His project or mine?

Uh oh, not a project!

There I was. Opening up my son's daily Kindergarten folder to see the "P" word.

Nooooo....not a "Project"

"Next week, we are having a science hat parade (A What?!?). Your child has a list of science words to choose from. Please build the hat according to the science word (I.e. All parts of a plant: stem, leaves and flowers). We will be wearing them in the halls on Wednesday!"

Cool! One week notice. Ready, Set, Go! 

Go time for mom, that is! After dropping the kids off at school, and fighting traffic, baby girl and I got to go flower shopping for Kasen's project! Well, Reagan mostly tried to pull the flowers apart and eat them. But, that was her way of contributing. 

Later that evening, Kasen helped assemble the glue gun, and cut the flowers with wire cutters (because the stems have wires in them). After that, he must've forgotten about his project because there I was. 9:55 p.m. on Tuesday (the night before the project was due). It made me think about parental involvement in kids' school projects. How much are we supposed to get involved as parents during these times? Obvious to me, Kasen needs help with gathering supplies, and assembling his flowers with hot glue. But, the rest? It's ALL him. I asked him what he wanted to do, and he was very specific. "First, I want a layer of leaves. Then,  I want the hat to have blue flowers. But, they need to be cut short because the are kinda big and bulky. And then, we'll kinda wrap the others around it."Okay. So, I did exactly that. I tailored the hat to his specific instructions. 

It does make me wonder, fear and realize. I wonder if  he were to gather the supplies, assemble the hat and parade it around at school, all by himself, would he be beaming with confidence? Would he feel more accomplished? Crap! I fear what I teach my kids...Am I not teaching confidence to my kid at 6 years old? Don't get me wrong, he has a LOT of it to begin with, and sometimes ends up being a little cocky with attitude. I think that's okay though. Knowing Kasen, he also is that kid who loves attention and stuff. If you are waxing your toes, he wants to wax his toes. If you are eating dirt, he wants to eat dirt too. The kid just wants to be involved in whatever you're doing. In fact, he wants to be involved in everything so much that he starts a project and doesn't complete it before moving on to the next one (We're working on that one!) He gets distracted and finds something else to do.

So here we were. His first project in school. It was a success! WE made something that (I'm sure) was completely original. That's him. Original and different, just like he should be. We had fun, and I'm not sure if next time I'll be able to let go, and let him do it on his own. I'll try, but probably will be standing right around the corner in case he needs me.

 Besides, what's that saying?

 "Behind every great kid, is a mom who's pretty sure she's screwing it up." 

Yep, that fits.

Fantastic plants!

20 Questions with a 5 year old

Have you ever wondered what goes on in a 5 year old's head? Well, stay tuned my friends, because here's what goes through my 5 year old's head...

Kasen, 2012

1. Why do you follow me in and out of rooms throughout the house?
"'Cause you're so pretty. Cause I wanna save you if any thing bad happens."

2. Like what bad thing would happen?
"A bad guy snuck in the house, and I'm strong and then I could kill him for you." (Whoa, buddy! Calm down.)

3. What do you want to be when you grow up?
"A firefighter or a doctor. They both save and help people, and I like that."

4. What makes a mommy a 'good mommy'?
"Everything she does. Making dinner, making cookies, and doing it all in one day cause you've got to be tired with all the stuff that you do. You do everything , but I don't know what else to say about that."

5. What is your favorite thing for us to do together?
"Lay in your room. Then you count to 10 with a big smile, and say "DANCE PARTY!" Then you count to 10 and say "STRAIGHT AS A BOARD ON THE GROUND". And we just do silly stuff like that."

6. What is your favorite song?
"What does the fox say? Mee mee mee mee mee...."

7. How many girlfriends do you have?
"Like almost everybody in my class. Ummmm.....1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Atleast 5."

8.Who will you marry?
"I wanna get married to you, but you already got married before I could ask you! Who else can I marry? Nevermind, I'll just marry you!!!"

9. What will you do as a good husband?
"Help my wife so she doesn't  have to do everything like clean the sink, water the plants and vacuum the carpets. But, sometimes brothers help mommies too."

10. How many secrets do we have?
"Oh, geez. Like over 159."

11.Will you always tell me your secrets? Tell me one now.
"You're my girlfriend MOM! Keep this paper in a secret spot, so that dad will never know our deepest secrets."

12. What is a shenanigan?
"A bad guy that likes to lick."

13. How old do you have to be to go on a date?
"2, HAHAHA, I'm just kidding. I'll probably go when I'm a teenager. So...approximately 14. Oh Mommy! I have an idea. I'll go on a date with you! I'll drive."

14. Cool, where would we go?
"California. To a nice forest to play hide and seek. You can't go far though, so it would be 'close to me and seek.'"

15. If we had missing teeth, what would we eat?
"You could eat anything in a blender. Just put a straw in it and slurrrrp! Steak, chicken, potatoes, cantaloupe, hummus. Anything really."

16.What does mommy say all the time?
"She uses her manners and is nice. Daddy always says stuff out loud and he says it mean. I don't like that."

17. What one nice thing would you do for someone besides family?
"Besides someone in this house?"
Yes.
 "My mimi (grandma) Whatever she was making, I would take over and make it for her.
Even if it was a gigantic elephant out of wire and paper mache?
"I would say 'Stop. Stop, Mimi. You go on and relax. I'll take over for you. You deserve to chill Bill."

18. How will you feel when Reagan has a boyfriend?
"Happy, cause she needs one so she won't be alone and sad." 

We only got to 18. He got distracted and ran to the bathroom. After a hot minute, I went to find him and realized he had emptied out the popcorn container and was filling it with soapy water to keep his 'treasures'. Ahhh...It's just another day with this kid~