mystery reader

madelyn's teacher allows for parents to be a "mystery reader" on friday afternoons. it is next to impossible for matt to do this sort of thing without taking an entire day off, so i picked a day at random and hoped that i could come up with some child care (it is pretty hard in the afternoons - everyone i know has nappers or works). thankfully, one of the neighbors was able to come over and watch the boys for an hour and i brought her daughter home with us (she goes to the same school as madelyn).

i have never been so nervous in my life! i didn't want to embarrass madelyn in any way and i wanted her to be surprised (you are asked not to tell your child that you are the reader). i selected "the story of ferdinand" by murno leaf for my book. it has always been one of my favorites and i have read it to the kids a few times (i prefer classics to modern children's books).

the teacher gives the kids 'clues' about the "mystery reader" all day. here were my clues:
1. born in miami, florida
2. have visited several countries - canada, england, france, italy, venezuela and china
3. loves to read
4. has never been snow skiing
5. has caught a shark

when i got to the classroom, the kids were still at music class and the teacher gave them the last clue when she went to get them (she had told me that madelyn seemed to have no idea). the kids returned to the classroom with a lot of questions for me - did you really catch a shark, what did you use for bait, did it bite you? i guess that clue was a good one! madelyn was very surprised and kept saying, "i didn't know that you had really caught a shark!" the rest of the day.

she sat right next to me while i read the book to the class. i am happy to report that it seemed to go well and the kids seemed to like the book. and then i left when the story was over. it was only about 30 minutes until school ended, so i just hung out in the lobby and waited.

so thankful to our neighbor for watching the boys and allowing me to do something in madelyn's classroom! manning will probably see more of me in his classroom someday than he would like, but for now, i will take what i can get to be involved.