This past Thursday, I was dreading going to Patrick’s nature class. I asked myself, “Can we just skip going today, after all we would only be missing one class?” We were running a little behind on time and I felt that our calendar had been full of engagements lately. I had also worked the night before and I was tired, but that is not entirely the reason why I did not want to go. I did not want to go because while Patrick has many great qualities, he does not always do what he is supposed to do in class.
I know those characteristics are typical of children who are his age but he also seems to get into more stuff than the other kids in his class. Sometimes I get tired of saying, “Please stop sucking on that water bottle, it’s not yours,” and then apologizing to the parent who the water bottle belongs to. Also while his teacher is very nice and she has ideas for activities children could do if they do not want to do the main activity, Patrick mostly just wants to dump water from one container to another. This sometimes works because water often seems to be involved in the activities that we do. However, he is less interested on weeks were the activity is more craft based, like a few weeks ago when we read a book about yarn and wrapped items in the park in yarn.
Sometimes the main activity during class plays very nicely to Patrick’s interests. A week and a half ago, we participated in a Halloween themed lesson that involved making wands and broom out of sticks then riding our brooms to an area where we made potions. Potion making involved a lot of dumping of liquids and adding spices and baking soda (I mean magic dust) to our cauldron and watching it bubble.
So I really did not know what to except when I decided that we would indeed go to class on Thursday. Truth be told, I was in a little bit of a bad mood about it. I was on the fence; would this be fun or would I regret going?
As I drove to the park where the class is held I reminded myself of a few things:
- I am lucky to have the privilege of being a stay-at-home parent.
- I am lucky that our van has gas and can take us to class
- I am glad that Patrick and I are in good health and can attend class
- I am glad that it is a beautiful, fairy warm day in October and class is outside
Yet, I was still unsure I wanted to be there when I arrived at the park where the class was held. I was still unsure I wanted to be there when I found out our main activity was making a decoupage lantern by painting glue on a jar and putting squares of tissue paper and leaves on the jar. I was still unsure I wanted to be there when Patrick sat with me for less than a minute then got up to dump his glue into another bucket. That is when I decided to lean into the chaos.
When he got up to play with his teacher’s wagon, I decided to go with it. I sat nearby and watched as he found some measuring cups and pretended to pour water from the large watering jug on its side into the cups. Shortly, thereafter at least 3 other toddlers from his class joined him. I decided that instead of stopping him, I would just take pictures and enjoy watching them play. I didn’t even try to redirect him. At one point he left the water station and dumped out a container of black walnuts, which I later learned belonged to the teacher’s son. So I apologize to the son and just picked them up and put them back into the container.
Snack and wrap up came early that day because it seemed all the children’s mind’s were elsewhere. Usually, I dread snack time because Patrick likes to get up and “sample” what other kids are eating even though we always have plenty of snacks. Mostly, parents are willing to share. However, sometimes other children get mad when he tries to take some of their snack. On Thursday though, it went better for us. He stayed in my lap the entire time as if he sensed that I had decided to lean in to it all and he in-turn decided to lean in to me.
Class ended early that day as I am sure that Miss Lindsey could tell that minds were elsewhere. So Patrick and I went down to the bridge that crossed the stream nearby. He threw handfuls of leaves in the stream and I watched for a while.
Then he climbed a stump and posed for pictures.
We were having a good time. It was nice to be outside after all and we ended up having a good time in class. Maybe this is what our nature class was all about, just being together and enjoying the outdoors.
I put the lantern down that we worked on in class and took a picture while we were playing.
I was glad I leaned in. We had a nice morning. But then something happened. Look at the picture above and see if you can guess what happened? Let’s just say the lantern was not long for this world. . .
It didn’t ruin our morning, but it did cause me to think that maybe I relaxed and leaned into the chaos a little too much. Great work Mom!
If you have children do you sometimes dread going to their programs? What do you do to get yourself there when you don’t want to go? Reply in the comment section.
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