Every morning for years you’ve drawn your cartoon character, Johnny Boo, in your kids’ elementary school classrooms when you drop them off at school. When did you start?
James: I think I started when Eli was in second grade. And the only reason I didn’t do it before then was I couldn’t find a whiteboard in his classroom to draw on! I just go in every morning and draw, as long as the teacher is into it, of course. If they’re not, I don’t do it!It’s like a morning greeting?
James: Yeah, I try to pay attention to what’s going on that day at school and kind of follow the theme.
Oliver, do your friends ever talk about the daily Johnny Boo?
Oliver: Yeah, sometimes.
James: I think his friends are probably more into it than he is most of the time!
Eli, did you miss the Johnny Boos when you went off to middle school?
Eli: (laughing) Uh, no.
James: I mostly do it because I want all the kids to start off the day happy, so maybe if I do this little thing that starts their day off in a good way, the whole class will have an easier day the whole way through! Ollie, do you think it works?
Oliver: Yeah, it does.
Eli, it’s your second year of high school. Are you excited for the first day of school or dreading it?
Eli: Kind of dreading it. I don’t really want to get back into the schedule of school.
James: Maybe I could come in and do a huge Johnny Boo mural at the high school!!
Eli: (laughing) No. Please don’t!
Want to be featured in an upcoming Parent Portrait? Email us at ideas@kidsvt.com
This article was originally published in Seven Days’ monthly parenting magazine, Kids VT.
This article appears in Back To School Issue 2018.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
