Celebrating Mother’s Day at school.

A couple of weeks ago Keera brought home a paper from school, it said that her class was going to be having a get together for all the moms for Mother’s Day. There was a list of items that the teacher was going to need, and we were allowed to pick whichever we wanted to bring. All we had to do was check off the appropriate box, and send it back to the teacher. I’ve got to say I’m really impressed with Keera’s teacher, it said in the letter that if the mom couldn’t make it the dad could take the moms place. Same thing except vice versa for the Father’s Day celebration that’s going to be happening later on in June. It’s just really refreshing to know that her teacher doesn’t think so narrow boxed. So this afternoon I went to spend the afternoon with Keera and her class. I was one of the first parents to get to the class, and felt a little bit out of place. I stood near the doorway of the class holding my strawberry filled Tupperware container, while the teacher addressed the students. I was scanning the students looking for Keera and the moment I noticed her all my feelings of anxiety melted away. She had such a huge grin on her face, and she kept telling everyone sitting around her “C’est ma maman” which means “It’s my mom”. As soon as the rest of the parents got to the class, the teacher explained what the plan for the afternoon was. The kids would have their reading time, we’d do some “scrapbooking” then we’d go downstairs for a Spelling Bee competition. Afterwards we would come back upstairs so that we could have Fondue with the kids. Suddenly the kids split up and went to grab their library book bag, Keera ushered me towards the pile of pillows and told me to grab one. Let me tell you reading time in a grade 2 class is NOT quite, here’s a visual for you 25ish kids all reading a different story out loud at the same time.The moment Keera started reading I was mind blown, with the improvement in her reading. It’s hasn’t been easy for her, learning two languages at once. She was put in French school with only basic knowledge of French. When teaching her how to read we’ve been struggling, with the learning of English and French since she’s learning how to read both at the same time. Than at the parent teacher “interviews” Keera’s teacher told me that Keera had been making great progress with her reading. The school was giving her an aide to help her pick up on her reading abilities. It wasn’t until today that I noticed just how much her reading has improved. She was able to read me two and a half of the books she had without much difficulty. I love that she chooses actual books to read, instead of just the comics like some of her other classmates. Once reading was over, the teacher told us we were going to be making a scrapbook page. She had taken some pictures of each of the students at different times, and printed them out for us to use. The teacher had put out all sorts of different supplies, markers, crayons, glue, tape, glitter, letters, scrapbooking paper, etc. I myself love the idea of scrapbooking, and I love all the creative ideas of things we could possibly have done. Ultimately though my scrapbooking abilities are way lower than my creative thoughts, then when you add to the mix a child that’s given so many choices. It’s like setting a child loose in a candy store. Keera wasn’t sure how she wanted her scrapbook page to look, and it took a bit of time and a lot of back and forth dialogue before she made a choice. Since we took so much time in deciding what Keera wanted her page to actually look like, she wasn’t able to finish it up. We had to head downstairs to the gym for the Spelling Bee, her teacher reassured us that the students that didn’t get time to finish would get some extra time in class another day.There was a few students chosen from every grade/class to go participate with the Spelling Bee. Let me tell you these kids don’t mess around, they mean business when it comes to cheering on their classmates especially the 4th to 6th graders. The words started off really easy, and then escalated to the point were even I was having difficulty figuring out how to spell it. (Yeah my French is kind of rusty, I’m not proud to admit it but it’s something that I plan to work on.) Nearing the end of the spelling bee it was down to two students, a boy and a girl. They were going up against each other. I can’t remember the word, but I do remember the boy getting the word wrong and running off the stage. He ran towards his mom who was sitting in front of me, and he just sat there angrily in tears. The girl still up on the stage ended up getting the word right, everyone cheered for her. No one really paid attention to this boy, and I guiltily thought he was just being childish.. that was until I overheard him talking to the girl who had won. He was happy for her and told her his anger wasn’t towards her for winning it, it was towards himself for not knowing how to properly pronounce the word. Isn’t that sad and yet so true, we are our own biggest obstacle and judge here on earth. It’s amazing the lessons you learn when you just watch and listen to people.When we got back to the class the teacher and one of the mom’s had already set up the chocolate fountain. The kids were told to go and wash their hands, then line up to get their fruit. Everyone including the parents got their own small container to fill with fruit, and another smaller cup for the chocolate sauce. It was so delicious and the teacher even surprised us with some fresh lemonade that she had made. I’m so happy that I was able to go and be apart of this with Keera. You can tell that she likes her teacher, and that it’s a good environment because she’s a different person in class. She’s still herself, just more confident.. I’m looking forward to that confidence following her out of class as well.