First Impressions

I was just out with my #1 son on a school project. Some projects are hideously time-consuming and "boring". Over the years of my experiences of helping with school projects, my list of "oh-man-not-this-kind-of-project" falls the Science Fair project, the family tree project, the building a First-Nations village out of popsicle sticks. You see where I am going with this? Projects which children are asked to do, invariably pull parents into the panic-stricken mode. "What do you mean, this is due at the end of the week? When was it assigned?"


My favorite story of the parental help is of a family at the school whose son had to do a research project into his family roots. Understand, dear reader, that this was the 5th major project assigned by this over-zealous teacher in a month. And not just any month. It was May.
May! The month where the school year is nearing the beginning of the end.
Anyway, this dad was helping his son. He pulled off a whole whack of information on England. His wife said "I didn't know that we had roots in England". He replied "We don't. There's nothing on Scotland."


Well tonight's project had nothing to do with roots, or a study of a country. It was a "pay it forward" project. We took 30$ and had fun for an hour doing different things with it. Before we had our official start, I had to get gas. My son got out and said to the lady at the next pump.
"I'd like to pay for half of your gas." Her reaction was funny. "Oh shoot, I was only going to put in 10$". :) Then, we drove through Tim Horton's and paid for the guy behind us. (Fortunately, he was alone, and not extra hungry or our project would have had to end a little early). Then we drove to the grocery store and asked the security guards who were outside what kind of Timmies drink we could buy them. We went back to Timmies and bought a hot chocolate (for the gal who said she didn't want anything) and french vanilla (for the one who did). They weren't too sure about us but they did accept the drinks. One with a big smile and the other with a little bit of scepticism. The drive-through lady was beginning to really love us! She told us that the other guy said "Serious? Wow! That's great!".


Then we drove to Staples and bought a photocopy card for the cashier to give to the next person who needed it. (hopefully they were legal copies). Then popped next door to Safeway. My son put away some one's grocery cart who needed help (gave them their 25cents back) and bought a 10$ grocery card and left it at the front counter for the next person who would need it. The customer service lady said she always keeps spare money with her to help people who really need it. She seemed a little teary when my son told her just to give it away. Then we gave away the last of our loose change to a family walking into the store. (they were a little shocked - but thought it was nice)

It was by far, my favorite project to help my child with. Truly, it is more blessed to give than to receive! We both felt like we were celebrating our success afterwards. Wouldn't it be fun to be a little mouse watching the expression on people's faces when they find out what we've done tonight.

With Thanksgiving coming up, it was a great way to celebrate God's goodness to us. I hope my son gets a good mark on the project. But even if not, he got the points anyway.