Confronting the Cookie Monster in Preschool

I had some interesting experiences yesterday. We went by to pick up my nephew from preschool on the way to my brother's picnic. The children were having their mid afternoon snack: one half a bagel slathered with margarine. Is that a word? If not it should be meaning "to spread copious amounts." One of the aides was putting the spread on in truly huge amounts.

Sitting across from me at the toddler's table was Victoria. She took her bagel in hand and promptly turned it sideways and licked the margarine off the surface of the bread. She is such a pretty petite girl who if she keeps up this habit we're encouraging her to acquire will grow into an overweight health problem prone woman. I could just imagine in my mind's eye the fat making a beeline to the walls of her blood vessels.

My brother's program was a real success. So to treat he planned to stop by the local ice cream emporium to get a swirled Dairy Queen type cone. But he was reluctant because he didn't want to eat it in my face. But I said "Let's give it a try. I think I'll be all right with it."

We sat outside in the cool evening and chatted. I didn't have a hankering for my own. That went very well. However the server didn't ask me what I wanted. If she had, the "sugar monster" lurking just beneath the surface may have risen to the occasion. Do you remember the Cookie Monster on Sesame Street when your children were young?

The lesson from this may be that a challenge is good as long as it's not too much to handle psychologically. I think about our students and their project presentations. They usually have varying degrees of stage fright. But it's good for them to give the presentation a try as long as the challenge is not so great that they freeze up and can't do anything.

I'll miss the salads here. When I was talking about Wegmans the other day, I forgot to mention that the romaine came out of my sister in law's back yard garden. I'd go out and cut the leaves from the plant. I had never realized that you could "harvest" greens. For the duration of the season, they cut off the outer leaves and leave the plant to grow more leaves. The romaine is a full rich green from the composted soil. The grocery store variety literally "pales" by comparison!