Kindergarten Holiday party

When I was a kid, my mom was the home room mother for my class and for my sister's class.  That means she planned and ran every party for each of our classes.  She did an amazing job.  She would manage all the other mothers and she would make sure there were wonderful snacks there.  She would have age appropriate games and crafts.  I just figured that is how every elementary school party went.

When I grew up, many of my friends also were like this.  There were battles about who got to take over each class party.  About a week ago, I experienced my first class party.

The teacher asked if I could come help out.  This should have been a warning.  If any one like my "home room mother" friends was in charge of this party, I wouldn't have heard about it from the teacher.  There would have been an official newsletter sent home with information about what was needed, how many volunteers could come, and every other detail of the party.  But, I am a newbie.  I assumed that these "home room mothers" would be there and I would be their assistant.  I should have noticed the warning the night before when my son just happened to mention that we were supposed to bring in cookies to decorate.  When I asked him what kind, he said he thought he probably needed chocolate chip.  Even I knew that you don't send in chocolate chip cookies to be decorated.

I showed up the day of the party when school started.  I had a box of sugar cookies with me.  It is a good thing I was ready for action.  I guess lots of moms were scheduled to help out, but they had to back out for various reasons.  Two other moms were there for a few minutes or so, but they were less prepared than I was.  Before I knew it, I was taking charge.  The morning project included decorating sugar cookie men. (The teacher read 4 books about gingerbread people to the class, yet, they didn't decorate gingerbread men, they decorated sugar cookies.  I didn't want to ruin the party, so I kept this observation to myself)  I passed out candy and cookies and frosting.  I told other moms what to do.  I wrote names on plates.  I gave helpful hints on how to make graham cracker houses.  I was following in my mother's footsteps.  It was exhausting AND messy. 

When I was done in the morning, I had a new respect for all kindergarten teachers.  My boy really wanted me to go to lunch with him, so I did.  It was a mad house.  When I was done with lunch, I had a new respect for lunch ladies.  My boy wanted me to go out to recess with him, but mommy needed a break.  I knew they had art class after lunch, so I went home and came back after a little rest.  The silence sounded SO good when I got home.

The afternoon was supposed to be about a gingerbread man chase and crafts.  The whole story of the gingerbread man is that he runs away and everyone has to chase him.  While the kids were at art class, the gingerbread men "ran away".  The kids went around the school asking each class if they had seen the gingerbread men and where they went.  The kids loved it.  I don't think the principal loved it.  I thought it was a great idea until we found all the cookies and the kids had to take them back to the class.  My kid got knocked by another kid and dropped his cookies.  He cried.  He was not the only one.  The teacher was sweet and let him decorate some more cookies.  I was the only mom who volunteered in the afternoon.  After my success in the morning, I figured it was no problem.  I was wrong.  The teacher put my at the glitter table.  My mom hates glitter.  She does every craft you can think of, but she doesn't do glitter.  There is a reason that glitter glue was invented.  There were other tables with other projects, but the glitter table was the most popular.  The craft was to cut a chain of Christmas trees and then decorate them with loose glitter and pom poms.  REALLY?

 

My mom plans a lot of crafts for kids, and I often think that she underestimates the abilities of the children, but now I know why.  If I had been sitting with one kid, I could have helped one kid do this project, but not with a mob of kids.  First of all, little kid scissors can't cut through six layers of construction paper.  I had to cut them all out with the teacher scissors.  Secondly, I forgot that 5 and 6 year olds don't understand the concept of a little glue.  All of their trees were drowning in glue.  Thirdly, LOOSE GLITTER!  Surprisingly the glitter got all over the floor and then the boys, including mine, decided it was fun to pick it up and throw it on people.  That was cute for a second until it got out of control because the kids had been eating cookies and candy non stop.  One little girl got too crowded at the carefully "glitter proofed" table and got in big trouble when she took a container of loose glitter to one of the other tables.  I suppose I should have prevented that since I was at the glitter table.  In the end, it didn't even matter because there wasn't enough time to let the project dry and so they all got wadded up into glue/paper/glitter balls.

Anyway, I don't mean to say that the teacher is bad at coming up with crafts, for pete's sake, she came up with all the other great parts of the day, and had no one to help her with the planning or preparation.  I did learn that a person can't get too cocky when dealing with kindergarteners, they are amazing balls of energy.  I also learned that if I want to be a hot shot home room mother, I need to get involved before the night before the party.  I need to be involved in the party planning.  I think that soon I might be taking charge.  This could mean trouble.  I can't help it, it is in my blood.