Nursery School

My little boy started Mother's Morning Out today. This was a big deal, because it's sort of like a pre-preschool. He's only 21 months old, so I was impressed when he came home today saying, "A, B, C!" Nevermind that I have been singing the ABC's to him since he was so tiny that he couldn't do anything but lie on a blanket . . . the teacher managed to get him to say, "A, B C" in only 3 short hours! He acts like he had a blast. From the schedule, it seems they had a PE class, a music class, coloring, learning letters, and a nature walk. That's to say nothing of the 30 minute snack and collective hour of free playtime and playground time. They have a carpool line and everything - it's very grown-up like a real school!

Now, he did get into some fire ants on the nature walk. Apparently he took it much better than I did. But all in all, it was a great first day. Also, I noticed that my child was the only one with a diaper bag today . . . the rest of the children had little backpacks and other school-type bags. I wondered . . . what's in them? Probably the same thing that's in Sam's diaper bag. When I arrived home, I found Sam's "nature walk bag" with his name on it in the diaper bag. This contained 2 sticks of varying textures, one piece of tree bark, and one crumbling leaf. I had to wonder, were these things that Sam picked up and put into his bag? Did he pick them up and put them in his mouth (more likely) until the teacher directed him to take it out of his mouth and put it into the bag? Did the teacher and her helper take the 12 toddlers out there and say, "Now, everyone find a leaf." and watch them all dutifully search out a leaf and drop it into the bag? Yeah, right. Did the teacher and the helper put things in the bags for the children? I have a vision of the teacher, the helper, the nursery director, a priest, and maybe 3 or 4 others herding these little tiny people who only have one thing on their agendas: RUN. I picture one of them periodically darting off toward the parking lot to create a diversion while a second one crouches and hides behind an AC unit and yet a third starts to take off his pants and use a planter as a potty, while a fourth somehow gets the sanctuary door open to squeal giddily into the chapel during a Monday morning prayer service, while my son . . . stepped in an ant pile with both feet. The whole "nature walk with 12 toddlers" idea seems very brave to me. Maybe even insane. But I know they actually did it, because we have the ant bites to prove it.