Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

        Today, it was "lions and tigers and bears, oh no!" We learned about farm animals in class, which seemed to bring out some tensions in the barn...
        Animal lessons are fun because a) the kids love them b) the animal noises are different in French, and c) I get to pretend that I'm six. I thought my pig impression was perfectly snorty but you should hear French kids impersonating piglets. We played Simon Says to remember the animal names but differentiating between chicks, hens, roosters, ducklings, and ducks proved difficult. We made frog noises for some of them and a yoodle-ish sound for another. I should have practiced my noises before this afternoon! Keeping calm and oinking on, we played the whispering version of Simon Says, so "meows, woofs, and moos" were hilariously deafened. In French, you say "chouchouter" for whisper - and the onomatopoeia works just as well. The kids were very polite barnyard creatures.
         Until we got to "donkey." I asked, "What is a donkey?" and was told "Benjamin."
         Horribly enough, I burst in a pig-impression snort, but so did the teacher. Benjamin, however, did not join in. Then he threw back a "you're a pig" and a girl was called a cow. I lost track of the animal slurs after that.
          It was clearly time for the all-inclusive, happy "Old MacDonald" song. And boy, did Old MacDonald work his magic. Soon after, donkey, pig, and cow were all singing in harmony.