Is A Puzzlement

I've just finished reading Phil Done's book, 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny: Life Lessons From Teaching. His characterizations of his eight year old students are so spot on, I laughed aloud several times while reading the book. One of the funniest chapters, Why? was especially delicious. Here are selected "why's" from this chapter:

Why is the gumball machine in the museum lobby more interesting than the Van Gogh on loan from the Met?

Why don't we grade A, B, C, D, and E?

Why do kids know precisely how many days, hours, and minutes are left till their birthdays but still ask, "When's lunch?"

Why do all the animals decide it's time to make babies when we visit the zoo?

I have my own list of questions cannot answer. Here is a sample:

Why does my daughter have blond hair (when I'm a brown-haird, brown-eyed Filipina)?

Why do my boys have longer eyelashes than me, my husband or their sister?

Why, in my twins' preschool, do they have to share one photo of themselves together on the class bulletin board, when all the other kids get photos of their own?

Why, when I leave the kids with my husband on a Saturday morning, will he say, when I get back, "The kids were good as gold, I don't know why you always say they exhaust you"?

Why do DVD's have a region code programmed into them so that we can only watch DVD's purchased in the US and need to buy another DVD player to watch DVD's we've purchased in England?

Why does my son ask to go potty three times during a half-hour swimming class but goes only once in three hours at home?

Why can't I ever get rid of the jiggly flab around my belly button?

Why can't my husband get himself ready in the mornings in the same time it takes me to get myself and my three kids ready?

Why can my kids go out in subzero temperatures with just a tshirt or frolic in the ice-cold waters of Northern California beaches when their parents and all other grownups are standing by shivering in overcoats?

Why, even though they are identical twins, does Philip have eczema and a birthmark on his left shoulder while James doesn't?

Why are we still occupying Iraq?

Danged if I know. Someone, help me out here. Maybe no-one can answer these questions for me. As Yul Brynner, playing King Chulalongkorn, says in The King and I..... Is....A....Puzzlement!


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for more puzzles, click here.

19 comments:

Michelle | Bleeding Espresso said...

That book sounds great! My niece (7) and nephew (10) (of my dark brown-haired, green/blue-eyed brother and dark brown-haired, brown-eyed sister-in-law) were born with bleached blond colored hair (and my brother's weird eyes)--my niece still has the hair, but my nephew's is slowly turning to light brown. Really wish I could help you on that last question of yours though....

cherry girl said...

Well, it's down right mean of the pre-school to only allow your two children to have a picture each of there own of the board! Just because they're identical, you would think teachers would have more sense! I am also puzzled by a lot of your puzzlements!

Anonymous said...

It don't get the whole regional code on dvd's either. Now I don't have dvd's with different codes, but have wondered for so long what the use of these different codes are. We can go to the moon, why can't we create a universal dvd player? Or dvd's for the matter...

Wonderful post :)

Sophie

Unknown said...

Don't we all have a lot of those same questions? Great ponderings.

Anonymous said...

the dvd thing...
set it to region zero...it'll play any region then...

Liza on Maui said...

oh yes...it's a puzzlement!

I too wants to know why I can't get that jellyflab around my belly button :)..

I'll have to check out that book you mentioned. Sounds good.

Had fun reading your Sunday Scribblings :)

paris parfait said...

Great questions, with which I can identify. As for your twins sharing one photo, that doesn't seem fair. I'd protest to the teacher.

Daily Panic said...

I agree with you, some things are puzzling and that is what makes our lives interesting..
nice post

Anonymous said...

I've asked myself, just about, all of those questions. Great post for Sunday Scribblings.

~Michelle~ said...

I love your questions! Reading your blog make me smile. :)

Karen Travels said...

Thanks for the comment, I am glad you liked the photo! Did you see the pics from last week, the post called Imagine? They are fun too!!

The feature is in my camera, not the computer. I have a Canon S3 IS....there is a feature called color swap...where you take a close up of the color you want in the pic...and the rest is mostly black and white. It works on some things better then others.

Anonymous said...

I was trying to comment on your post for quite a while. Every time I got ready to hit post someone came in the place with a question.
Anyway here I am - and it's great.
Forgive me if I'm double commenting.
Take care

Regina said...

Being a twin myself, I can relate... we were never just our own selves in school, but always the twins... it takes a lot sometimes for twins to find out their individuality.
Great post as usual, Bongga Mom!

JHS said...

All excellent questions, but I would be having a talk with the twins' teacher. They are separate people with distinct identities and should be treated as such unless they want to have a shared photo.

That's my $.02! :-)

Faith said...

So many questions. I wish I could answer any one of them for you. All I have though are questions to add:o) Great post.

gautami tripathy said...

I have read that book. I enjoyedit very much and kids do behave that way. Baffling but true.

Loved this post.

gautami
Puzzled

Tammy Brierly said...

LOL These were all great! Kids and husbands have always puzzled me ;)

deedee said...

As the mom to a third grade girl, I am going to try and find that book. Your puzzlements made me laugh, especially how you can get yourself and three kids ready in the time it takes your husband :)

jenica said...

this post totally brightened my day! my kids aren't quite that age, but it's amazing what comes out of their mouths. like my 5 year old deciding that for her birthday she wanted 150 friends for a "rock star" party, which luckily turned into dinner and dancing at TGIFridays. yes we danced in the middle of everybody, and no, management didn't condone it. i love the stories about your kids!