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by Ashley Weeks Cart
“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014.”
Sunny: In her Kindergarten classroom there is a behavior chart in the form of a seascape. Each child is represented as a bubble, and they move throughout the seascape each day depending on how they are behaving. If you are having a “bad day,” or “not listening,” or “can’t keep your hands to yourself,” you get moved to “stormy seas,” or “high and dry” or (the worst one of all according to Sunny) “ship wrecked.” If, however, you are being a good listener or helping the teacher or doing the activities or being a good friend, you get moved “up,” as Sunny describes, to different sea creatures of which the Starfish is apparently the greatest honor.
Sunny was very excited to show us this chart at her back-to-school night for parents this week and declared that she had never been down, and that she’d even reached “Starfish” level a number of times. While putting her to bed that evening, she said, “Mama, I never want to be down. I’m going to work really hard to be good and listen to Mrs. Berard so I can always be up.” And man, how I am simultaneously so proud but also so aware that she is fitting that stereotypical firstborn need for affirmation and the pressure to be good, to be responsible, to be a leader. While it is a wonderful trait, I want her to feel that she is safe to make mistakes and falter every now and then. Some of life’s greatest lessons come from failing. All of us have shipwrecked days, and I’ll love her just the same, even when she’s navigating stormy seas. (I may have taken the Kindergarten metaphor a little too far.)
Kaki: This week, she moved into a new classroom at her school. She is now in her first official year of preschool, in a class referred to as “The Lambs.” When I picked her up on Thursday, I greeted her by saying, “Well hello my little lamb!” She looked at me very seriously and responded, “I am not a little lamb. I am a BIG lamb.” And ain’t that the truth.
More details about The 52 Project here. To view all the portraits in the series visit here.