Every Friday is Show and Share Friday at Lukas' pre-school.
And every Thursday afternoon, at work, Mrs. LIAYF and I will respectively get an email from the school detailing what the theme is for the next day. It usually follows a theme based on the time of the year or whatever holiday is upcoming. These are themes like Fall or Your Favorite Christmas Present or Something Halloween.
Well, as it turns out both Mrs. LIAYF and I were extremely busy yesterday and didn't get the notification for Friday's theme until late last night. Usually, we can quickly pick something out, stuff it into his backpack and have it taken care of before we are in a rush to get him out the door the next morning. But last night we were stumped. Mrs. LIAYF announced the theme to me, and we just kind of stared at each other wondering what would be appropriate to pack.
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With Valentines coming on Monday, the theme was Love.
Sure, love seems like it wouldn't be too difficult a notion to wrap our heads around and find an appropriate show and share item, but you know what? It surprisingly was. To us it begged the question "What tangible item would constitute the notion of love to Lukas, a 3 year old boy?"
Maybe we could pack one of his toys, we thought. But that really didn't seem right. He doesn't Love any of them. He just plays with them. Then one of us came up with the idea that we could put a picture of the three of us into his backpack for him to show, but we weren't sure if that would be appropriate either. He loves Jelly Beans, but that is an altogether different kind of love. So, being tired and drawing blanks on what to pack, we did what many other parents might do in the same situation. We punted.
We figured we would come up with a better idea in the morning, so we went to bed.
By this morning I had already forgotten about the show and share dilemma. Soon enough 7:15 approached and I had to have Lukas out the door to get to yet another morning meeting. Thankfully Mrs. LIAYF was working from home today and was getting Lukas ready.
As I climbed the stairs to check their progress Mrs. LIAYF presented him a picture of all of us and asked "Do you want to take this picture of Mommy, Daddy, and you for show and share to represent Love?" "No." was his matter-of-fact reply. Mrs. LIAYF had already dressed him in a special Pirate T-Shirt she had made him and he had agreed that he could tell his class mates that Mommy made it for him because she loved him so much. But that still didn't seem an adequate item to share.
Finally, it dawned on us to go to the source for an answer. "Lukas, of all your things what do you really love? Something you could show to your friends." And with that he walked over, grabbed his stuffed panda bear, and headed down the stairs.
Problem solved.
How about you readers? What tangible thing represents Love to your kids?
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17 comments:
All that wondering and he knew exactly what "love" meant. I've no idea what my pre-schooler would say - I'd be very interested to hear his answer.
My five year olds idea of love is fleeting. He's a stuffed animal of the day kinda kid.
Ha! I love it, my first thought was a teddy bear or stuffed animal (for his age group.) They cry with them, they sleep with them, they take courage from them when things get scary!
My youngest loves money. He once ate a quarter and held on to it for 12 days. Really. Anyway... when he got old enough for a wallet, he carried all his money in it, and opened it up for every one to see. He was so proud that he'd earned all his money. Then one day he came to me with the wallet and opened it for me to check out his wad of cash.
Inside was a picture of he and I hugging.
I had no idea he had it.
I asked him what it was and he said, "It's us mama, why do you think I've been showing every one?"
Sometimes, the answers right in front of us. We just over complicate things.
Love Princess Bride!
Probably anything with Chuck E Cheese's on it, but now I'm curious so I'll have to ask her tomorrow!
Our son would almost certainly reach for one of his favorite stuffed animals. But I've never asked him, to be quite honest.
My children say that I am the incarnation of love. Every day they recite their pledge of allegiance to dad.
It is simply breathtaking.
Interesting question. I have no idea what my kids would pick.
hmmm. i'd like to think that Pookie would go w/ an ultrasound picture, but i honestly have no idea how we'd handle that one...
I wouldn't have been able to answer this question a few days ago...but the Bean has made it clear that one of our cats is the thing that represents love for him.
The big fluffy cat that likes to bite when provoked. Yeah, that one.
I think Mr. Anonymous is missing a wee bit of that love you alluded to in your post, James.
Like Lukas, our four-year-old's tangible item of love would be a stuffed animal -- more precisely, a small square blankie with a stuffed-animal giraffe's head on the corner that he's been sleeping with since birth. He calls her Ola.
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Braden has a monkey that has literally been loved almost to death. He is soon to disolve into monkey powder. I would say that represents love to him.
Whatever happened to show and tell. Now you show and share. Is that political correctness or just a different term used in a different part of the country?
DLG loves Dora The Explorer. Right now anyway...
The unstoppable due of Woody and Buzz Lightyear!
It was quite mature (and practical) of you to ask Lukas himself!
I have no children. But if my parents would have asked me the same question, at that age, I would have gotten all my toy dinosaurs! I was fixated on dinosaurs, as a child--knew the names of practically all of them--and this was decades before the dinosaur fad that followed "Jurassic Park". My sister, Elaine, tells me that I'd ride my rocking horse (something else I loved), saying, "I love dinosaurs!" over and over again!
I don't know why dinosaurs fascinated me so much, but they did. And curiously, as I got older I became more interested in prehistoric mammals--and finally prehistoric people!
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