A few weeks ago I played hooky from my day job to go and do an art project with the Roaring Rockets pre-school class. My daughter is their tiniest classmate, though definitely not their youngest. What can I say? I make 'em Fun Sized.
The Roaring Rockets' theme that week was "All About My Body", so I brought in some make-a-person collage kits for them: construction paper backgrounds and heads, and tiny shirts and pants made of the spare scrapbook paper and origami paper I was looking to offload. The pre-school contributed their own glue and magic markers. I also provided a model for them to work by (shown in the lower left, below).
And here is what my kid created:
Being in pre-school with a cohesive group of 14 itsy bitsy people was the most joyful, wondrous, surprising, FUN experience. Nobody roared and there were no actual rockets. I think their collages are really fabulous, too! Each kid did his or her collage in the most orderly, peaceful, jolly, cooperative way that I believe can only happen through the magic of pre-school peer pressure. I mean, my kid is a really good kid and she likes this kind of activity but I'm telling you, if I led this same project with her one-on-one I'm not 100% positive we'd actually complete it together in one sitting. It is also particularly hard for her to put away her toys without 13 other tiny people also putting away toys at the same time; she will agitate for the more fun alternative she cooks up. I think the next time I want the house tidied up I'm gonna have to find a small army of three-year-olds, I tell you what.
In all seriousness, though, our time here is so limited. Our time with our children is even more limited. I don't want to blink and have it all be over and find myself regretting that I didn't spend my daughter's childhood being the mom I wanted to be. As a grownup, I've always worked like a dog and I really like working, but I am determined to find some way, even if it means going out on unpaid leave for a little bit, even if it means being looked at funny by other professionals, to volunteer at the pre-school once a month for as long as my kid is there. It's gonna be a blast.
