Happy Mother’s Day!

And today is probably not the day to start a lapbook on the subject. Most homeschoolers, I believe, start these kinds of things the week before, at least. Most homeschoolers, I believe, are a little more proactive. And they don’t do lessons on Sunday.

Anyway, I just came across this nice looking (free) Mother’s Day lapbook while surfing around and thought maybe someone could use it. Those of you who start this stuff the day before major holidays at the latest can save it for next year.

And an interesting tidbit: After all the work Miss Jarvis put into attaining a day to celebrate Mothers, it only took a few years for her to regret it. It quickly became one of the most commercialized holidays in America, resulting in Miss Jarvis calling it “a Hallmark holiday.” Greeting cards, she thought, were a lazy out for the more personal and more involved art of letter writing.

I wonder what she’d think of e-cards?

I don’t remember a lot of specific lessons from elementary school.  Those I do stand out as something out of the ordinary.  Very often, they were craft projects made by enthusiastic hands for my mom for whatever the next national holiday was.  Sure, they consisted of a lot popsicle sticks, pom poms and pipe cleaners glued together in seemingly infinite combinations, but in my imagination they may as well have been the tools of a seasoned craftsman.

I remember those things.  Paper plate baskets with construction paper flowers for May Day, clothes pin reindeer for Christmas, heart shaped men with accordion-like arms and legs for Valentine’s Day.  I remember those things fondly.  They are some of the kinds of things I would like my children to remember when they grow up.

But now we are coming up on Mother’s Day, and something seems strangely narcissistic about setting children to making Mother’s Day crafts.  After all, I am both teacher and mother.

Children, today we are going to make these cute note holders out of rulers and clothes pins.  Don’t you think I’ll like that?  It will give me such a nice place for me to display the work I’ve told you to do.

I could leave it to dad, but he is not overly enthusiastic about holidays in general.  Of Mother’s Day, he simply says,

What?  You only honor your mother one day a year?  What about the other 364?

To which I say any mother has only so much room for potpourri sachets and picture frames made from twigs.  One Mother’s Day a year is just about right.

But I never get anything like that, and my refrigerator is not overcrowded with picture frames made from every material under the sun.  Sure, I get hugs and kisses (and occasional “attitude”) as well as numerous dandelion bouquets throughout the day.  And I obviously wouldn’t trade those for anything.  But a small part of me would like to give my children some of those same memories I have of school as I happily cut and colored and pasted bits and pieces to surprise my mom.

Hmm…Maybe I can just drop them off at Michaels for the rest of the week.  They have some cute projects for mom.

What do you do for Mother’s Day in your homeschool?

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