Sometimes the kids still surprise me

I don't think my kids were as surprised by my unexpected appearance at school Friday, as I was surprised by them, later in the day. Friday was Fantastic Friday, which we have the last Friday of the month. It's where the classes are shortened and the last hour of the day is spent with your team and there are reward activities for those students who got good grades and didn't act up too much. This time around, we made cards and crafts to send to the troops in Iraq (I adopted a platoon through adoptaplatoon.org last Spring). Honestly, because these kids are so separated from the war and from the military (the nearest base is a two hour drive away and I doubt any of my kids know anyone there), I didn't expect them to be that into the activity. I mean, I suppose I assumed most of them would grudgingly make some crap-tastic card just to please us, but I really thought quite a few of them would roll their eyes and just sit there, saying something like, "I don't wanna do this," or "This is dumb," or something along those lines. But they surprised me. As soon as I started sending tables of kids at a time to the table with the supplies, they were at work. They made some pretty darn creative cards and letters, if I do say so myself. No one complained or asked if they had to do this. They just did it. And they did it without getting out of control or whiny. Some of the cards really made me smile too, because they said things like, "You rock!" and "Come home and don't die" and "I bet you're sad to be there" and "Have you seen any camel spiders?" (if you've never heard of them, Google it, they're pretty scary!)

As I was cleaning up the stickers, markers, crayons, construction paper, scissors, pens, paper and glue sticks, I was smiling the whole time. It just makes me happy when the kids do something unselfish and sweet without asking if they're gonna get a grade or extra credit for it. There should be more moments like this. I like it when the kids surprise me. Or at least most of the time.