Presentation Day

This month the take home project at Cole’s preschool was to “make a map of a small section of your community, such as your house or the block that you live on.” Trying to get Cole to sit down and draw something, especially something specific, can be quite laborious. Yet all of the other kids in his class were raring to go. The day after the assignment was passed out, half of Cole’s classmates had their maps ready and were very excited to present them to the class. This was quite a change from last year, when the teacher was lucky if anyone remembered to do the monthly project at all. Noah has the same teacher, in a class that meets earlier in the day, and he was supposed to make a map too. He was very excited to make some railroad tracks and scribbles, taping several pieces of paper together to make it extra large. When Cole saw this he picked up on that railway theme and went nuts, drawing green train tracks over many pieces of paper. I looked at their artwork and compared it to what I had seen the other kids draw- their streets, their houses, the zoo, things like that. I thought to myself, “These will just be rough drafts to their very accurate and detailed maps yet to come.” I started drawing our road, trying to get Cole in the spirit. No such luck. He held by his original piece. I decided that Noah’s would be OK, he’s just three. Over the course of a week Cole kept telling me “I already made a map!” So I asked his teacher if it mattered if the map actually resembled much of anything. She said as long as the child did it themselves it was fine. Done. Cole asked me to come in to class with him on the day of his presentation (most of the parents do accompany their child for the presentations). Cole sat on a chair in front of his class and I sat next to him. Cole proudly held up his map and started talking about the train tracks in a cute shy voice that I had never heard before. He pointed out the tracks vs. the roads and the “coupler” on the train. I reminded him quietly in his ear that he had called it “The Green Line.” When he stated this, his teacher gushed “The Green Line is my favorite!” Then she asked the class if they had questions or comments for Cole. Everyone shot their hand in the air excitedly. Cole called on Liam. Liam said with a smile, “I like trains. I have a green train at home.” Someone else said “I like how the tracks have lines on them.” Everyone loved it! I couldn’t believe I almost wrote this version off as trash. I vowed to appreciate all of Cole’s artwork more from now on. Perfectionism has no place in motherhood.