This morning, Emma had a summer class through the City of Chandler. It was called "Goofy Gardening" and I was really excited to go to it. The description talked about doing experiments, painting with vegetables, planting an edible plant, making, and eating a garden treat, and other activities. I had expected the garden treat to be dirt cups. (Crushed Oreo Cookies, chocolate pudding, and a gummy worm). I knew there was a good possibility of Emma not being able to do this part because of her Peanut Allergy. I wasn't too concerned about it with all of the other activities that would be going on. I just figured we wouldn't go to that center, and I would make sure I had a snack for her.
So this morning I had told her it was her turn to go to school and take a special garden class. (She knows that Sophia goes to school and always talks about it.) Now that she is very much a 2 year old, we talked about the rules of the classroom and that she needed to stay with mommy. (we are testing some independence these days!) Emma seemed to be really excited also, so off we went.
We walked into the classroom and Emma sat in her little chair. I didn't see anything set up except for the dirt cups, so I was a little worried. I told the teacher about Emma's allergy, and asked if it would be ok to look at the ingredients on the table. Of course it was fine, and my heart sank that everything had a peanut warning, or contained traces of peanuts except for the pudding. It seems that off brand products are the ones that have the warning most of the time, and that is what all these items were. At this point, I was ok. I put some gold fish crackers in her bag and Emma smashed those while the other kids smashed their cookies. Then it all went down hill. Even though I had told them she couldn't have the stuff, they kept offering the other stuff to her, and I had to keep saying that she couldn't have it. So there I sat in a class of about 6 other kids, all their moms starring at me as I said no she can't have that, then Emma saying "Emma wants a worm", and I started thinking about what she is and what she is going to miss out on, and I started crying. Silly and selfish I know. I just wasn't expecting the eating part to be such a big focus. And Emma wasn't really missing out. I found some bunny fruit snacks in my bag and she put those in her pudding, and she was happy to eat her pudding. But then the teacher said that was all she had planned and since there was still so much time left over, they could do the activity that she had planned for her other class. So Emma got to sprinkle some seeds onto a wet sponge, and the class was over! No painting, no planting, no other activities.
Now, I know Emma didn't feel like she was missing out, but I was mad, and we went straight to Home Depot. I found a Mickey Mouse planting kit, and we came home to plant our own flowers. I did call to complain about the class. Nothing about her allergy, just that the class was nothing what the description said it was going to be. They were very polite, and basically said that they had to find a replacement teacher last minute and it was their fault that they didn't communicate to her what the class was suppose to be. Oh well. Maybe next time I will stick to the activity classes like sports and dance.
Planting some flowers
Ready to find some sun for them to sit in. Fingers crossed that we get something to pop up!
I have already said that next spring, I was to plant our own little vegetable/fruit garden. Should be interesting!!
