Community Corner

White Knuckle Parenting: The Backpack Treasure Trove

One of my very favorite things about the last day of school is going through my kids' backpacks and seeing everything their teachers send home. Here is some of what I found this year.

This column was written by Jean Winegardner.

There are a lot of reasons I was looking forward to the last day of school last Friday. I am eager to spend time with my kids this summer; I am looking forward to not having to rush everyone in the morning to get out of the house by 8 a.m.; and I plan to not even think about packing a lunch until August 26. Even with all of that, however, one of my very favorite things about the last day of school is the treasure trove of papers, art, and odd detritus that comes home in my kids' backpacks.

There is something so breathtaking about the work my children do when they're at school without me. Going through their backpacks to see what they've done brings me great joy—and sometimes makes me scratch my head in puzzlement and amusement. Here is a partial list of some of the things I found in backpacks this weekend.

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• Filthy, tattered insulated lunchboxes. I've already thrown those away.

• Several marbled composition notebooks with writing on only the first four or five pages.

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• Several marbled composition notebooks filled with fantastic writing samples, including one memorable essay on winter in which my son had made all of the letters look like snowmen having a snowball fight.

• One pencil box filled with random scraps of paper and crayon stubs.

• One pencil box filled with unused pens and highlighters.

• Notes for a research project that my Minecraft-obsessed child chose to write about ores—and which his teacher totally went along with, taking one of his special interests and expanding on it to create real-world knowledge.

• A year's worth of artwork, including sketches, at least one unidentifiable sculpture, and some really incredible drawings.

• Report card comments and IEP goal updates. I'll open them eventually.

• Summer homework packets. I'll (probably) open them eventually.

• A list of school supplies to bring in for the 2013-2014 school year. I'll (definitely) lose that eventually.

• 8,000 detailed drawings of scenes from Minecraft that my kids stuffed in their desks or drew into their composition books between spelling lists.

• School newsletters that my kid was supposed to bring home in May.

• A last-day-of-school packet in which my son wrote that this school year he was both "funny" and "curious."

I know that I have wonderful, smart, funny kids. Sometimes seeing the work they do when I am not looking is the most revealing of all. I still haven't managed to go through all of the treasures hidden in the paper stack now taking up half of my kitchen counter space, but I know that I will learn so much about my kids with every page.

Jean, a.k.a. Stimey, writes a personal blog at Stimeyland. You can find her on Twitter as @Stimey and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Stimeyland.


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