Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2008. It was grandparents day at Mattie's school. Honestly back then, I thought there would be MANY more days like this, and yet something told me.... you better volunteer on this day so you can be a part of the festivities. THANK goodness I did, because it was our first and last grandparents day, and I would not have wanted to miss this precious moment in time. My parents flew in from Los Angeles to attend the event and I have to say that Mattie's school truly knew how to host an impressive event. This photo was taken by an easel in Mattie's kindergarten classroom. Mattie's work was hanging on the easel and he wanted to make sure we saw it.
Quote of the day: Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn. ~ Benjamin Franklin
But I wasn't going to let my little friend down. I know from my experience with Mattie, that grandparents day is important and kids look forward to sharing their classroom and their work with a family member or special friend.
As soon as I entered the event, I tried NOT to compare it to how Mattie's school hosts such an event. But I apologize, I was UNABLE TO! Mattie's school made the event super special, had a catered breakfast under a large tent on the field, there was a concert, and we could freely move about the classrooms and interact with all the teachers.
Turner's school was a bit different and much more prescriptive, had bad people flow, and the manner in which they served coffee and Danish this morning was unappealing to me. Long lines also don't thrill me. The way the schedule went was we had a 30 minute greeting in the auditorium. We heard from the head of the school, then we heard from about twenty students, heard the school's motto and song, and then was prepped for how the rest of the morning would go. I thought it was interesting that family members couldn't interact with all the teachers. We were assigned to visit the home room class and ONE specialty class. In my case, my specialty class was a tour of the library.
While in the auditorium, I sat next to one woman who had to younger than me, as she was a parent of elementary school children. In any case, she called me a "grandmother." THAT DID NOT SIT WELL WITH ME and I instantly corrected her. I may be tired, but I am NOT grandma material yet. So she ticked me off, which is how I started my day.
The homeroom teacher gave each child a checklist. We had five centers within the room that we had to visit. It was very organized as we had to visit these areas in order and we spent ten minutes in each place. After ten minutes was up, the teacher hit a mallet against a metal xylophone. That triggered the kids to instantly get quiet and to pay attention to her instructions. In any case, I got to see how the kids are learning to draw, read, count, and explore creatively. This part of the day was very interesting and it was great to see Turner's excitement over sharing these activities with me.
Later in the morning, I visited the school's library with Turner and his class. The librarian read a cute book (about a kid babysitting his grandmother!) to all of us and then we got to walk around the library together, pick a book, and read two chapters within it. We were at the library for about thirty minutes and then headed back to the homeroom class. At that point, the teacher asked the kids to sit in a circle and then reflect on what the highlight of the day with their grandparent/friend was for them. Fortunately I have LOTS of experience with this age group, as I used to teach an art series for kindergarteners at Mattie's school. I did this for SEVEN years after Mattie died. I actually loved it and I love this age group. They are eager to learn, soak up information, and I learn from their creativity. So today's reflections did not surprise me at all. Kids feed off of one another and embellish their responses based on what the previous child says!
After my school experience, I came home, and jumped right back into caregiving mode. I took my parents out to lunch and going out with my dad is becoming more challenging. He is fogged out, extremely tired (though he rested for hours today while I was at the school), chokes on his food, eats way too fast, and then while I am eating, he had to run to the bathroom. By the time I got him in the bathroom, he had a bowel movement already, so I had to clean him in the restroom. Most people would have been disgusted by this point and unable to continue eating. But I went back to the table, ate and had a melt down. I literally got so upset with both of my parents, I removed myself from the table for five minutes to regroup.
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