The Turkey Project

When my child and I bounded home from school (well, I lumbered because I was carrying all his stuff), my son announced that his homework this week was to work on decorating a turkey. I knew it was coming: the first second grade project. I say first because now that we are in a bigger kid grade, we'll probably see a project every marking period.

In kindergarten, my son had to put together a collage of fall objects. In first grade, the children had to make time lines of their own lives. Both projects were simple, while having the utility of teaching kids about project planning, implementation and deadlines. I don't have to tell any adult what a good skill set that is to have. It's right up there with math and reading.

So, now there is a turkey to decorate. The catch being that he can't color with crayons. My son excitedly began to tell me we could use cereal. My first response to him was "we don't have any cereal to use", which he followed with an "oh, mawm."

We don't really have cereal, except for Cookie Crisp, which I haven't gotten to eat yet. Since my mother never bought me Cookie Crisp, I have an odd obsession with it. Back off, Ken. Those chocolately bits of goodness are mine. No way will it be turkey fodder.

My son, being a clever thing, gave me an alternative: rice. Again, words flew out of my mouth. "Do you know how expensive rice is these days?" Of course he does because the last time I had to purchase rice, I realized that my dollar something wouldn't buy the big bag. The big bag was priced at $5.89. I had to get a sad box of rice that wasn't even a pound. My family listened to a 15 minute speech about the cost of rice when I returned from that grocery trip.

I explained that rice was off limits, along with any other grain product. They don't grow on trees, ya know. They magically appear at the grocery store where we purchase things to eat. And since I can't keep my son's or my husband's belly full, food is to valuable to use as art. If he absolutely needed to use food that way, than we need to raid his teacher's pantry.

I suggested a novel idea. Why don't we pull out our craft box? Ya know, the thing we use for projects and such? Every leftover bit of craftiness resides in that box. I even have feathers. Naturally, that was met with another "mawwwwm."

I then pointed to floor. "Gee, look at that. There's tons of cool stuff on the floor to use! I bet you could find rice and peas under the kitchen table." That didn't go over well either.

I ended my motherly rant against school expenses (because every time I turn around I'm either writing a check to the school or buying something for school) realizing it was futile to be on a soapbox with a 7 year old audience. I gave my boy a much needed break from my oratories by going through his book bag. Once again, I found that he's received a 4 pack of crayons...sigh. (the toys, candy and crayons my kid brings home from school is a while 'nother blog topic)

We must own about 10,000 crayons. Seems everyone is giving them away these days. You can't go anywhere without someone giving a child an advertisement guised as a coloring book and a little pack of waxy wonder. We have so many that if they land on the floor, I just throw them out. Except for black; we only have one black crayon for some reason. Strange.

"Hey!" I exclaimed to my son, "did your teacher say anything about not being able to glue crayons onto your turkey?" He saw the genius in that plan. "Not at all.", he replied.

Bingo!!



[photo from stock.xchng.com]