There's a lot of love in the room!

This blog post is less about a particularly funny event and more about a surprising, ongoing trend in my class for this point in the year. There is quite a bit of talk about if you "like like" someone or just "like" them. For the spring of fifth grade in general, it is not so unusual. The unusual part for me is that there is one boy at the heart of all this. All of the girls like the same boy, and you should see how this little guy can handle all of these girls. Some older men would be watching him in awe...

Anyway, he's recently settled into a "relationship" with one girl in the class. To which he asked, "Ms. F, why don't you partner me with Sarah anymore?" The fact that he asked me that question let's me know how smart he really thinks I am.

However, even with the latest development, he still makes the rounds quite well by spending more time flirting than focusing on anything I'm saying. Some parents have even called asking for me to move their child away from this boy because they think it is disrupting their daughter's concentration. Frankly, his interest in girls and their interest in him is disrupting HIS concentration. I even tried to talk to him about what I've started calling "his silliness." That was my way of nicely saying he lost his focus. I also didn't want to touch on the whole "love" issue because I recognize he most likely didn't want to talk about it with me, his teacher. Little did I know he had a different idea. We had this interestion:

Me: Eric, I need to talk to you.
Eric: Yeah, Ms. F
Me: I need you to stay more focused during our lessons. You are getting too silly, and it is distracting.
Eric: I know! I know! (puts his head in his hands)
Me: Do you have any idea what's going on?
Eric: I don't need an idea. I know (head still in his hands)
Me: What do you know?
Eric: (looking at me) I like girls! I want to talk to them all the time. I think about them a lot too.
Me: I understand, and it is totally normal. You need to be able to feel those feelings and also do your school work...understand?
Eric: yeah

I thought this was going to calm the situation somewhat, and it did for awhile. I got a phone call from his mother that Eric thinks that he can do homework on skype with his "girlfriend." The boy is also telling his mother that I'm saying it is part of his assignment. I assured the mother that I would be happy to clarify that with him at school :). So we continued our talk with this interaction:

Me: Eric, are you doing your homework with Sarah on skype?
Eric: No
Me: Well, I heard from your mom that you told her that you were on skype doing homework with Sarah. You know that's not what I'm assigning.
Eric: Yeah, that's what she thinks because I told her that. Actually, we log on to say goodnight to each other.

Is it me or are these kids growing up too quickly? AND, what ever happened to just wishing your parents goodnight at 10? maybe a sibling and pet? AND, why don't these parents just take the computers away from the child if they don't want them to use it? AND,..well I could just go on and on....