Sunbleached in Yacama...

It's a sign of the times, so to speak. Or a sign of my times, perhaps. My kids at school are making references to things I have no clue about. Due to my wonderful little siblings, I feel like I tend to stay pretty on top of kiddie pop culture. I usually know what my second graders are referencing when they talk about "Webkinz" or "Wii Sports." A few weeks ago, however, I was completely and utterly flabbergasted.

We were finishing our literature study about the desert. We had talked about animals and plants in the desert, cold and hot deserts, where deserts are found in the world, and on and on. In connection with this study, we were briefly discussing where to go to find out more information about the desert. The discussion went like this.

Me: Kids, if we wanted to know more about the desert, where could we go to look for more information?

Kids: The library. Books. Online. The Computer. Texas. Yacama.

Me, after processing that last statement: Yacama? What's that?

Kids, more and more joining in and nodding: Yeah, Yacama! It's like a state. Or a city. No, I think it's a country. Yeah, a country.

Me: No....Yacama's definitely not a state or a country. What is it? Where have you heard of this?

I look to the teacher assistant to find the same incredulous, clueless look that I have. More and more kids meanwhile, are nodding to each other and agreeing that Yacama would be the place to go to find out more about the desert.

Kids: Yacama, Mrs. Taylor. You know, from i-Carly.

Me, after another processing delay: What in the world is i-Carly???

Kids: You don't watch i-Carly, Mrs. Taylor???

Beth (my TA) who has now realized that she's heard of this show: She's a grown-up, kids.

So apparently, i-Carly is a show on Nickelodeon. A show geared toward pre-teens and young teenagers which is why my precious little siblings have not seen it. Which is why I haven't heard of it. And apparently, this Carly on one particular episode was or might be moving to a fictional town called Yacama. Which is where this whole train wreck about gathering more information got started.

Another sign that I am out of step with what second graders know happened a few weeks later. I was reading them some writing that I did about the poodle biting incident (you can read about it here if you haven't yet) and describing to them why Mr. and Mrs. Leather had that particular nickname. I was careful to indicate that it was not because of any natural skin tone of any kind, but a result of them being in the sun all hours of the day without sunscreen on, thus promoting the reddish brown skin of one who needs some aloe in a serious way.

Here's how this discussion went:

Me: And that's why we nicknamed them "Mr. and Mrs. Leather."

Kid: Oh, so they were sunbleached.

Me: Yeah, sort- wait, did you say sun - bleached?

Kids, more of them nodding: Yeah, you know, sunbleached.

Me: I think you mean sunburned.

Kids: Nope. Sunbleached. Like, from Spongebob.

For the second time that month, we had to have the discussion about fiction and nonfiction on television. I basically told them that if it's not Animal Planet, Discovery, or PBS, it's probably fiction. That sometimes fiction can be realistic, but Hannah Montanna is not a real person, she's a character. There's an actress acting like a person named Hannah Montanna, and it's all pretend just like when they pretend they are explorers, Jedis, or princesses for crying out loud.

So the next time you're in Yacama, finding out about the desert, please for goodness sake, wear some sunscreen so you don't get sunbleached.