Being organize–and flexible–helped save my daughter’s family picnic at school!

My daughter’s preschool is held at a small local church; it has a wonderful (and well-deserved) reputation, caring teachers, and small class sizes. What it doesn’t always have is great communication.  There have been several times this past year where we parents would find out about school events–the holiday sing-along, the bookfair–at the last-minute. And today was no exception.

Class begins at 9am, so we start lining up in the hall around 8:45. Time passes, but there’s no sign of the kids teachers. By 9:05, we are huddled anxiously, wondering, ‘Did someone cancel class and not tell us?’

Another teacher passes by, and casually announces, ‘Oh, the picnic doesn’t start till 9:30.’ In unison, four of us reply, ‘What picnic??’

Turns out, it was family picnic day. All of the classes would be spending the morning playing outside; families were encouraged to bring snacks to share, and towels and blankets to sit on in the grass. The kids would need water to drink, and sunscreen too.

Now, did we mommies panic and run away? No!! Ok, well, one mommy did. But all the rest of us banded together to save family picnic for our kids.

After having been trapped on a highway in a snowstorm once, I always keep extra blankets on my car, so I dug those out for seating. Another mom has all of her kids in spring sports, so she had tons of sunscreen. A third mom lives around the corner from school, so she ran home for snacks to share. During the picnic, we helped each other push swings, rock sleepy babies  (like mine), tie shoelaces, and take pictures for Facebook. What could have been a disaster was instead a really fun day for kids and parents alike, thanks to our ability to be both prepared and flexible.