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Once a week for about an hour, I spend time with my son's kindergarten class.

I figured it's a nice way to catch a glimpse of my son during his school day while, at the same time, give back to an educational system that has been so good to me in many ways. 

Sometimes we work on rhyming or practice saying words.  Sometimes we read or play a game.  Sometimes we develop a project.

The other day we were matching words to their rhyming pictures.  We had a dozen or so photos to go through.

We worked one-on-one in the hallway so we could focus.

The child was down to one object.  It was either a cup or a mug.  It depended on the picture it was matching.

The child knew it went there because it was the last one but he didn't know what the matching photo was.

I didn't know either -- and I'm the adult.

It was a three circles inside each other.  I thought it was a target at first but that didn't rhyme with cup or mug.

The boy thought it was a Frisbee.

I didn't know what to tell him, so I looked at the back of the game.  These are supposed to be Teacher's Editions, right?  Finally, I could use the answer book.

Indeed, in the back, there was the answer.  It showed me the cup or mug went to the circle picture but it didn't say WHAT the item was!

I had to ask for help.

A parent -- asking for help in their kid's class.

I wondered, would they ask me leave?  I did well on my ACT years ago.  Would I have to produce a copy?  Show them my college degree?

The teacher politely explained to me that the picture was a rug.

I felt like writing a nasty letter to the artist who drew it because I didn't think it looked anything like a rug -- but I knew there were more kids ready to play the same game.

I sat down with a girl this time and explained the rules.

The girl picked the mug as her first clue and before I could say anything -- she matched it right away to the rug.