I’M JUST CURIOUS: My mother’s like this….

by Debbie Walker

We will get to the “Mother” part of this story but first we’ll do the background.

Most of you know I am part of the Foster Grandparent Program and I volunteer in a first and second grade class. I think I have mentioned before how much I enjoy the kids and the teacher. Today I had an amazing experience.

I walked in the classroom to find a gift bag on my table. I opened up the card to find a note from the mother and a note from her child, one of our students.

The mother spoke of her child and that she knew her child enjoyed spending time with me. I believe the sentence that really got to me was she said he always has a smile on his face when he talks about me. She thanked me for all I do. His note was thanking me for being there in his class.

Tears were building up in the corners of my eyes as I finished reading. It got worse when I opened the gifts. There were two gifts in that bag. One was a beautiful little fairy sitting and holding a gem in her hand. The other gift was a fairy cottage that even lights up. They are beautiful. Then I really had to work at holding back the tears. I was hoping the kids would all go outside without seeing me break down in tears!

My main reason for telling this story is because, without their names for privacy, I would like to honor both mother and child with this writing.

Maybe I shared with you about how I read these kids a couple of the fairy stories I’ve written. My stories do not have illustrations yet. I told them to close their eyes and use their imagination to “see” the story. That’s a lot to ask of kids in this age bracket. They did wonderful! Their teacher looked in on us because the kids were all so quiet. After the story they asked to have time to draw the things they “saw.”

The pictures they drew were so cute! One of them, this boy, drew a picture of the house, a sun and the tree of “Apple Tree Notch,” home of the Bailey family fairies from my series. He gave his drawing to me and said, “Will you draw in the fairies and their friends.” So we finished it and he took the original home to show Mom.

The thing that truly inspired me to write this is the thoughtfulness and understanding of this Mom. It was months ago that we did the activity and yet Mom had not forgotten.

Mom understood that her son has a “connection” over something to me. “Connection” is a term they learned this year to connect them to different aspects of a story. To me this Mom is amazing and will help her son travel miles over the educational highways of his life. With Mothers like this there is hope for all of our futures.

I’m just curious the “trip” this boy will have with the obvious understanding of his Mom. I love questions and comments!! Contact me at dwdaffy@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading!! Don’t forget we are also on line.