Homework

Last month Junior started school. He is in pre kindergarten. The program is 5 days a week and each Friday the children are given a homework assignment. So far every week has had a color theme to it. The homework assignment pertains to what the following weeks' color will be. On Friday Junior was given a piece of paper that had the outline of a pumpkin on it. Junior was to use an orange peel to paint his pumpkin orange. He could add accessories to it as long as they were orange.

Most Fridays I encourage Junior to complete his assignments right away so that we can enjoy the weekend and not think about homework. But this Friday was different. Monday was a holiday so I enjoyed knowing that we had some extra time to work on things. We decided to order a pizza and watch, "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

On Saturday the weather was beautiful so we spent the day decorating the house for Halloween, raking leaves, jumping into the leaves, and going to the park.

Sunday was another beautiful day and we went to pumpkin patches, we went on hayrides, we went to the petting zoo, and we bought our Halloween costumes.

Suddenly it's Monday and we still have not started the homework assignment. But the dilemena is that it's another gorgeous fall day and we still have not gone apple picking. So we head off the orchards.

Monday evening rolls around when we discover that we need to make a quick trip to the grocery store to buy an orange to paint the pumpkin with. While at the store Junior describes to me how he is going to decorate his pumpkin. Immediately I was amazed at how much thought he put into this project. And I realized that he must have been thinking about this over the weekend.

So we set off home to start collecting orange leaves to make a wreath around the pumpkin with. And Junior practiced making circles so that he could draw an orange sun to shine down on his pumpkin. And on Tuesday morning I could not have been more proud of him. His pumpkin showed off just how creative he is (and just how good of a procrastinator I am.)

Junior refused to put his pumpkin into his backpack. He was very concerned about the leaves falling off or the pumpkin's face getting ruined. So he proudly carried it onto the playground. He was approached by one of his friends to play tag. Junior's face was beaming when he said to his friend, "C, do you like my pumpkin?" C took one look at the paper and said, "that sucks, my pumpkin is better."

I could see the disappointment in Junior's face. He handed me the paper and asked me to hold it while he chased his friends around the playground.

My heart broke for my son who put so much effort into making something wonderful. Something that he was so excited to show off to his friends and his teacher. I decided that I was going to kick C's ass! The nerve of this insensitive child telling my baby that his art project sucks! Who does this kid think he is anyway!?!

I continued fuming for the next 2 1/2 hours while I waited to go and pick Junior up from school. I had to tell him how awesome his pumpkin was. But more importantly I wanted to know exactly what C's pumpkin looked like so I could tell Junior how bad it sounded. I would tell Junior that it sounds like C's pumpkin sucked.

Junior enjoyed his afternoon at school. He told that he learned that red and yellow make orange. The kids all practiced mixing the paints together. Junior had the proof on his hands that red and yellow do indeed make orange.

I asked him if Ms. Eileen liked his pumpkin and he excitedly told me that she loved it. He told me that a lot of the other kids used leaves to decorate their pumpkins as well. I asked him what C's pumpkin looked like and I was ready to make a snide remark at how bad it probably was.

"It was orange."

So I poked a little more, "well did he put any leaves on it?"

"Nope, no leaves. It was just orange."

So I poked a little bit more, "well did he make a sun?"

"No Mommy. He just painted it orange."

So I continued poking. This child had to have done something remarkable to his pumpkin.

"No Mommy, C just painted his pumpkin orange. But he can paint very nice."

My eyes welled up with tears. Thank God for my sensitive son who continues to amaze me everyday! And as for me, well I definitely can stand to learn a lesson or two from my four year old!