It could be good for children to paint loved ones they missed.
He took some purple paint and started painting on top of the star. “Her dress is purple. Mommy loves purple.”
Oh. He’s painting his mommy sitting on a star.
She briefly closed her eyes and put her hand on his shoulder.
“These are flowers,” he said, making her open her eyes immediately to pay attention as she blinked back tears, while he started to paint a flower beside his mommy on the star. “She liked the little purple ones.”
“Violets?” Ellen asked.
He nodded vigorously and kept painting flowers on her star.
Bending to be close to his ear, she said, “You can paint her anywhere you want.”
Then she gave his shoulder a little squeeze and moved on to the next child. She had to be sure to give each child individual attention.
It would be far too easy to focus more on one little boy who was tugging at her heart strings in a big way. But she couldn’t do that.
Encouraging them all was important.
By the time all the children were done painting, Scotty had painted his mommy sitting on the star, wearing a purple dress, while he and his daddy were on the grass, beneath a tree, hiking.
He’d also painted his grandma and grandpa farther away, in front of a little house.
She wondered what the whole story was about Scotty’s family. All she knew was that he and his dad had moved here to Montana, and that his dad was a widow and a SEAL vet who now worked for the Brotherhood Protectors.
Joey caught her attention as he used his sleeve to wipe his nose again.
“Joey,” she said. “Remember to use a Kleenex, not your sleeve.”
The red headed freckle faced boy pulled a Kleenex out of the box and then proceeded to rub the Kleenex across his nose from one side of his cheek to the other, the same way he’d used his sleeve, which just smeared snot across his face.
“Remember to blow into the Kleenex,” she said.
“Booger face,” Klaus, the biggest boy called.
“Eww,” two of the girls said.
“No name calling,” Ellen said to Klaus.
“But he does got boogers,” Klaus pointed. “On his face.”
“Joey, remember to blow into the Kleenex,” Ellen said.
“Yeah, we do not want to see your boogers,” Cindy Sue said. “They’re gross.”
Joey sniffled and looked like he was about to cry.
“Go wash your hands and face, please, Joey,” Ellen said. “Then you’ll feel better and look better.”
For not the first time, Ellen told herself that it took a lot of patience with children to teach Kindergarten.
The children came in at all levels of learning. Some could already read words, some could not. Some knew simple things like how to blow their nose and some did not. It was a good thing she had a lot of patience with small children, and she loved the kids in her class. At the end of the day, she would always count the good things that happened and count her blessings and let go of the things that weren’t so good.
It felt wonderful to be teaching again. And maybe someday she would have the rest of her dream life. For now, she was happy just as things were.
She’d thought she wouldn’t be teaching kindergarten again and was feeling blessed.
