I should know better.
I’m the Mom of 4, a Grandma to 9… and I taught high school English and Reading for 30 years.
But it happened again. Just like it always does… the discovery that kids remember the simplest, the most spontaneous, the most unplanned plans.
This time it happened with Alex, my 5-year old grandson. His 3 brothers were off to first grade and pre-school. Alex is in Kindergarten, afternoon session, and my daughter Audrey had asked me if he could hang around with me for a couple of hours on Wednesday morning.
Why, of course!
Alex and I returned some books to my local library. We grabbed an iced coffee and chocolate milk at Dunkin’ Donuts (uh, oh… don’t tell Mommy about the chocolate milk!). We went to the local playground where we had the entire playground to ourselves…
Yes, Alex remembered all the details from the Initial Tree.
Then we headed back to my house. Alex announced that I should learn to play Mario Bros. on the Wii. This is like asking me to drive blindfolded, but I reluctantly excitedly accepted his invitation to teach me…
After 9 games, I actually won one by the slimmest of margins…
I don’t think Alex will ever forget teaching me to be a winning Yellow Mushroom, even if he won 8 games to my 1.
But the biggest surprise in the remembering department was yet to come.
Alex was hungry and asked for pasta. No problem.
I did my thing with the pot and water and pasta (well, after he examined the box of Penne di Rigatino to make sure it was what he liked).
When it was done cooking, Alex excitedly said, “Grandma, remember when we made lasagna and you drained the noodles and your glasses got all steamed up? That was the funnest thing ever!”
Um. I remembered making lasagna…
But Alex had remembered even more than I had imagined on that extraordinary ordinary Tuesday afternoon. He had remembered my steamy glasses.
As this was running through my mind, Alex was talking a-mile-a-minute. “Grandma, can we do that again? Can I wear your glasses? Can you steam me?”
Why, of course!
And we did…
Steamy eye-glasses. It’s that simple. It’s THAT extraordinary.
You can give kids the world… but what do they remember?
Initials in a tree. A Yellow Mushroom win. Steamy eye-glasses.
Each moment is such a great surprise to kids. I should know better… !
Oh, how I love this! I love how kids find the extraordinary in the ordinary!
Just more reinforcement that you should let the kids take the lead and don’t try to over-orchestrate their lives – you’ll be amazed at what happens when their creativity kicks in!
What a great article! And, I agree. As a teacher and a mom, I see a lot of kids that are showered with “things” and not much else, so I make a point to incorporate fun, responsibility, manners, and independence into both my career and our home life. The best part is that we’re always learning. All of us.
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