Not Very Helpful or Interesting

Was today’s activity helpful or interesting? This was the top question on a survey handed out Wednesday during the family luncheon at Jedi’s school. Along with getting to sit in a loud cafeteria and eat a rather bland turkey and cheese wrap with my son, we were also assigned a stretch of land in their garden to dig for planting and seeds.

Does that seem like just an excuse for free labor to anyone else?

Now, I’m not a big garden person. I don’t mind getting dirty, but I don’t really know what I’m doing. We walked in front of a plot of land, though, with a packet of magnolias and some kind of fragile leafy concoction in a container. All the while, Jedi’s complaining because the sun was in his face. “I want to go back to class”, he even whined.

“No, I came here for this. We are going to plant flowers and have fun”, I hushed sharply.

“It’s too hot and the sun is too bright. Maybe I can go back to speech class”, he wondered as I knelt over with a small hand trowel, which is the class they called him out of when I arrived. He pronounces some of his r’s like w’s. I used to do the same.

“No, you’re here with me”, I kept insisting, trying not to take his resistance personally.

“Where’s Miss Cassidy? I want to go with Miss Cassidy”, he looked around, still whining. When we were finally done, he couldn’t bolt for the door fast enough.

So was today’s activity helpful or interesting? Not in the way intended, no. We’re not going to rush home to begin a family garden anytime soon. But it did make my son appreciate his fluorescent light and temperature-controlled classrooms more, so that’s kind of helpful, right?