Preschool Debriefing

I mentioned a few days ago that I was going to draw some cartoons for my son’s preschool class. Well, I did it, and it went even better than I’d hoped.

I started by saying “you know how Mom or Dad go to work every day? They might go to an office, or a factory, or wherever… Well, you know what my job is? I stay home all day and draw funny pictures. I have the best job in the whole wide world.”

Then I asked them if they wanted me to draw a dog or a cat. “DOG!” they all yelled.

I drew two little dots to start the eyes and then an idea hit me…

“Is it a dog yet?” I asked. “NO!” they yelled.

Then the larger circle for the nose. “How about now? Is that a dog now?”

Again a raucous “NO!” Someone called out “That’s a nose!”

It went on like this for a good while until the dog was all done.

Then we did a cat, the Easter bunny, a fish and a shark.

With the shark I kept erasing parts of his face to make him do different things: look scary, smile, eat fish food, and go to sleep after his big meal. (A nearby turtle looked understandably relieved.)

The thing that honestly really surprised me was that I hadn’t really planned anything. I was told it’d be five minutes at the most, and twenty minutes of weirdly spontaneous inspiration later (teacher approved, I might add), I finally wrapped it up to a unison “thank you, Mr. Anderson!”

Henry just beamed the entire time.

At one point he was so excited he stood up in the middle of his indian-seat-styled classmates and started to take a step toward me, realized it, and then sat down again.

I tell you, there’s nothing more satisfying than living up to your children’s expectations.

(BTW, click the dog graphic and you can grab a copy of the coloring page I handed out. If anyone wants to color it and send it back I’ll post them all later.)