Good Will, A Year in the Making

Everyone asks me where I'm sending my son to school.

I tell them I have no idea, I haven't really thought about it yet.

He's only a year and a half and thankfully, we don't live in an area where you need to register your child for preschool when he's just an inch long on the ultrasound.

I guess next fall he'll start somewhere, just for a few hours a day, maybe a few days a week. That's about as long as I can imagine letting him go.

So, this leaves me with one good year with my baby boy. One more year of playground visits and watching him belly laugh on the swings (and even swinging next to him when he points to the vacant swing and says, "Mama.") We have one more interrupted year of play groups, music classes, sledding on snowy days, morning walks along the river, visits to friends and family at our whim. Of course, this coming year will be full of "field trips" to the aquarium, zoo, art museum, apple orchards, and everywhere else.

But, slightly off the beaten path, I've decided to add to his "curriculum" a master class in "good will."

Every week for this entire school year, we'll do something to help others. It may be a small or large act. It may benefit one person or many, near or far. I have some ideas for where to begin, but I am open to suggestions.

What will my baby boy gain from this year of good will? Isn't 18 months way too young to remember these acts of kindness? Perhaps. But, I hope that somehow this year of giving will stay with my son forever, and, even if it doesn't, you can never imagine how one small act of kindness can impact someone else's life.