"Happy goodbye" is what the daycare calls a child's last day at daycare when the child's time at the centre is celebrated and the child then moves on to either the next centre or to school.
Liam had his last day at daycare on Friday. It was a huge day for him and for me. To think that he was only six months old when I went back to work and he started his daycare days... And now he's five and ready for school! It is these days that we realize how time goes by and how our children have grown up.
I really wanted to mark this last day and so I got organized with the other parents whose kids were going to Kindergarten. I wanted to make a quilt to leave at the daycare, a quilt that would represent all the children who were going to school this year.
Every parent emailed me information about their children and I chose fabrics to represent them. It was an incredibly rewarding and satisfying process.
For Liam I chose fabrics that would show his love for books and for stories. A book reading a book in the centre, stories and music all around and a strip of astronauts. The astronauts are for Liam's goodbye song, a song with which he was sent home every day: "Zoom-zoom astronaut, do you know you name or not?" Then a long pause would ensue when Liam would ponder a character from a story that he wanted to be, then after some prodding he would say "Sophie" or "Harry Potter" or "Saucepan Man".
Here is Liam's square:
And here is the entire quilt:
For his last day Liam wanted me to bring lemon cupcakes with lemon icing for his last snack to share with everyone. I also wanted to bring something for every child. In Germany children get a big cone filled with school supplies and candy on their first day of school: the "Schultüte". I thought this would be a wonderful tradition to share with all his friends. So Mark and I made 24 little cones that we filled with a couple of candies, a pencil, an eraser and some stickers. We bought all the school supplies at the Japanese dollar store (which is definitely one of my favourite stores in town!!).
Here is the making of the Schultüten:
Here is Liam talking about the tradition and what this is:
Liam and his friends eating the lemon cupcakes:
The Schultüten in the kids' cubbies:
One of the many beautiful things the daycare does for the deprting kids is to make an album for them about their time at the centre. Here is Liam's teacher reading through Liam's goodbye book with everyone.
I am forever grateful to the daycare. They have been a fantastic and valuable part of our family.
Giving them a quilt was my way of giving the warmth they have given Liam back. A way to say thank you.
And making the quilt was cathartic as I was wrapping my head around Liam growing up, as he leaves the safe environment of daycare and is off to school.
I am glad we have a wonderful (and much needed!) vacation coming up before we have to drop him off at school for the first time...
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