third grade.
i remember my own experience in third grade vividly. i had mrs. wellman as a teacher and i loved watching her draw cursive letters on the chalkboard. the fluidity of her hand as she carefully formed her loops that magically turned into letters is still fresh in my mind. i still can hear her voice reading aloud from the boxcar children after lunch and remember the mental movie that she created for me. i loved getting lost in the adventures of henry, jessie, violet and their little brother benny. i remember my third grade love and playing kickball at recess. the memories are magnificent. shortly after winter break mrs. wellman became ill. they found cancer. she was out for the next few months getting treatment. i believe that she returned at the end of the year for a few weeks, but i remember those months being hard... missing her... being still little and not understanding things like cancer.
this year, my e had a similar experience. our first day of school began with her teacher going to the hospital with a severe medical condition. she left school shortly after the kids arrived and didn't return until january. it was a difficult school year. we are so thankful she made it through her ordeal. we feel so special to have had her as our "teacher" (aka: step-momma, recess situation handler, daily dose of smiles, beautiful calmer and comforter, math mentor, writing coach, project planner, mental challenger, smiler, read-a-loud extraordinaire... etc. etc. etc. you know... teacher). it is hard to let her go. it is difficult to walk away. i miss the comfort of her already.
third grade has been fun for my e. i believe it is fair to say that this is the year that her personality spiked. she went from being e, to being E. i know i've already told you all my momma dotes, so i will spare you from doing so two posts in a row.
instead, i'll share two highlights from this year from the momma perspective. these are two things i want to carve into the mental archive and retain forever and ever.
the weeks leading up to summer i asked e what sort of lunchbox she wanted for third grade. i showed her a few options on-line, thinking she would choose one, we could click "order" and then move on. no. this was not to be. she loathed each and every one of them. (really? how does one loathe a lunch bag? i promise. my E did.)
plan b. i took her to the mall and showed her the plethora of options that pb kids had to offer. (one of these overpriced little numbers was certain to fit the bill, right?)
no. they were too pink, or too chunky, or too girly or too... lunch boxy.... or whatever she said. (who can i remember? i was too busy running out of time and scratching my head trying to figure out why such a little thing was becoming such a big thing.)
plan c. i took her to a local cooking store with some options.
i should probably interject at this point that i might have been part of my own issue. if i am clear, i did have my own list of criteria for the lunch bag that needed to be met. everything i needed, E did not desire.
anywho... we found a suitable little number (that was uber expensive) at plan c. i was exasperated and e knew she was pushing my buttons. she chose one half heartily and we moved on.
"are you sure you are going to like this one? you're going to use it for the entire year, you know!"said her
she hated it almost as soon as we left the till.
(oy. and this is only one of my three children. help me rhonda!)
she lost her lunch tote before the end of september. lucky for this momma, our lunch crew has a pretty fool proof system for recovering lost lunch sacks. it turned up a few days later. she swiftly lost it again. and again it turned up. i was beginning to think this was deliberate. i refreshed her memory about our chat in the store at the till. again she lost it. again it was returned. she lost it once more, just before the holiday break. it has not been seen since.
and what's a mom to do? i had already told her twice that this was her means of lunch transportation for the year. a momma must be true to her word. and so true to my word i was. i offered her the old school sack until the bag was found.
just to make the sack even less desirable than apple dents in your pb&j and warm cheese products and leaky corners, i began to draw pictures on the sack signed by moi.
epic fail.
she (and the littles) began to fall in love with the drawings. every morning they would anticipate the big lunch bag reveal. they would giggle and poke fun at moms lack of artistic ability. when i would write her loving notes she would give the obligatory, "aw mom!", while grinning from ear to ear.
it became our love language. and so i declare third grade the year of the retro lunch sack- adorned with terrible art and conveying daily messages or adoration for my E.
(i can't wait to go lunch bag shopping in august- said this mother NEVER.)
the second memory that i want to preserve is that of my first emails with my girl. in september she saved up a boatload of money and bought herself a tablet. i kid you not. i told her i wouldn't buy one for her, her dad echoed my sentiments and she declared she would save up and get one herself. and get one herself she did. in order to set up the tablet an email account was needed. we decided to let this be her big moment and give her one of her own, with the caveat that she couldn't really use it.
recently, she asked me to show her how email worked as she looked over my shoulder while i was composing a message. i decided it might be time to give this a whirl and loosen the reigns a wee bit. i sent her an email.
she replied.
i sent her a message back.
she responded.
what does emailing with your third grader look like? well, check it out below. here are some excerpts from a recent exchange:
me:
her:
me:
i giggle every time that i see her name in my inbox.
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