When I see a picture like this I imagine that one day the child will move to the left and another child will take the seat on the right. I am very close to my grandmother but I don't live close enough to visit as nearly as much as I would like to . So I started taking my classes to visit other people's grandparents. This process is one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever felt. This has been a part of my class schedule for nearly all of my time in the classroom. I have countless stories from this experience and will share them now and then.
From years past...
It was May 01. Happy May Day. What better way to celebrate than to create a May Pole at the nursing home? The sun was shining, the flagpole served as a perfect May Pole and provided a smooth surface so that five or six residents could join us in the celebration. I used tissue paper for the ribbons and I am ever thankful that tissue paper breaks easily. You will have to use your visual imagination for this so get ready. Now imagine there are 10 kindergarten/first grade children and about six of the residents from the nursing home standing in a circle each holding a flowing piece of tissue paper. The music begins and the children start walking around in circles as do the residents. Then the children slowly begin to pick up momentum and gain speed while the residents are slowly walking in circles. Before I knew it the children were running full speed in circles and as a result they began to pass the older people. Imagine what happens..slowly the residents began to get wrapped up in the flowing tissue paper. They started to look like colorful mummies binut laughing the entire time until...the tissue paper ran out of slack, tightened and broke leaving me the job to unwrap a few of the older residents.
Story two, from years past. This time it is Halloween. Wahoo kids party at the Nursing Home. There was scary music playing then great dancing tunes playing and everyone was dressed up. All but one older gentleman in the corner. He was, to us, a bit more confused than the other residents. He began to get scared and started yelling. The sound he was making was obviously (to us) a clear indication that he was not pleased with his current surroundings. A look of nervousness shot through me. How do I explain to a child that an older man is afraid of costumes and fake ghost sounds? At the moment a young boy jumped right onto the mans lap, rested his hand on the wheels of his wheelchair and said "Happy Halloween. I know what you are. You are making the noises of an ambulance. Are you an ambulance for Halloween?" It took this child about one minute to express this thought and that one minute changed everything. I saw a problem, an old man that was clearly not quite in touch with was happening and felt an unexplainable awkwardness. This little boy saw nothing. He had no worries or reservations. He just saw a man and was totally honest in his approach.
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