Thank you, Mom for encouraging all my questions as a child. I don’t mean normal kid questions, but ones that may become Jeopardy answers one day. I still ask the oddest questions to this day(or so my husband tells me). If it weren’t for my mom, I wouldn’t have the imagination I have today though, which I try to teach my children.
Growing up, my mom decided to pause her career and stay home to raise my brother and I for 7 years. Originally, she had wanted to homeschool, but after moving to a new neighborhood with a brand new school she decided against it. She would come up with fun projects using items around the house like cardboard, construction paper, and markers. On a very rare occasion, we would be allowed some play dough in the very tight budget. My dad hated the smell of play dough and crayons though, so we played with them in the garage or outside. My mom would make us these smocks/aprons out of the large paper grocery bags – yep I’m a before plastic kid – to save our clothes from stains.
“The important thing is not to stop questioning.” Albert Einstein
Projects were always fun and exciting because I knew my mom would think of something to put together for them. She would encourage us to elaborate on our own and make what we wanted. I never had fancy foam boards or posters for school presentations. I always made my own and my classmates got upset because I put so much more effort into mine. Before the internet – yep I am a pre-Google child too – we spent hours at the library finding relevant books, making copies of pages, and taking some home.
My mom took us to the public library every week as young children. I knew where all my favorite books were and loved going to the puppet shows. The summer reading program was like an adventure and one year I even won one of the grand prize drawings at the end! I am so thankful to LFPL for putting on awesome summer reading programs every summer and they have helped me as a SAHM especially.
So, thank you, Mom for never telling me I was annoying you with questions – even though I am sure I did. Your grand-boys love asking you questions, too and I am keeping the inquisitive minds going!
