Three Minutes with Your New Overlords…I Mean Teachers

Normanday #42: How long until winter break?

Well, it’s happened. The first day of school. Tell me all about it.

Email what you wrote to woof at bright dot net by the end of the day August 26 (put “Norman Will Be Taking a Nap During Your Algebra Class” in the subject line). I’ll post as many of my favorite entries as I want next Monday. Include your first name (or, even better, use a pen name) and age (unless you’re tortoise-old). If you’re a published children’s or young adult writer, include a biography to be posted with your entry.

Here are the entries from last week when I asked you to write for three minutes…

…about the things you planned to do this summer but never got around to.

Wil, age 11

On my summer vacation from school I did go to bed late, every night. I slept in late, too. I played computer games and video games and not many board games. Even though I did this, I kind of had fun, but not too much. I really would like to have gone to an amusement park about an hour from my house on my vacation. My family and I did not get a chance to go there this summer. I am taller now and I probably would have been able to ride more roller coaster rides. I regret not being able to go, maybe next summer.

Schae D. Lane

My regret this summer was not being able to complete my backyard patio area. I think I would have really enjoyed being able to sit quietly outside, relaxing in my backyard with the aroma of chicken breasts cooking on the grill, knowing that the taste would be even better than the smell.

I would have liked to have heard the leaves rustling in the soft and warm summer breezes and to have felt those same breezes on my face.

I would have liked to have seen the robins and cardinals soaring through the sky, the acrobatic squirrels flinging themselves precariously from one tree branch to another and the bunnies plopping down in the yard during the warmest spells this summer had to offer.

I would have liked to have watched the bees buzzing by, stopping to take a sip at each marigold they passed and the butterflies landing and then fluttering away from one flower to the next in search of nectar.

I would have liked to have heard the crickets singing in the early evening and watched the sun casting its brilliant last rays across my yard.

I would have liked to have looked up in the night sky at those shining pin holes of light, searching for constellations and staring at our bright moon, trying to determine if it was waxing or waning.

But above all of this, I would have loved to have watched my son playing outside, enjoying the warmth and sunshine and the freedom of his youth with his friends, catching fireflies, playing tag, and making lasting memories that would never fade.