Last week Sam came home from school excitedly telling me about some snowmen that are in his music teacher's class. I admit, I probably wasn't giving him my full attention, though I get so little info from school you'd think I'd perk up. The conclusion of his verbal dialogue was, "So she still needs two more and I was thinking we could get her one for Christmas!" Now I'm listening.
"Get her what, did you say?" I ask.
Sigh. "Get her one of the snowmen she needs in her room."
I explained that I was going to need a few more details about said snowmen-- what do they look like, how big are they, and more importantly, do you know where she got them? He said he didn't, but he knew Mrs. Barnard (last year's teacher) had given her one and so he'd ask. And by golly, he did.
The next day, he came home with a written piece of paper that said, "Hallmark Snowman Drummer." (I'm positive it wasn't spelled correctly, but I can't remember exactly and didn't want to misquote him.) Of course, this was Thursday, when I was ready to fly out of town for the weekend before Christmas, so I had to put his idea on hold in classic mom fashion: "Okay, Sam, thanks for finding out the details. That's great, but I'll have to see what I can do next week when I get back." He was a little deflated, but satisfied with my response. I even made a note on the noteboard, so he'd know I remembered.
I went yesterday to purchase said drummer, and fortunately for me, the sales clerk knew exactly which snowmen I wanted. Unfortunately, no drummer existed, nor was there ever a drummer. I chose one of the 4 and came home. Sam knew that the one I'd purchased was one she had, plus she'd gotten another just yesterday, so now only one remained. We hurried to the closest Hallmark and purchased the remaining snowman. (The sales clerk there asked who it was for and knew another student had purchased her the same one earlier that night! Ugh!) Sam wrapped it up and took it into school today. He even made a card declaring her the best music teacher ever.
I admit, I was a bit of a Scrooge when it came to this errand. I purchase teacher's gifts throughout the year so I'm ready in December, and admittedly do not include every teacher at school on my list. I was thinking, now are we starting a precedent of gifting to the music teacher? Do we have to gift to PE and art too? Who else? One more thing to get last minute. Ugh!
But really, isn't it sweet that Sam noticed something his teacher liked and wanted to meet her need with a gift? Isn't that the very behavior I should be encouraging in my child? I am really proud of him for thinking of her, and I know she'll appreciate being appreciated too. What a sweet Sam.
