In, the end, of course, the class went fine. True, the birdhouses took up just fifteen minutes of the kids’ time–there’s only so much you can do to two square inches of cheap cardboard. Oh, they drew on them a bit, and glued a couple of pom poms on, but then they moved on to a box of Magna Tiles on the other side of the room. Who can blame them? None of them seriously believed that their completed piece would become the domicile of an actual bird. Even four-year-olds are smart enough to see that. I think it explains their lack of urgency.

Fortunately–because I didn’t have a lot of faith in the first project–I also brought in the ingredients to make scones. As well as my killer, super-secret, stolen-from-a-restaurant-I-used-to-work-at recipe. This part went great–in spite of the fact that I accidentally used wax paper instead of parchment in the oven, which should have been a disaster. In the end, though, you couldn’t taste it, especially after I’d helped the kids slather three pounds of jam on their pieces. Organic, of course.

Anyway, it was a great success. Almost every one of the kids asked to bring a second one home to eat later. Hope their parents keep a lot of preserves around.

Still, I think I should give them the recipe and encourage them to make those for their dads on Fathers Day.

As for the birdhouses? They’ll make great Christmas tree ornaments. Now that’s thinking ahead!