The Sharing Bag

On Friday afternoon, Colin proudly brought home a white bag, decorated in stickers, with "My Sharing Bag" neatly written across the top in perfect teacher penmanship. Each Monday, the bag is to be filled with that weekends assignment, and then shared with the class. The note that came home with the bag indicated the goal was to promote "public speaking skills and confidence" (in other words, a glorified "show and tell")

For Monday?  An apple. 

Simple, right?

I'm sure it would have been easy enough to just bop on over to Giant Eagle and pick up an apple.  Would have set me back about $.50, and taken about 20 minutes, 10 if I didn't bring Colin.

But why take the easy route? I'm an over-achiever.  Always have been.  Always will be. 

I envisioned Colin proudly standing up during their morning meeting (yes, they have a morning meeting every day at 9am...) detailing his adventure at the apple orchard. Showing his friends the perfect red apple he picked himself. Retelling the story of the tractor ride out to the orchard, selecting the perfect tree, climbing to reach it, etc. etc. 

I also saw the writing on the wall as I envisioned myself making spectacular solar system dioramas, conducting science experiments, and....ok, I'm getting ahead of myself, but seriously, I'm giddy just thinking about it!

Saturday morning we were off, bright and early, to the apple orchard.  Colin chatted away the entire drive about making apple pie, applesauce, and most importantly....apple ice cream! He was going to pick "very big, very red apples". And made it clear that he does not like the green or yellow ones. We bought three bags, and headed into the orchard. 

On the tractor ride we discussed the ground rules. 

1. No throwing apples (with two boys, this is critical, and had to be reinforced multiple times throughout the morning)

2. No picking up apples from the ground - they have bugs in them (again, with two boys, at the mere mention of the word bugs their eyes lit up in excitement)

3.  Smile for the camera

 

This wasn't Colin's first rodeo.  He's an apple picking pro, and within a few short minutes filled his bag to the brim, ate two bites out of six apples, and engaged Jack in a quick game of "apple eyes".  Which, if you don't know...is holding two apples in front of your eyes and yelling "apples eyes"! 



An hour later, I wrangled two boys and (what felt like) 100 pounds of apples to the car to head home.  Later in the day Colin helped me make applesauce and pie.  When presented with the finished product, he turned his nose up to both.  The applesauce was "lumpy" and the apple pie "broke" when he dug his fork in for the first bite.  Sigh.  At least they smiled for the camera.

Monday evening when I picked up Colin he proudly showed me the chart they made with the different apples everyone brought in.  He pointed to his red apple and told me it was called a "red delicious" (but picture delicious pronounced like you have a mouth full of marbles) then rattled off the names of all the apple varieties. I have absolutely no clue if his apple was actually a red delicious, but  he was immensely proud of his contribution to the class, and I consider that a Sharing Bag success!

We are already looking forward to next weeks assignment: A family picture.

I wonder if there's time for a family portrait session before Monday? I kid (well, not really...)