Flying Kites and Other Bad Ideas

Want to try something truly awful? Something guaranteed to leave life-long scars? Try teaching six 4&5 year old boys how to fly a kite. I promise, no one comes away unscathed. One might ask, "Martha, what were you thinking? Why did you think this would be fun? Who told you it was even possible to teach six 4&5 year old boys, 3 of whom speak limited English, how to fly a kite? Did you seriously expect good results?"

I might answer, "I had these lovely images in my mind of: laughing, happy faces, boys and their smiling teacher frolicking in the field while the kited bobbed merrily in the beautiful February breeze. I my head I could actually see them chasing me thru the field, laughing and shrieking. I could feel the joy and love."

But something went wrong. Terribly, awfully wrong. Was it the fact that a February breeze isn't really a breeze at all, but more of a manic-depressive episode of wind? Was it the fact that the string to this $1.99 kite was made out of something similar to tissue paper? Maybe it was the power line strung so innocuously across the field? Maybe, just maybe, if these kids spoke English, things would have turned out differently. But they speak Korean. And I do not. And apparently this sentence in English, "Look! You're flying it all by yourself!" sounds like something in Korean that means, "Let go! Set it free!" Who knows how things might have been. What I do know is there is a camo blue and gray kite shaped like a stealth bomber fluttering around FM 1431 right now, 2 little boys are crying, 1 little boy is frightened and thinks he's in trouble and the other 3 boys really have no idea what happened except that they didn't get their turn!
Sigh. On Friday we are most definitely NOT flying kites. We're staying in the nice safe schoolyard and playing soccer in the dirt. And maybe, just maybe I'll go look for that stupid kite.