Life lessons learned in Kindergarten

Every day, my daughter brings home a notebook from her kindergarten class. In it is a page for the month with marks in either green, yellow or red. Green means she had a great day. Yellow means she had to get a warning. Red means...well...we don't want to really go there.

We moved a month after school started so Lauren not only started school for the first time in her life, but she had to do it twice within a month. I felt bad. I remembered what it was like being the "new" kid except I at least had a twin that I knew would be there with me. After her first week at the new school, I noticed Lauren started bringing home yellow marks with notes from the teacher saying "Doesn't complete her work" and "Doesn't follow directions". The momma bear in me first wanted to protect my daughter. "What do you MEAN? My child is perfect!" Then a few weeks later, Lauren came home with a note from the teacher along with a packet of work 18 pages long that she hadn't completed in class. The note said something to the effect of "Teach your children that they need to complete their work at school. This is not to replace their regular homework." I knew something wasn't right. I felt guilty because maybe she was having a hard time adjusting or making friends. But, being the type-A personality that she is, Lauren completed all of those pages that night without me having to say a word ( is that normal? ). Needless to say, her teacher was very impressed. Monday morning, Lauren was moved from the green table to the orange table.

It wasn't until I volunteered for the first time in her class that I understood why she was getting those yellow marks. Her name was Shelby. Shelby is a fun but very talkative little girl. The girl who wouldn't do her work without telling you first about her stuffed puppy or little sister. Being new, Lauren probably didn't know the routine and thought it was fun to talk to Shelby. But, the fact is that since she has been at the orange table, she has had green marks every day.

Amazing what a change in color can do for someone.

I volunteered again this last week. One of my jobs was to put a flier in the children's folders to take home to their parents. While doing so, I noticed the colored marks they had each received. A few of the children had a page full of green. Several had green splashed with a little yellow. Others had almost all yellow. I don't recall seeing any red. I know Lauren is obsessed with the color she receives for the day and is proud of her accomplishment at having a whole page filled with green.

So, I thought about those green, yellow and red marks and wondered about which color I would receive in my folder. I'd probably be worthy of a green mark if I accomplished the goals that I had set for myself that day. If I was able to get my work done in a timely manner. I might get a yellow mark on the days that I need a little extra push. Maybe I didn't play with the kids as much as I should have or didn't get done what I needed to do. Unfortunately, I probably have deserved a red mark or two as well. For those times I yelled at my kids because I was impatient or was short with my husband.

I thought about how different our folders might be from one another. There are some who probably would get a green mark every day. Some might have green with splashes of yellow. Others might have almost all yellow. Sadly, some may have some red mixed in as well. I thought about what it might be like seeing those marks in our folders serving as a constant reminder of how we are doing in our life. Are we progressing? Are we doing what we have been asked to do? Are we going the extra mile? Are we being kind to others? We all have distractions, or "Shelbys" in our lives. It's sometimes hard to stay focused on the things that we need to do. But making the effort to change those things we can change will give us the opportunity to better ourselves. And the wonderful thing is that once our page is full, we can start over fresh with a new one.

Amazing what a change in color can do for us.