There are days when I feel that half a day has passed and it’s not even 8:15 a.m. Usually that thought hits me on the drive to school. Usually it’s in winter, after an endless search for a missing mitten.
It’s a miracle if we all make it into the minivan without me threatening to sell the children.
And then there’s the drive.
Driving: A Struggle To Arrive with Kids Alive
A couple of years ago, in a good parenting moment, I started playing Math with them while driving. I gave them number problems, and they figured out the answer (or not). The game went like this: “If Mommy, Daddy, Vivian, and William are home, and Grandma and Grandpa come to visit, how many people are in the house?”
They’ve become pretty good at it, too. So good, that I’ve started taking creative license with our problems. On a recent family outing, the scenario was this: “If Vivian and William are throwing Cheerios at each other and Daddy is still sleeping, how many people are left when Mommy runs away?”
Nothing like passive aggressive behaviour to make me feel better.
Lately, there’s been even more numbers swirling around our minivan. Every day for the past three months, Vivian and William have been telling me how many days they’ve been in school. Apparently their teachers told them they’d have a 100 Days of School party, and they’re using this as counting practice. The idea of 100 days doesn’t sound too bad, but add to it the fact that I’m a teacher and I’m in a slow-mo time warp.
“We’ve only been in school 93 days?” I ask one January Monday.
The day passes.
“It’s only Day 94?” I ask Tuesday. I’m more than aware that I teach 190 days of school each year. My math is good enough to know that we’re not even halfway there. No wonder why experts peg the end of January as the most depressing time of the year.
100 Days: Protective Gear Recommended
Day 100 closes in. New problem: each kid needs to bring 100 of something to school that day.
“How about hairs?” I ask. “There’s more than 100 on your head.”
It takes a while to silence their mass protest.
Vivian decides to bring her shell collection. William decides to bring 100 wheels (also known as 25 toy cars).
The 100th day – yesterday – goes well enough. It’s over, and for that I’m grateful.
Now, only 90 more to go.
Photos courtesy of Mykl Roventine and Pascal, used under a Creative Commons ShareAlike License
Leanne Shirtliffe is the mother of seven-year-old twins, Thing 1 and Thing 2. She lived in Asia for eight years, which turned out to be a build-your-own-family adventure. Leanne writes for Nickelodeon and pens a humour column for The Calgary Herald. She is represented by Jill Marr of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency in California. 
Our 100th day was yesterday (Tuesday)as well. A bunch of 5-year-old and 6-year-old kids running around with hats that said 100 on them. I guess that’s better than running around with 100 hats on.
Imagining a class full of children each with 100 hats on had me laughing. It has the potential for a good picture book, perhaps a la Dr. Seuss!
We have a book called the 100th day of school – didn’t realize this was actually a done thing… Loved it, as usual, you are writing what we are all thinking. Good ideas on the dentist by the way, Jack’s next one is in 2 weeks… JUST enough time to cheat!!
Yup, it’s a done thing. I really think kids need to work on their backwards counting, though. Maybe I should propose they now start counting in reverse: 90-89-88…can’t wait till ONE!
Good idea for keeping them occupied in the car! My little guy just chatters the whole time about completely random stuff. At least yours are focused!
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