Yesterday I was the Mystery Reader for Tim’s class. I showed up at 2pm with a great spooky book, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. It’s full of noises and actions- perfect for first graders.
Immediately I was told by 20 six year olds that they’d just read the same book at Library two days ago. Apparently the school libarian thought it was perfect for first graders, too. I put a good spin on it, told them I was glad they knew the story because I needed help telling it, and they all got into it with me. I love that stuff!
After the story I pulled out the craft I’d brought along, those foam doorknob hangers in Frankenstein head and Haunted House shapes, and foam spooky shapes to stick onto them. Tim’s teacher started to panic when she was imagining glue sticks and messes… until I assured her they were all stickers and the only mess would be a whole lot of paper backings on the floor.
We were just finishing the door hangers when the fire alarm went off- I’d been warned there was going to be a drill. I stuck around through the drill just because I didn’t want Tim to get concerned if I disappeared (not that he’d even notice, probably.)
Tim’s door hanger
Today is the Halloween parade. In our town it’s tradition for all the kids in the elementary school to go home for lunch and come back to school in costume for the parade and parties in the afternoon. As the years go by we have more and more kids in the school and fewer and fewer go home, and I was sure this year they’d skip the whole thing, since the school property is basically a huge construction site with little parking. The teachers actually park in the lot of a nearby store and walk a path cut through a field to get to the school.
But, tradition is tradition so the kids are going home to change. I was tempted to leave Tim at school. His costume is a sweatshirt and a hat so not a difficult one to assemble, but I figured I really don’t have a good reason outside of lazyness to park 3/4 of a mile away and walk over to bring him home, then go back and do the same again to return him for the parade. Only two more years of this…