Ellie (age five): Mommy! Hanna and I are getting along awesome!
Statements like these make me very nervous. The fact that it need be verbalized tells me this is a rarity and I should expect a summer with a lot of tattle tailing, begging and pleading not to be tattled on, a few Band-Aids and threats of throwing the t.v. out the window if such behaviour persists with the occasional, “Mommy! We’re getting along awesome!” A statement that will force me to pause, collect my thoughts and embrace every ounce of togetherness we have because any second, there may be an explosive tattling.
Parents were invited to join the kindergarten class for a last-day-of-school picnic and I was once again delighted to have the opportunity to participate in my child’s academic life. Unfortunately, my water bottle tipped in my lunch bag making my wrap soggy and it was anything but delicious. It had me questioning which one of us was in JK.
My daughter was quick to welcome me to the school upon arrival but equally fast at dumping me for the next best thing, recess. I sat, visiting with a couple of other JK parents until our presence seemed unnecessary, even awkward and we packed it in. It occurred to me one of the teacher’s gifts I sent along was a gift basket with an assortment of mixed nuts. I hope it made it past the detectors.
The teacher gift also got me thinking about how collections are started. If one teacher for example is given a thimble with the words, “I love a good thimble” etched in the glass, from that day forward, students both past and present will be giving that teacher an end-of-year thimble to add to his or her newly appointed collection whether they ever had an affinity for thimbles or not.
It could be as simple as asking your child what the teacher might really enjoy for an end-of-year gift and having the child respond, “I know she really likes thimbles.” Why? Because she has twenty-nine of them lined up across the front of her desk.
One of my kids told me we should get her teacher some food because she told the class she was running out. Hmmm.
The other teacher appears to have an affinity for wind chimes. Wait. Does she have sixteen wind chimes dangling from every corner of the classroom because she can’t get enough of them or are they at school and not in her home because like the thimble, somebody started an unwanted collection and everybody jumped on.
Gifts cards it is.
