The Kindergartener had her first homework assignment over the weekend, and to be honest… I was just a little too excited about it. Her teacher has a cute honey bee theme for the classroom this year, so in step with that theme, she wanted everyone to decorate their own honeycomb with pictures or drawings of their family, favorite activities, colors, sports, etc. Then, she would display them all together on the wall to show how everyone is unique and yet everyone has a place where they “bee”-long. So sweet. And, simple enough.
Except that I’m me and I have to make everything more complicated than it should be. So says the Spouse.
In typical “I work better under pressure” fashion, I waited until Sunday evening to start this project with the Kindergartener. I let her choose the pictures she wanted to feature on her honeycomb, and she wrote her name, carefully practicing her lower-case letters. All was going pretty well until it occurred to me that this was going to look like a decoupage craft gone awry if we didn’t step it up a little and add some flair with a ribbon for a border and some three dimensional elements here and there. And, I’ll just go ahead and admit it. This is when I started thinking thoughts like… I wonder what all the other kids’ honeycombs will look like? What if the other moms do scrapbooking? Theirs will look amazing. Because we all know no kindergartener is doing this by him or herself… And, in that moment, what should have been nothing more than a fun little project for the Kindergartener and me to work on together became a competition in my head. I tweaked each picture. I “helped” glue everything in its proper place. I even added an embellishment long after the Kindergartener had gone to bed.
I know, I know. It’s shameful.
Here’s the conversation I had with the Spouse somewhere around 11 PM Sunday night as I was stressing over whether or not the honeycomb was complete…
The Spouse: You know you can’t do this with every project she brings home.
Me: Yes, I know. But, this was our first art project! I mean her first art project.
The Spouse: You’ve really got to stop now. You know you have three children. You cannot do this with every assignment. Let it go.
And, this is when I had to remind myself that I am not in Kindergarten. I am in my thirties. I had my nineteen or twenty years of formal education and now my role has switched from one of being a student to one of being a parent. And, I’d really like to be a mature one. One who does not pass every perfectionistic and obsessive-compulsive tendency onto her children by way of example. One who enjoys the process as much as the product. One who can let her five year old daughter glue a picture onto her honeycomb without feeling the need to adjust it so it will be straight. And, one who can do this without needing a nerve pill.
I have a long way to go.
Fortunately for the Preschooler, her art projects are still done at school where she can complete them as she wishes and on her own time without my overbearing assistance. And, speaking of school… she had her first day back at preschool yesterday, and in stark contrast to last year, she could hardly wait to get there.
Her only complaint was that her backpack was “so hebby” {as in, “so heavy”}. I’m not sure how that’s possible since it was empty, but I suppose any bag that measures half the size of one’s body might feel a bit cumbersome.
Also, this wild woman had her first day in the infant class where she’ll be going for six hours one day a week…
I was relieved to hear that she did OK. And, I love that her rest time was carefully recorded below.
Please note that she rested from 11:00-11:23 AM.
That sounds about right. And, that, my friends, is why our house is a wreck, phone calls go unreturned, emails go unanswered, and my bedtime has been bumped up several hours.
Someone around here has to have enough energy to keep up with her and her sisters… and still do all these kindergarten art projects.
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