Opinion : Bubbles

Today I got a call from my sister who just sent her daughter to Kindergarten. Evidently the poor kid has been labelled as a slow child.

Not mentally mind you, she has all of the brains of probably the smartest kid in her class, but as the teachers noted, "She holds her friends hand and they go out to recess together. She is the last one to get in line, fold her mat, she also looks around when people are talking..." in other words, she's enjoying life too much still.

As a mom who has taught 6 kindergarten age children, I am asking, "What's the problem?" Is she threatening another kid, is she beating someone up, is she causing a disturbance in the classroom, is she stealing someone's lunch?

No, she's just as they said, "immature". I laughed. Most kids in kindergarten are well, immature. 

I remember in Kindergarten blowing bubbles in my chocolate milk, day after day, and Mrs. Hogan, bless her heart, would get after me, telling me NOT to do that.  Then the next day, I'd do it again. She again would get after me.

Finally, realizing that I was going to keep doing it, she put a napkin under the carton so it wouldn't make a mess on the table. 

Eventually she quit getting after me, eventually, I gave up the bubble blowing, not because I thought I should, but when the bubbles landed on the napkins they'd pop and not slide across the table.

What she didn't see is what I was seeing.

When you blow bubbles in a carton of milk there are hundreds of bubbles piling up.  Now to my 5 year old mind, that fascinated me.  These bubbles weren't round, they were all squished up in the spout and changed their shape.

Then when the carton is full they would spill over on the outside, still clinging together, and now they were all round looking.

Then I'd look in the spout and they looked squished in there.

At this point Mrs. Hogan would scold me again, wipe up the mess, and probably say snack time was over, then it seems like she'd play a C Chord on the piano, which also fascinated me, and sing, "Come sit down" then hit the chord 3 or 4 times.

But I thought of her again today. 

After the daily scolding, I remember visiting her house and talking to her all the time.

We'd talk about the pretty rock I found, or about our kittens or anything else that was happening in our life at the time.

Now back when I was in school, no one knew they were supposed to label me as slow. 

No one asked WHY I blew bubbles in my milk.  

No one asked me why I'd sneak over to the piano and make that same chord, like Mrs. Hogan, during class when we were supposed to be doing something else. 

But that sums up my Kindergarten memories. 

I suppose I learned to write my ABC's there, although I think we learned that at home, and I suppose I learned other things like lining up for recess, sharing and to raise my hand to use the restroom, but all in all, Kindergarten was a fun time.

I was young and immature. 

That's what kids are supposed to be.

I was busy discovering things we didn't learn in Kindergarten.

We never discussed why blowing air into your milk carton produced bubbles, what shape the bubbles were or why they changed shape.

We never talked about why skipping ever other key on the keyboard sounded nice, we just learned not to blow bubbles or play the piano.

So as I chuckle about my niece being slow and how the educated school teachers didn't think to bribe her with a sticker for speed, or say, "Try to finish this by the hand is on the 2..." they want her to grow up and quit being immature. 

I bet she's also a bubble blower.

I never got the whole hurry up and color, hurry up and eat your lunch, hurry up and write your ABC's...I just wanted to talk about the bubbles, and make music.

I think I turned out alright, well I know, I still seem a little like the bubble blowing type and still love to play on the piano, but hey, I am NOT immature!