Rock Launchers

Today was one of those days where I felt like I got to have small glimpse of what it's going to be like to be a mom of an 8 yr old boy and to be honest with you... it was pretty funny. After spending about 20 minutes talking with my four favorite hooligans in my class about the importance of not "play fighting" on the playground (they all admitted to having seen too many Cops shows where the police brutalized people, kicked them, yelled at them, etc. and had then chosen to act out their favorite scenes during lunchtime)... I sent them on their way to afternoon recess. When the bell rang for the kids to return to class and head to library I discovered I was missing my boys. As I headed to the front of the school, several teachers stopped and told me that my kids had gotten in trouble. When I walked into the main office, I saw all four boys sitting in the chairs outside the principal's office. Their heads were hung low and I had to give some sort of speech telling them how disappointed I was in them...when really I was cracking up inside. They had decided that since they got banished from playing in the back field, they'd move to the front field and find some new sticks/rocks to play with. Today the activity they came up with was throwing rocks over and through the school fence. Unfortunately, the fence separated them from Stanford Ave. by only a few feet... so instead of just launching rocks over the fence, they were launching rocks into oncoming traffic. Witnesses (other busybody kids who like to get my guys in trouble) said that they heard the rocks smashing into cars that were driving by. As usual, the yard duty teacher was called and all four of my boys tried to run... but since we're on a closed campus, there wasn't anywhere for them to go... so they were herded to the office where they got to meet with the principal. They all ended up getting sent home, so I ended the day having only 3 students in my classroom. I know that I should feel more disappointed in them, but mostly I think their antics are somewhat entertaining. Rocks, sticks, and dirt are their favorite toys... so of course it would make logical sense to try and launch any number of those objects over a fence. I'm just surprised that they didn't think of it sooner. These are the kids that decided three years ago that it would be fun to launch little mini cherries through my classroom window (leaving my floor blanketed in mini-cherries)... so of course as they get older they'd obviously move on to bigger, louder, and more destructive things. I only hope that about 8 years from now I have as good of a sense of humor/positive attitude about my own little guy and the crazy things he gets involved in.