Tacky
Meet Tacky:
In addition to the starring in his own storybook, Tacky is a stuffed animal who wears a Hawaiian print shirt and serves as the mascot for The Boy’s Kindergarten class. Every day, a different Kindergartener brings home Tacky for the night. Parents are asked the read the Tacky story and then write in a provided journal about said Kindergartener’s adventures with Tacky.
Today, The Boy jumped off the bus triumphantly and showed me the stuffed penguin he was having trouble managing along with his backpack. “This is Tacky! He came home with me today!”
The wheels were already turning in my mind as to what Tacky would do with us tonight and what we would put in the journal. As luck would have it, Tacky was able to go on an adventure. To the Library! Whoo hoo! Nonstop adventures over here, my friends, NON. STOP.
We picked out penguin books at the library in honor of Tacky and returned home, where Tacky defended himself honorably from the nasal advances of curious dogs. I snapped a few pictures of Tacky – at the library with his penguin books, at home meeting the dogs, and on the couch holding a light saber while everyone watched Star Wars – printed them up and taped them into the journal with a little story and had The Boy sign his name.
I find projects like these interesting. It’s sort of like show and tell. The children are able to share with their class their interests and things from their home life, but instead of bringing things into class, they bring the same item from class home. You never know what will go into the journal, but chances are every entry will be different and unique to the child who experienced it and the parent who wrote it up.
Ours was the first Tacky experience for the school year, so the next time we’re up, I’ll get to see some of the other entries. At Back to School night, the teacher told a couple funny stories from Tacky’s past. One year, a dog bit his beak off. The mother of that particular household happened to work for the local university’s hospital and took Tacky to the hospital and sent pictures to the class of Tacky all bandaged up in a hospital and told everyone he was getting rhinoplasty, and then purchased a new penguin and sent him in a few days later, the difference in appearance explained by the surgery (coincidentally, that story pretty much sums up the pilot episode of Knight Rider). The kids were worried about Tacky, rejoiced when he returned to them.
Part of me wanted to write the whole thing off as silly, but when The Boy jumped off the bus with that big, excited smile, I had to rethink the purpose of Tacky. When Kindergarteners are taking their timid steps into the world of socializing, they all know they have a mutual friend in Tacky. To me, it’s just a stuffed animal, but to the Kindergarteners, he’s their first shared delight, a common ground. I hope Tacky had a good time here and he’s always welcome back.
