Some Distressing News

Our children’s school went through a significant capital campaign over the last several years, culminating in the purchase of land and the building of a new school.   The location the school had resided at for the first thirteen years of operation was a small, old site on eight-tenths of an acre that was rented.   To give you an idea of how old the school buildings were, when I was a child, I attended preschool there forty-four years ago.

The school’s old location was put up for sale and purchased by a Goddard school who just recently tore down the buildings to build a new school.   My husband told my son and daughter this morning on the way to school the news about their old school buildings being demolished.   My son took the news harder than we anticipated.

This afternoon was my son’s end of year graduation celebration in which parents were welcomed into the classroom, the students performed songs they’d made up played on bells and an invitation to join the students having bread and butter they’d made in preparation of the celebration.   It was very Montessori and very special to the children as they politely invited us to have a seat and then served us food and engaged in conversation with the group.

In preparation, the students had made name cards for their parents so they’d know where to sit for the music presentation and then later at the tables for the snack.   Here are my son’s place cards, with his explanation of the drawings he added to each:

This is me with a remote control and dynamite blowing up the new school buildings they’re building.

This is me crying and a wrecking ball crane tearing down the new school buildings they’re building. 

I spoke with one of his teachers about how he was feeling and she said he’d told her this morning, after crying some (which is unlike him), “I’m really sad.   I haven’t felt this sad since my dog died.”

The Big Boy Update:  My son had an entirely different drawing on my name card for today’s graduation celebration.  He said, “that’s you with a double shot of coffee.”

  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter can see almost nothing, and then sometimes she can see something we don’t expect.   Yesterday we walked over to a bench and she said, “the bench is green”.  It was a dark shade of green I didn’t expect her to be able to discern.   She told me she saw the bench from far away.   I hope she did.