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.
Seedlings Spaghetti Day 2011
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!
Body Splatter Art
Jared building a fort in the yard.
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!
It’s hard to imagine Seedlings without a Glas family member present! I trust we’ll see you and yours often, though, so I will try not to get too sad. I know the exact Spaghetti day photo you’re referring to. Samantha (Seedlings class of 1998) created an art piece this year about memory, and the child that lives within her and loves to play. She used that picture as one of her source images, turning the spaghetti into brains — but no worries, it’s not gross — just cool! She is old enough now (18) to be consciously grateful that she got to play and have a real childhood.