4 An Important Life Skill

Chapter 4 An Important Life Skill Mother's Day was coming up on Sunday. Mrs. Lizzy said that for our first recess enrichment project we should make something for our mothers. "I'm going to cook my mom breakfast in bed," said Andrea. "How are you gonna do that?" I asked. "Do you have a stove in your bed?"

"No, Arlo!" Andrea said, rolling her eyes. "I'm going to make her breakfast on the stove and then bring it to her in bed." "Oh," I said. "That's different." "My mom loves to eat breakfast in her pajamas," Emily said. "She should put her breakfast on a plate," I told Emily. "Your mom is weird." Emily looked all mad, like she was going to start crying. As usual. "No, dumbhead!" Andrea said to me, rolling her eyes again. "Emily's mom doesn't put the breakfast in her pajamas! She eats it while she's wearing her pajamas!" I knew that. I just like yanking Andrea's and Emily's chains. "Mothers like it when you make them a gift for Mother's Day," Mrs. Lizzy told us. "Today I'm going to teach you how to make the perfect Mother's Day gift."

"What's the perfect Mother's Day gift?" asked Ryan. "A balloon animal!" said Mrs. Lizzy. She pulled a long red balloon out of her pocket and blew it up. Then she tied the end and twisted the balloon every which way. It was really squeaky. The next thing we knew, the balloon animal was finished. "See?" Mrs. Lizzy said. "It's a little doggie! Here, I'll show you kids how to make one."

Mrs. Lizzy's balloon dog was cool. It really looked like a dog. She pulled more balloons out of her pocket and gave one to each of us. "Is it really important for children to learn how to make balloon animals?" asked Andrea. "Maybe we should use the Recess Enrichment Program to improve our reading, writing, and math skills." "Can you possibly be more boring?" I asked Andrea. What is her problem? Reading, writing, and math are way overrated. And balloon animals are cool. "Think of it this way, Andrea," said Mrs. Lizzy. "When you grow up, you'll probably go on a job interview one day. What would happen if you were on a job interview and they asked you to make a balloon animal? If you had never learned how to do that as a

child, you wouldn't get the job. That would be a shame. Unemployment is a big problem in our country. That's why it's so important for kids to learn how to make balloon animals." Yeah! In her face! I love it when Andrea's wrong. "And imagine if all the bad people in the world made balloon animals instead of committing crimes and hurting people," Mrs. Lizzy told us. "The world would be a much better place, don't you think?" Mrs. Lizzy made sense. I liked her a lot. She also made great balloon animals. We all blew up our balloons and twisted them every which way. "I worked my way through college by making balloon animals," Mrs. Lizzie told us. "I graduated with a degree in balloon animal construction."

"College must have been a lot cheaper in those days," I said. Some kids from the other classes gathered around to watch us make balloon animals. It was cool. Maybe the Recess Enrichment Program wasn't such a bad idea after all.