During the great room reorganization the girls found an array of small treasures in the nooks and crannies of their rooms. As they began to toss them into the trash can I thought of the waste we were creating with all of these trinkets. If you are a parent you know the things I'm talking about - the Happy Meal toys if you will. For a family that doesn't do drive through dinner we sure have amassed a collection of small toys. It seems that you don't need to be into fast food to earn such prizes - kids are given countless palm sized doodads just for plodding along through life. Then parents and kids are faced with the dilemma - are these trash or treasure? Feeling guilty about sending the gems to a landfill, I bagged them up and came up with a brilliant idea. I would give them to Ms. C.
After spending a kindergarten year with each of the girls in Ms. C's classroom, I knew very well that she has a prize box to which kids earn access for various good behaviors. We were the recipients of many treasures in our 2 years! Stocking her box seemed like a fabulous way to give back and say thanks to Ms. C for getting both girls off to a fabulous start in elementary school.
Today we handed over the bag of goodies and chatted with Ms. C for awhile. It was fun to reminisce with her about Shayla being in kindergarten and to celebrate the fact that Shayla is now the big kid on campus. Ms. C has taught countless 5 year old kids through the years yet she has a way of making my girls feel special each time she sees them. After posing for a photo, she thanked us for thinking of her before trashing the treasures. Let's hope the parents of the current kindergarten students are equally thrilled to find their little one's backpack filled with loot!
I often comment that Aliyah's toybox is like a woman's purse....when you shake it to the side there are massive amounts of treasures to be had! I bring those into my job (at a preschool) for our prize box, so I can totally relate :)
ReplyDeleteAmber