Acting like a Mom/Teacher

          Yesterday "at" work was a blast for me! One of my children had a Fall Festival at their school and I got to go hang out with them and enjoy them one on one. It was at a place where I wanted to go see for some time now. I spent two hours with them doing all kinds of simple activities. I got to see the child's room.
            First I'm going to talk about the school itself. It was amazing! I felt like a teacher helping out again. I went in my child's classroom to get his stuff from there and it felt like home to me. They had classroom pets and circle time spot and other things. I thought why can't we do something like this. It isn't that hard to do it just in the morning. Most families should do it at home anyways. It really made me miss the classroom setting. My teacher side really came out during the festival. There were so many different kinds of children there too. That is another way I felt at home. There were Indian children, Hispanic children, and so on. I even heard another mom say that one of the children was her foster child and that she is going to adopt her. I was in my place. The other teachers did exactly what I would have done or I have heard in the past of doing. I wanted to stay there all day!
             Second, I'm going to talk about my child I was with. It was so cute when I arrived because he smiled big and laughed when he saw me. He was playing outside on a spinning thing and I got to spin him around a few times. After a little while, we went in for the crafts and he did some of them but I really had to make him focus and help him with them. It was also so cute because every time we would leave a station to go to another station he would asked me, "Are you coming?" just to make sure I would not leave him. Most of the time he would not let go of my hand and I tried to go to the back of the line when walking to another station so he would listen to his teacher but he would either stop and wait or come find me. It was cute most of the time because he would just stop and look for me to make sure I was still there.
               I also got to have lunch with him. It was funny but kind of sad at the same time. We had pumpkin pie with our lunch and that is the first thing he ate. It was gone before we even sat down at the table. He shoved it in his mouth. All around, it was just a enjoyable moment that I knew I made a difference in that child's life because I showed up to play and be with him. The teacher side of me wanted to do it because I knew what it was like to have a parent there for me at the time at school. When I was little, it meant a lot and I would want to do the same for children when I can.  It is important for a parent or even a teacher in my case to be there for the child when you can to show them that they matter enough for you to see what they are doing in school or daycare. Just another place besides home.
               Even though, the place had volunteers to be with the children, I would have hate not being there for my child so he could have one on one with someone all the time during the festival.  I will admit I will be that mom that goes to every school party until my children are too old for it. I will not me the parent that will really embarrass them though with customs on or coming to hug them when they are in jr. high. It will probably stop in elementary school before middle school unless they ask me to come. I made a difference this time and I could tell because he was all smiles by the end of the festival and during it too. That is what my job is really about.