"Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning." ~ Proverbs 9:9
Volunteering at school has been the easiest place to plug
in. No matter what community we have
lived in, no matter what grade the kids are in school, no matter how big or
small the school is, parents are needed.
Serving at school feels a little selfish to me, actually. Mostly I’m there to snoop on my kids.
Yeah, I’m totally supposed to be wandering
down this hallway!
It’s also beneficial for
school staff to meet me when I’m Mama Llama (chill, no drama) instead of Mama
Bear (she said what????!!!?).
Usually the task is feeding children.
Parties.
Reward days.
Field trips.
Game day.
Practices.
“Can someone bring
4,082 finger sandwiches to feed a small (and ravenous) army? Thanks!”
There was this one time that I thought I
could channel some other Pinterest mom.
I saw the cutest little Halloween treats: oranges that had been cored
and cut like tiny little jack-o-lanterns and then filled with chocolate pudding,
and bananas that were dipped in white chocolate and decorated with mini
chocolate chips to look like ghosts.
It’s when you are making such cute items that you realize over-crowding
in classrooms is a real issue.
Me to
teacher: How many students are in J’s class?
Teacher: 28
Me: *silence*…because I’m thinking I was
planning to make less than 20.
Me: Do
you think they will all be there?
The
ghostly bananas didn’t make it. Mama
Llama went to sleep sometime around 9pm leaving Mama Zombie alone with those
poor ghosts. But the pumpkin shaped
oranges got made. There needed to be a
warning on the instructions that said something like:
WARNING: the use of tiny
objects to cut 90 tiny triangles into 30 tiny oranges will destroy the use of
your hands for anything purposeful for the next 3 days.
I was so stinkin’ proud of the oranges. Especially after the demise of the
bananas. I brought them to class. I had really prepared myself by practicing my
humble reception of all the compliments, the need to walk them to other classrooms
for others to see, the exclamation of the other kids when they saw how awesome
J’s mom was...
The second graders were
in recess when I brought to the room, so it was actually a bit of let
down. I stuck them on the table with all
the other treats. Some moms had done
some pretty cute things with pretzels and rice krispies. But chocolate pudding filled orange
jack-o-lanterns were singularly unique, healthy-(er), and SO CUTE. I lingered for as long as I could without
making the other teachers nervous, hoping they would come back in and I could
take credit for all of J’s friends who would be enamored of the adorable and
tasty treat. But alas. They were at the longest recess of school
history. So I left them there. I had to wait out the rest of the day, but
finally the bus rolled to a stop in front of the house and his big toothy grin
met my smile.
“Hey! How was the party?”
“It was great! Can I go play with
Nathan?”
“Yeah, in a minute. Were there cool snacks?”
“Yeah, we got to eat candy!! Can I wear my costume to Nathan’s
house?”
(This was not going at all like
expected).
“Did you see the little
mini-jack-o-lanterns I brought?”
*silence*
“I don’t know what that is.”
Now, I’m assuming that some other parent or
teacher has stolen them, taken them to their room because they lacked enough
cute treats. But I doubled down, just to
be sure. “I brought a bunch of oranges
cut to look like jack-o-lanterns filled with chocolate pudding. Did you eat those?”
“What’s a jackalantern?”
“Like pumpkin faces, only they were oranges.”
“Oh yeah. Those were gross. Can I go to Nathan’s now?”
Sigh. Why am I doing this again?
When kiddo #4 had Halloween party number #73, I had learned
my lesson. Rice Krispie treats with
orange icing is two thumbs up. And kudos
to the mom who pulled off the ghost bananas.
I loved them, even if the kids didn’t.
This past week I brought lunch to the high school show choir
team during their boot camp week. I did
the real super mom thing: I picked up Chickfila that had been previously
ordered and delivered it to students who were waiting outside. Then I snuck in the door and wandered down
the hall. This place…where my kids spend
most of their waking hours. I still get
lost here. Do they? I see some teachers’ names on doors I
recognize, but many I don’t. I see
evidence of a custodial staff who probably works many hours for not enough pay
to keep the building from looking (and smelling) like my son’s bedroom. I try to imagine them moving in the flow of
hundreds of other teens. I try not to
imagine the potential dangers that may lurk these halls. I whisper prayers for
protection, for patience, for favor. I
make it to the practice room and I hear the instructions being given to the
kids. It sounds like a lot of hard
work. A girl who is late to practice
rushes past me and pushes open the practice door and I take advantage of her
entrance to go all the way in. They are
working hard. Suddenly I wish I had more
than Chickfila to give them. The kids
see me and recognize me.
“Hey mom!”
several of the kids shout! “Did you
bring us something?”
“I brought my
admiration!” I quip to them. The teacher
waves me over, asks if I can help with one more thing.
“Of course!”
She thinks I’m serving.
She
thinks I’m somehow sacrificing time in my day to help her. And maybe I am. But more than likely I am just soaking up the
love that simple acts of kindness bring our way.
“Yes,” I say, “Tuesday is my ‘serve
day’. Any Tuesday that I can help, I
want to. Let me know what you
need.”
She acts like that’s a huge
gift. It’s not. What she does is the gift. I’m just crashing the party and enjoying the
fun. 
Did you know that you don’t have to have kids in school to
volunteer at your local school? Now, you
can’t just show up and walk into a classroom…to many weird school happenings in
recent years. But you can go to your
neighborhood school office and tell them you would like to volunteer. There are days to read to kids, field days
that need water station hosts, test days that need proctors. Most elementary schools have learning labs
where at-risk students require one-on-one tutoring and you can volunteer to
work with a student each week in that setting.
Booster clubs need supporters, athletes need fans, and our communities
need light. No chocolate-filled
jack-o-lantern oranges required.
No comments:
Post a Comment