Kindergarten Memories

Ashley in kindergarten
Originally uploaded by °Beth.

It was Christmastime and we were visiting David’s parents. Displayed on the wall of their guest room were two self-portraits of David and his twin brother, Jon, from when they were in kindergarten. David pointed out that while his was pretty basic—stick figure with a head, Jon’s was rather elaborate with both dimension and detail.

Possibly these pictures would have never been given a second thought had David not chosen Elementary Education as his major at ORU. It was there he learned kindergarten students tend to draw pictures of themselves in stick figures. If they give shape and substance to themselves, it shows the child is quite bright and can function academically at a higher standard than what would be considered normal.

When my daughter Ashley came home from kindergarten one day with a picture of herself placing a star on top of a Christmas tree, I was more than delighted. The little figure was quite well done. Not only had she given shape, substance and a great amount of detail to herself—the picture was colorful and very pretty.

Like all good moms I hung it on the fridge. I might have been a little bit out of control, but I felt it only right to inform all of our Christmas guests about the little tidbit David had learned in college—obviously our little darling was showing great promise.

After Christmas when I was putting away all the ornaments and decorations, I decided the sweet picture needed to be preserved with all our other Christmas paraphernalia. As I gently removed it from the fridge Ashley asked, “Do you like that picture of me, Mommy?” “Oh yes,” I replied. “I like it very much!”

“I like it too,” she chirped. “My friend Megan drew it for me.”