Kindergarten with Mrs. K

I apologize that it’s been so long since my last post. After our Halloween festivities, Baby Girl developed a high fever, and our house has been under a cloud of sickness from which we are just now emerging - Hand, Foot and Mouth disease to be exact. Baby Girl got it, OBB had it and even I got it. The worst part of the virus is the blisters that form on your feet and hands several days after the fever goes away. Two weeks later, we are still dealing with the remnants of those.

One development that I haven’t written about yet on my blog is a new position I’ve accepted – Room Mother in OBB’s Kindergarten class. I have thoroughly enjoyed it so far and am so thankful I can experience it. In addition to organizing the parents’ participation in events like the Thanksgiving Feast at school, every Monday, while Baby Girl is in preschool, I volunteer for two hours in OBB’s class. I work with the children on reading, writing and art projects. Most of them refer to me as Mrs. Beatles.

I love being in OBB’s class because it provides me the opportunity to see him in action at school: how he interacts with his peers and how he handles school work. It gives me perspective and helps explain why he is so exhausted when he gets home in the afternoon. They simply do not stop there. Their day is filled with group activities, work at centers, crafts, reading, writing in their notebooks, math games, resource (art, music, computer lab), and lots of opportunities for social development. It’s almost like Kindergarten is the happy, safe place your child starts in school, to be followed later by higher grades like first grade, when they dive off into the stark reality of school and homework.

I really like OBB’s teacher – she’s no nonsense in the gentlest way. She has a wonderful sense of humor, and she assumes complete control of the class without ever yelling. She exudes relentless optimism and teaches each day led by a strong held belief that every child is capable of success.

When it comes to my participation in the class, it is important to note that I am NOT a crafty person. Play Doh never sees the light of day at my house. I do NOT own a glue gun. However, Mrs. K, OBB’s teacher, is expanding my horizons when it comes to crafts. In the few weeks I have volunteered this fall, I have wielded a glue gun to make Christmas trivets, rolled marbles in paint and then over paper to make speckled fall leaves, and painted more hands to make handprints than I can count (handprint turkeys, handprint angels). When I was first faced with the prospect of painting with 21 five-year-olds, I think my horrified expression pretty much gave me away. Mrs. K, in her serene kindergarten prowess, simply smiled and said, “Don’t worry. It’s Kindergarten. You can’t mess up.” See what I mean? It’s that kind of encouragement…that kind of quiet confidence in the ability of others that leaves me delighted that she is OBB’s teacher.