60 Kindergarteners go into a library…..

…no, it’s not a joke, but an actual real-life scenario that happens weekly at my children’s elementary school.  Not sure whose great idea THAT was, but suffice it to say that initially the scene resembled that of the Filene’s Basement annual bridal gown sale. The temperature in the sizable room goes up to about ten thousand degrees; you can feel the electric hum of those sixty 5-year-olds who don’t really  know their own names or how to read; the three different classroom teachers fleeing the chaos, leaving the library staff to handle the melee.  The little ones cry because they can’t find a good puppy book, or because they forgot to bring back their old book, or because they want the book NOW, or because their best friend got the book they wanted, or because the stupid library volunteers don’t know their names, either! Do you know how much the library resembles a CDC petri dish with 60 kindergarteners-worth of runny noses, fingers in noses, hands in pants, spewing coughs and sneezes?  Since the start of this “class”, things have calmed down a bit: the kids know what to expect, we know them better, they choose from a set of pre-selected books, and they get two stories, all in a 35-minute period! Now the only crying in the library is that of the parent volunteers who still require tremendous patience and effort to get through that frantic period.  Sobbing and crying aside, I don’t know how I’ll ever go back to work with a “real” job – I am SPENT after my two-hour volunteer stint at the library.  “Hard day at the library, honey?” asks my 12-hour a day lawyer husband.  Hard day, indeed!