Who Needs a Smoothie?

I'm teaching a new class this year.  It is a 6th grade comprehensive FACS class.  It's probably similar to the Home Ec class you took in school with cooking, sewing, and personal & family relationships all crammed into 9 weeks. 

We're just finishing up our Personal & Family Relationships unit.  I've been surprised at how much I actually enjoy this unit.  We get to talk about all the things that go on when you're in the 6th grade, so I get to tell lots of stories about being in the 6th grade and how traumatic it was for me. 

We talked about friendship and I told the story of meeting Nicky on the first day of 6th grade.  My kids love Nicky stories.  So I try to share as many as possible, or at least work Nicky into my stories.  It isn't hard, because she was there for pretty much all of it.

This past week we were scheduled to talk about peer pressure.  I had to extend the lesson because my kiddos had so much to say about the topic.  We discussed all kinds of situations where a 6th grader might experience peer pressure, and we practiced saying no and other ways to handle it.

One of the tactics we discussed for handling peer pressure was "find an acceptable alternative".  This is where someone peer pressures you and you decline and suggest something more acceptable.  We all brainstormed and the kids came up with the universal excuse: the smoothie.

It's pretty genius if you ask me, and it works in almost every situation.  Examples:

***You're at the mall and all of your friends decide to shoplift scrunchies* from Claire's.***
"Cool, you guys do that.  I'm going to head to the food court for a smoothie.  Who's coming with me?"

***Everyone is going behind Price Chopper to smoke after school.***
"Sorry, I've got plans to go to Smoothie King.  Want to come?"

***You've been invited to a party with alcohol.***
"Beer's not really my thing, I'd much prefer a smoothie.  Let's hit up Starbucks instead!"

***You are being pressured into having sex.***
"No thanks.  Let's go get a smoothie instead."

See what I mean?  And yes, I did have to talk about sex... and yes it was awkward as hell... but I held it together and acted like the mature adult I'm supposed to be!

I'd love to travel back in time and see if the smoothie excuse would actually work when I was peer pressured into smoking.  I just said yes, because smoking was cool.  At least that's what I was told.

And that is one Nicky story I don't share with my students. :)

*If middle school is any indicator of fashion trends, the scrunchie is back in a big way.  Get excited!!!