Crossing the Bridge

This morning my six-year-old son, Dylan, will cross over the Seedlings bridge for the final time (that’s Seedling talk for Graduation). To the outside world it might seem like an ordinary event, but for us–the Glas family– it’s the end of an era.

Back in 2001, I spotted a picture of some children playing in a kiddy pool full of spaghetti. I hadn’t really been looking for a program to put our girls in, but this just looked like something I had to find out about.

One year later, our oldest daughter Hannah was signed up for Seedlings, followed by our daughter Amelia, then our son Jared, and finally the baby of the family, Dylan. Almost a decade of Seedlings!

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I never saw that picture. Would my kids have ended up in a ‘traditional’ program, sitting criss-cross-apple-sauce, doing circle time and getting an early start on their education so that they’d be ‘ahead of the game’? If I were being politically correct, I might say something like, “not that there’s anything wrong with that,” but then I’d be lying. Seedlings gave my children a “real” childhood, filled with play and artistic exploration, and for that I am forever in debt.

Perhaps it’s cliché, but Seedlings is–and will always be–with us. Just the other day, my kids came to me and asked if they could do some body splatter art. I responded as any seasoned Seedlings Mom would; I said “use the driveway.”

Here they are having good clean messy fun!

Lisa is mom to four(!) former Seedlings. We truly will miss having her, husband (and former Seedlings teacher) Mike, and their children in our program–but they, always and forever, will be a part of our Sunflower family!