So. Friends with older kids. You held out on me. No one warned me about this thing called a “valentine box”. We got instructions to decorate a shoe box or cereal box however HE wanted. That’s it. So I let KJ go to town with scraps of paper, stickers, tape, glue, markers, etc. It looked exactly like you might expect from a kindergarten boy. a big red white and pink glorious mess, and that is just the stuff that actually made it ON to the box…you should have seen the craft table. He took it to school and well, it didn’t look like some of the others. And it certainly didn’t look like any of the amazing creations I’ve since seen on facebook.
To be honest, I started this post with the intention of saying sometime about how we’ll be more prepared next year to turn our box into a dinosaur that really roars or the like, but as I started typing I got caught up in the mental picture I have of his face while he glued to his merry heart’s content. Nope. I’m going to let this one be. He’s not disappointed that his box wasn’t better than his friends monster box that had “sharp teeth to eat the candy” and I’m not monster-box-maker’s mom (who, as a side note, I happen to know doesn’t work and only has one child). If I’ll let myself be, I’m actually quite content with our mess of a box. And I sure love my little mess maker. And that definitely is the best valentines box making experience money can buy (not that we spent any money on it).
But at least next year, I’ll know to give myself this pep-talk ahead of time.
ABL
Love his box. He was probably very happy with his Valentine Box. I love your attitude.
Tami
Thanks for the tips!!! I’m sure I’ll have the same tendency to make my kid’s box ‘the best’…so I’m not hating. I just think its sad that in trying to ‘win’ something that isn’t a competition anyway, that we are squashing our kids creativity and telling them they aren’t good enough on their own. It’s so easy to see when it’s someone else’s kid…
Don’t you dare let him stop making his box!:) I absolutely love this story.