My other kids...

I don't talk a lot about my class here much. Mostly because I spend all day with them and well... I sometimes like to pretend that my day job is more glamorous then my around-the-clock, till-the day-I- die job- mothering. But it's not- I just get paid to mother here. So yes I spend my day telling kids to pick stuff of the floor, stop running, use their inside voice, get a kleenex and I am an expert at applying band aids. I do the full routine of academics but the mothering doesn't stop for math. I also have earned an honorary degree in mediation. There is not much that can compete with a seven year old girl who has been wronged by her ex-best friend and is completely sure that the world has stopped spinning.

But the days are numbered. We have eight school days left. Four of those are so packed full of end of the year excitement that they won't be recognizable as school. I am looking forward to summer, looking forward to celebrating a great year together. But it is a little bittersweet...


Because they are mine. I spend all day with them. I have seen them grow and transform. I have wiped tears, comforted, prayed with them, laughed till I cried at them and just loved them. I have spent the year looking for ways to surprise them, engage their curiosity, and always....always made sure that they know that a God who loves them-created them to be just who they are.

There is not a day that I don't hear "I love you Mrs. Evans". And to which they know I will respond. " I love you".

In my classroom, right now there are octopuses with colorful legs and fish covered in tissue paper swimming from the ceiling. The walls are covered with huge ocean creatures they have created and murals of corral reefs. Each is its own piece of art completely different then the others, just as the child who created it. And I really should start taking some of this down- it's time. But I want their last moments in this room, in this class to be ones filled with evidence of how creative they are and that they have been cherished & delighted in.