My daughter, O is a very picky eater. I'm not certain how it all happened and I don’t ever question it, as I was the same growing up.
In fact, one Thanksgiving dinner my very-picky-eater cousin and I excused ourselves from the table so we could go back to eating the rabbit food in the backyard. Obviously, we did not care for turkey, mashed potatoes, string beans and sweet potatoes. We were sixteen years old. Not really, we were seven. To this day, we still say, "Happy Rabbit Day" rather than "Happy Turkey Day". Upon hearing me say this now, family members and guests generally assume that I just hit the “cups” a little early and simply tolerate me for the day.
O is one of those kids who would eat the same thing for lunch all day, every day if she could. Her favorite thing is pizza and her second favorite is macaroni and cheese. So when it came to deciding if we would pack her lunch or let her eat/starve in the cafeteria lunch line every day, we chose packing her lunch. It was only on back to school night that I was relieved to hear that it's probably been a good decision as those children who bring a bagged lunch have about five minutes longer to eat than those that don't.
On the first day of school I worked hard to ensure everything was just right. Since it's a cold lunch the pizza and mac and cheese were off the list of options. She requested a turkey sandwich with colby cheese on her favorite potato loaf bread. I wrote her a really sweet note with a cute drawing at the bus stop of our family and put it in her lunch box – the whole time wondering why I was doing this considering she can currently read three letter words or less (as such, the wine discussion is a ways off). As a teacher, I didn't really think that through. As a parent, I did what I assumed all the other parents did. However, only two days later I began to question my notes.
I decided to give her a three letter "lunch word" for the day and draw a picture underneath as a clue. FUN, BUG, CUP and then I kicked it up a notch and decided to do a week of three letter words that rhyme, since rhyming is one of the fundamental steps in learning how to read. So each week, I choose a three letter word on Monday and we rhyme it all through the week … BAT, CAT, RAT, FAT … FAN, RAN, CAN, PAN, MAN.
When I was interviewing with the airlines to become a flight attendant years ago, a supervisor/friend of mine said never, ever answer any question without explaining how you will follow up. So now when my husband asks something along the lines of “What were you thinking?’ I always follow-up. Usually, this includes telling him to “shove up his %&@” (that three letter word will have to wait). And following up with children can be challenging as well. However, it's been fun following up with these notes. O often gets off the bus and runs toward me yelling the "lunch word of the day". Yesterday, the word was rat. Boy, did I get some looks from the other parents. If it doesn't come up in conversation on our walk home, I try to follow up by unpacking her lunch while she's eating her after school snack and telling me about her day. She always smiles when I ask her about the word.
If she wasn't a picky eater, I wouldn't have an opportunity to send her a little note. For that I am thankful. However, when I'm in a hurry in the morning to scribble a quick note, I really have to stop and think not only about a three letter word, but also about what rhymes with the one I wrote the day before. DUH comes to mind too often and for that reason, Kindergarten SUCKS!
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