads. Some students use this time to chat with their friends or if you don't get car sick it's a great time to get some homework done. Sometimes the young children that ride the bus even fall asleep during the ride home from school! I've seen Mom's on a number of occasions have to climb into the bus to retrieve their "wee one" that is quietly snoring away in their bus seat. David is my "wee one" and he's only fallen asleep ONCE since we moved here. Most of the time he keeps up with the "Big Dogs" and we have to remind ourselves that he is only in kindergarten. If we were in the US he'd be going to school in the morning or the afternoon and then would have the rest of the day to "be a kid" and do whatever he wanted. Here, he leaves our house at 7:30 am and doesn't return home until nearly 5:00 everyday! I rest my case, that is a LONG day in any culture for a kindergartner!
Since David is too little to bring an ipod or an ipad onto the school bus and we've already established that he is not a frequent bus sleeper....he's pretty much left to self entertainment. As you can imagine, a six year old boy might get into some trouble from time to time on that bus ride. On occasion, he becomes the annoying little boy that pesters the older kids by threatening to wipe his boogers on them or by standing up in his seat. Unfortunately for David, he rides the bus with "The Informants" aka his three older siblings and they don't let David get away with ANYTHING! The second they step off the bus one of them will metaphorically speaking, "Throw David Under The Bus"...."MOM! David was sooooo bad on the bus today! He was trying to wipe his boogers on other kids and uh then he...." to which David will promptly interrupt and say, "NOOOooOOO Mom! I did not. I did not wipe my boogahs on anybody. They awr wying!!" Then in my best stern Mommy voice I will say, "David. Did you wipe boogers on someone?" "No, Mom. I didn't! I onwly twied. I was just kidding. I didn't weally do it to nobody. I pwomise!" Arghhh! So there you have it. This is what happens when a six year old boy is lead to his own devices and has to come up with his own entertainment for two hours everyday. Our new solution is that David always gets a window seat (because there are a million things to look at out the window to distract his thoughts from thinking that Booger Flicking is a good idea) and now one of his siblings always has to sit in the aisle seat next to him. As you can imagine, we basically need a flow chart to keep track of whose turn it is to sit by David. "Mom! No it isn't my turn. I sat with him yesterday." "No, Mom. It's actually Rachel's turn again today b/c she rode home with her friends in their car from school yesterday and so she skipped her turn last night. She has to sit by him again today." Oi Oi Oi! SERENITY NOW!!
Rachel, being the older and wiser of the siblings has started to use Huckleberry Finn-esque reverse psychology on the other children and she's got them convinced that she actually "Really LIKES sitting next to David." This has left Michael & Erica head scratching thinking, "Really? How can this be true but maybe Rachel you can skip your extra turn that we were proposing you had to make-up and maybe one of us can sit by David instead?!" That Rachel, she's a tricky one. Gotta keep your eye on that girl! :0)
Anyhow, our new system of sticking a sibling buddy next to David seems to be helping a lot and everyone is making the best of the long bus ride. (Now just to keep those "big kids" at the back of the bus to mind their tongues! All the kids have learned some (insert sarcastic tone now) FANTASTIC new choice words from those pre pubescent punks! But that's a whole other story! For now, enjoy the pics below!
This is how he climbed down off the bus!
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| At least it wasn't a Sharpie! |
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| When he came off the bus and I asked, "David! What happened to your face!?" He simply replied, "I put a few stickuhs on me." |
At least he wasn't wiping his snots on anybody!!!
Exhausted!
So, he might not have fallen asleep on the bus but he crashed in the DRIVEWAY on this particular day! Poor Kid!!
Another rough day. Tripped at school. Bandage to the knee and elbow and lots of kisses from Mommy and he was zzzzzz on the couch in no time! ;0)
