My older son is in the 4^th grade. That means he has been in school for 5 years (not counting preschool).  That is 45 months, 195 weeks, or 975 days.  That is a lot of days in a nine year olds life.  One would think that on each of those days when I have asked him what he did in school, I would have heard a plethora of events.  So many school happenings, friendship quarrels, lunch disasters, playground successes that I would be tired of hearing them by now.  If only… Out of those 975 days, I am pretty sure I can count his responses on one hand.  They are-

1. Nothing
2. Stuff
3. The usual
4. The same

I couldn’t think of five… unless it was, “Stop asking me.”

If I had become a dentist- then maybe I might enjoy this “pulling teeth” ritual we do daily.  Although I doubt it.  What I do know is that he isn’t being evasive because he is being mean, trying to hide something, or magically turned into a brooding teenager overnight.  He is just as tired as I am after a day at school.  He has worked hard, and the last thing he wants to do remember and recount his day for me.  He has already lived it and it is over for him.

But when it comes down to it, I still ask.  Why?  Because I am his mom.  Because I love him.  Because I missed him while he was away, and I am excited to reconnect after he returns.

Then one day everything changed.  He walked in the door, threw his backpack down and I am pretty sure had “Nothing” halfway out of his mouth before I said, “Hey Bud, I saw you had your little buddies in class today and you wrote stories on the computer together.  That’s so cool you have (one of our neighborhood kids)’s class for little buddies this year.  It looked like she was so excited to be in class with you.”  You would have thought I grew three heads with the way he looked at me.  He warily replied, “Uh, yea.  How do you know that?”  After I told him to start packing because I had sold my first born son to become telepathic, I told him that his teacher started using Bloomz, and he had posted pictures of their buddy visit.  All of the sudden I was hearing that his buddy and him both like football, and they wrote their story about the Seahawks winning the Super Bowl.  They evidently got to take turns going up and the big buddies read their stories to the class, and how he thought theirs was the best by far.  They even got to have snack together!

Now when Noah comes home he races to my phone.  Did he post anything today?  Am I in it?  It’s like getting your yearbook daily in our house now.  I am hearing stories about his day.  I can contribute to the conversation because I am “in the know” thanks to his teachers.  We have worked on problems, celebrated his accomplishments, and attend events (that I never knew were happening because he would lose invitations and flyers before getting them home).

It has been amazing!  I am so thankful for Bloomz, not only as a teacher, but as a parent as well.

If you would like to increase meaningful after school conversations with your children, follow this link to recommend Bloomz to your child's teacher.