Yearbook picture

On weekends, I usually end up doing some sort of prep work for school at our kitchen table. I try to get it done while the girls are also working at the table, coloring or crafting. My work usually involves colored pens and post-its and before I know it, everyone needs a post-it and has to use my pens. I share. This is how work gets done.

Lately, Wren has been asking to help me with my work. I’ve kept her busy recreating leave behinds for kids in small groups. This past weekend, she worked to replicate a few anchor charts so that I would have multiple copies for my coaching work.

Today, I pulled out one of my anchor charts as I began a small group in kindergarten. I paused right before I launched the group and pulled out Wren’s version of the chart. I handed it to the classroom teacher, Kristine, “you can keep this copy. Wren made it,” I explained.

Kristine lit up and turned to the kids huddled around us. “Do you know who Wren is? She’s Ms. Carey’s little girl.”

“Actually, she’s my big girl,” I told them. “She’s seven.”

Kristine looked at me, a knowing look passing over her face. “Someday you’ll look back and realize she is so little. And when Rose is seven, you’ll think she’s so little.” I could tell she was thinking of her own children.

I let that settle in for a moment before returning to orally rehearsing opinion pieces with the kids seated in front of me.

Then tonight, while at Kindergarten Teddy Bear Night with Adi, she lined up with her friends for a photo. They stood there, goofy and overtired wearing their pajamas and clutching their teddy bears. Someone walking by said, “Now that’s a great picture. I can see that in the sixth grade yearbook.”

I know I’ll blink and look back on the days my kids were seven and so little and I’ll be looking at this picture in the sixth grade year book.

Published by Jessica Carey

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I'm a mom of three daughters and a literacy coach in CT. I love to learn and share with others.

12 thoughts on “Yearbook picture”

  1. This slice just shows your work doesn’t stop when you leave school – and that’s a good thing. It also shows how our work as teachers and parents and colleagues is so connected! The perspective Kristine shares is spot-on. Yay you for capturing these moments of Wren, big girl and little girl.

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  3. This post took me back to all of the years that the girls and I would have our work spread out on the dining room table. We would work together, side by side. The girls would ask me about my work, and I would ask them about their work. Sometimes I would help them, and sometimes they would help me. Morgan even learned to score writing prompts at some point! I loved those days. Thanks for the memory. And yes, they are big and small….

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  4. There was a lot of time traveling in this one slice. I loved all the perspectives, yours in the moment, yours projected to the future, Kristine’s in the moment, and hers remembered. Everything compressed into one slice…and the photo is perfect

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  5. Peter nailed it when he talks about the time travel in here. That’s exactly it – the way we see our kids in all these different times is part of what makes parenting interesting. I once caught a glimpse of my “big” boy walking towards me & for a split second before I recognized him I saw a little kid. It was startling and wonderful to be reminded of how little he really was. So glad you get all these moments.

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  6. >I know I’ll blink and look back on the days my kids were seven and so little and I’ll be looking at this picture in the sixth grade year book.<

    And then you'll blink again and they are in college buying their first car! Life is crazy this way, it plays tricks with your eyes! One day, they are 7, the next graduating from high school!

    Thanks for sharing this timely slice with us. I keep my eye open wide for as long as I can! 🙂

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  7. I can’t believe your kids are helping you now. When we worked together, I think mine were helping me. I will hold on to Nolan being my baby for as long as I can. Your girls will love reading these slices someday!

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