I know its hard to believe, but my kids have hands. It's amazing. How do I know this? Well aside from the obvious ability of being able to hold a fork, their schools tell me so. I swear not a week goes by that I don't get some form of my sons hands pressed on paper disguising itself as art work. Obviously the big one came not too long ago.
Yeah Mr. Hand Turkey made yet another appearance in my house this year. I think this is going on seven years now with a total of 12 hand turkeys between the two boys. This years turkey seems to be a little incomplete though, as it's missing a beak and that little red fleshy thingy. No fear though I have a dozen of them to choose from surely there must be at least one that is anatomically correct.
The Turkey is not alone!
It doesn't stop with the turkeys anymore. We've seen hands celebrating Columbus Day, Arbor Day, Mother's Day, Veterans Day and obviously Cinco de Mayo.
I used to get all excited about these sort of projects. I mean, it's your sons hand print, what could be more special than that. Then they started coming home with them all the time, and a cute little project had now turned into some teachers obsession. I can see them at home or their little school conferences thinking up the next great holiday to immortalize in a painted hand. It started with Thanksgiving and moved on to Christmas.
Then obviously Christmas with its dangling finger limbs soon became Valentines Day:
You would have thought they would at least be able to make a heart out of their hands. I mean look at this, its just a hand print. Let's get a little more creative than that. So after Valentine's Day is obviously our spring flower.
Nothing cries spring more than a bunch of handprints at the end of a green stick. Looking at this now, I guess it could be a bouquet of roses for Valentine's Day, but I can't be sure. Maybe it's for Mother's Day? There are so many I can no longer keep track. We got one last year I had never seen before, someone got really creative with this one:
Oh the Easter Bunny, you just couldn't be left out of this little hand print parade could you? See the hands are the EARS, how clever.
You get the idea. THEY HAVE HANDS!!!
It never ends. As soon as you think that you have seen them all, they come home with another one. I can't wait to see how they do Hanukkah? I mean eight candles, ten fingers, something's gotta give right? I just hope they don't chop off a few digits to make it possible. That would leave us with a weird looking turkey next year.
Being a teacher made this even funnier. I've yet to do a hand project but I might do one now just so I can send you some pictures proving all my students have hands.
ReplyDeleteI can also relate as a parent. Imogen is in her second year of preschool and has already produced several hand art projects similar to those in your post.
I loved this post!
That first turkey looks like it might have been doing a little dribbling when it was taken. Perhaps your son's hands had the piss scared out of them?
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping those are legs
ReplyDeleteOkay, so I was almost peeing my pants in laughter by the end of that.
ReplyDeleteSo does this mean kids don't have hands until they start school? I don't have any of that awesome artwork, and come to think of it, I can't remember if my kids have hands or not! I better check when I get home, and maybe even take a picture to put up at work to remind me. :)
My guy was sent home with a wreath made of cutouts of his hands!
ReplyDeleteIt might be fun to survey the kids in the class and ask if they like the finger-painting. I bet a lot them do, but then you'd get some kids who hate it. Every time the teacher announces another hand project, those kids are like, "Not again...!"
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping it does eventually end - hang in there, and thanks for sharing!
I wonder if we'll get some sort of Kwanzaa decoration made out of hands?
ReplyDeleteLong live hand art! love this.
ReplyDeleteI guess it is better than them coming home with the paint all over them or tattoos.
ReplyDeleteIf it is good once, doesn't it become great with so much repetition? LOL
ReplyDeleteMy old boss used to say 'repetition doesn't spoil the prayer' (thank you Tim Castelli) so I guess the pre-school teachers follow the same idea. Thank goodness our boys have all 10 fingers... how devastating for the parents of disabled children who aren't as lucky to constantly be reminded of their child's misfortune.
ReplyDeleteAt our school, on Thursdays, there is a craft club during lunch recess. They made reindeer decorations for the tree using .... you guessed it... a cut out of their hands. If I could upload pictures to comments I would. I laughed so hard when they came in to show off their hand reindeer.
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