Frindle

The word 'frindle' has taken my class by storm. Uncoincidentally, our latest read-aloud book is Frindle by Andrew Clements. For those who haven't read the book, a boy invents a new word for pen (frindle), and convinces his friends to only use that word from now on. Their English teacher doesn't like it, so it turns into a huge thing resulting in the entire nation learning and using the word. My kids decided they'd join the frindle movement and even wrote a contract. The whole class signed it; it's hanging on the back of our classroom door. So we don't use pens anymore. We use frindles. 

They tested the word with the piano teacher (she knew the word), Mrs. L (she knew it too), and Mr. E (he didn't know it). That was two days ago. So far the hype continues. They even came up with a 'new' word for pencil, "pringle". Since that's already a word of something, I say it doesn't count. They didn't make a contract over that word.

A prayer partner left her partner an actual Frindle. The pen was taped to the inside top of her desk. It's a regular pen with "frindle" written on it in the actual font of the book title. My class tried to deduce how the person could've gotten the frindle here in time since we only began the book Tuesday. I have a theory. One 6th grader and her mom are super handy with a cricut, the little machine that cuts out letters for crafty things. I could see them printing it out to stick on a pen. That would explain how it arrived so fast! 

The other big hullaballoo today was a big splat of ink spilling on the carpet. I have no clue how the 5th grader had so much ink available to spill, but she did. Right in the middle of the floor. Probably messing around with her frindle. Thankfully, I have some experience getting ink out of things... We dumped rubbing alcohol on the spot and laid paper towels on it, weighing it down with the rubbing alcohol bottle. We'd periodically check it and move the towel or add more rubbing alcohol over the course of the day, and I think the crisis is finally averted. Whew. Not sure ink will come out in the annual summer carpet shampooing. 

House update: The USDA is finally going to lock in my loan! The agent is examining my papers as I write. She has everything she needs and will hopefully have everything wrapped up by tomorrow. Thank you Lord! Still no physical updates on the building itself. Maybe things will move faster now...