Momentos vs. Memories
When I brought my daughter home from school, to be homeschooled, there wasn’t much I missed about anything…except the momentos she’d come back with at the end of her day. I missed the handmade Mother’s Day cards. I missed the special crafts she’d make with construction paper and glue. I missed the Santa head she’d make out of paper plates and cotton balls. I missed the glass jars covered with gold pasta. I missed the special valentine’s day card.
I missed them because at home she never did any of those things again. Turns out, she hated doing most if not all of that. To her, it felt like forced labor. So, the first year out of school, for the equivalent of 4th grade, she had no inclination to do anything remotely resembling a craft.
My other two, while not rebelling against making forced momentos, also do not enjoy making most arts and crafts. They love creating, but in their own way. This doesn’t include cards with haikus of love for me inside them, darn it. But while I don’t end up with lots of “Ode to Mom” stuff, I do have an overflow of memories. Memories of sitting around a table/couch/floor deep in concentration with my kids, making things. When my kids were in school, I had no memories but lots of momentos. So I cherished the stuff they made because it was the only thing I had of them for the whole day they were gone from me. Now that they’re here at home, I have a lot less momentos but tons of memories.
When Sassy sculpted Frito, we had a great time with the model magic.
We huddled together, and I dutifully followed her lead. I let her vision be the template for our Frito design. And then she wished for some pink, which didn’t come with the assorted colors, so I was able to share color mixing for apparently the first time because she freaked OUT when I put red and white together to make it. So then I showed her what yellow and blue make, and then red and blue. It was so fun seeing her excitement, and we made little happy faces whose eyes became the primary colors and heads became the secondary color.
These cute little heads probably won’t last a long time, and will be lost within the week. But I’ll always remember her squeals of happiness, and our hands working together to make them. The longer we unschool, the luckier I feel that I have so many memories of time spent with my kids rather than momentos they’d bring home from school…as cute at those things are.
After 24/7 with Sassy every day, I’m not so sure Frito feels the same way…
Thanks For Sharing!