yes

I awoke Saturday morning with a clearly overcast and obviously rainy day ahead of us. Soccer practice was canceled; baseball practice was canceled and even I wasn't going to send the kids outside. Something within in me was prompting me that I needed to say, "yes" today. I must admit that I am not great at saying "yes" to things that will probably make a mess, cause a disruption, require me to help or well you get the picture.
So when Peter asked me before he had even had breakfast, "Can I build a castle out of cardboard?" I was prepared.
"Yes."
I didn't even tell him to eat breakfast! When he acquired all the cardboard he could find from the recycling, I could tell that it was either him or I that was going to have to be using the utility knife all morning. In the spirit of "yes", I found myself teaching Peter how to use the knife and then praying that that wasn't a mistake and wondering do other moms let their 8 year olds use these things?Not long after he had quickly mastered the knife, I realized that Elmer's school glue just wasn't going to cut it. If this project was going to be successful, I would have to supply the hot glue. I was busy enough keeping my other 3 kids at bay from this very interesting and large kitchen table project that I didn't want to be the one hot gluing all afternoon. So before I thought too much about it, I taught Peter how to use the hot glue and then thought, again, do other 3rd graders use hot glue guns.I'm really glad I said, "yes" this morning because I was truly amazed by what he created.
He has grand plans of painting the castle. Well he may let his sister do that for him! As the teacher in me, I was thrilled to see the attention to detail he paid. I loved that he had out Ms. Frizzle's Medieval Castle book out the entire time. I was pleased to hear the vocabulary words stumble out of his mouth like portcullis.
Stayed tuned.....I said yes to other children in the house too. I even gave Emma our Great Big book of Art book to browse through for ideas. I did declare that it was a one project per person at a time and that did make it much more manageable!