Field of Dreams - not the movie but the Daycare.

In the daycare days of my children's upbringing, Lisa played a real important role in their young lives. We chose Lisa's daycare partly because her son, Isaiah, was in my 6th grade class at the time and partly because she had such a great location right on the edge of town - close enough to be convenient to the school and country enough to be a little bit country.

In full disclosure, a couple of reviews of Lisa's place weren't that flattering. A friend whose kids USED to go there, told us, "The kids are always outside!" - "The kids come home a mess every day!" She told us these things with such disdain that she couldn't believe we would subject our own kids to this torture. She was sure that we'd pull our kids and have them in some finishing school by week's end.

Thankfully her review was spot on and we're more so, grateful that we stuck it out all them years and developed such a great relationship with Lisa and her family at the "Field of Dreams" daycare. Our naysayer friend is kind of a Negative Nelly about a lot of things but what she viewed as unwelcome and unpleasant outcomes of being at Lisa's, we actually valued as productive and creative. Debbie Downer's assessment was correct. Our kids were outside constantly. Constantly playing ball. Constantly swinging and making up games. Constantly supervised and loved.

She was right. The kids came home a mess every day! A mess from playing in the sand or going on an adventure to Rab's farm to help pick apples and sticks. The kids were messy from arts and crafts time and exploring and creating and building. Often, they were tired and ready for bed but excited to go back to Lisa's the next day.

Fast forward a bunch of years to the present. Logan just passed 7th grade and thankfully doesn't need full time daycare anymore. We bought him a fishing pole. Emma, on the other hand, has returned to the "Field of Dreams Daycare", except now she's on the payroll. Emma is Lisa's helper. There to play with the older kids, affording Lisa time to tend to the infants or another cup of coffee. Emma helps with the sunscreen and sets the ground rules for the next game of tag or soccer. Emma helps with the meals and the diapers. She earns her keep by doing what the boss asks of her. And the kids love her there.

I picked up her up from work today and asked how things went. "Fine.", she replied.
"We crossed the ditch in to that field and ran in the fluffy dandelion things. Then we went to the back of the bean field and played for a while and jumped a couple of mallards out of the creek. It was a fun day."

I could just picture the kidlet crew at Field of Dreams daycare marching with Emma through the field of dandelion blowballs, dispersing the seeds in to the wind with laughter and smiles. I imagined that most of the youngsters trusted her navigation skills over the creek and back through the beanfields that she herself grew up around. I hoped that the parents picking up their loved ones for the day would appreciate that Emma and Lisa were sending the littles home with some sand in their ears and maybe some dirt on their toes not out of neglect but out of love.

The first thing Emma did after getting home from work and feeding her dog was to go to the tub to wash her feet.

I'd say that it was another succesful day at the "Field of Dreams".