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Cookie Monsters

The first day of the schools being closed was strange. It was unreal as things developed by the hour. There are no children, we don’t have to come to work, we don’t have to pick them up from schools.

Now what? Ok, plenty to clean, organize and arrange in the classrooms. Finally, time for those things we have always postponed…There are holiday plans to be made with new field trips, workshops and themes.

On the second day we started to think of solutions on how to reach out to children at home. What to suggest to parents as activities to do during the long days of staying home. We saw nice and very creative ideas online.

I started thinking what to offer to the after school children. They are so creative, they are amazing with coming up with their own ideas, projects and games. They have online school with tons of homework, so no need for extra ideas.

What do they like? What do they miss? The gym!! Yes, definitely the gym. Where they can charge, release energy after a long day in school, run, play or just relax in a mattress fort they built.

Temporarily it is not available unfortunately….so what else? What are the children going to miss during these coming weeks without us?

COOKIES! Yes, that’s it! They will miss the good bye cookies at the end of the day. We have this small tradition in our after school care that if the children had eaten their dinner well they can have a cookie or biscuit if parents also agree.

So, if the children can’t come for the cookies the cookies will go to them!

As soon as this idea came to me it didn’t take long to take action.

Laura designed and made an AMAZING card, within two hours after I asked her help, while busy with home schooling for her boys. Zsuzsa bought 38 packages of cookies and we started our mission. Paola came from The Hague to deliver to the children in The Hague and surroundings, we took the remaining 33 addresses in Wassenaar.

We were ready to go at one o’clock with the cards written and addresses in our pocket. I told Zsuzsa, we will get on with it and by three o’clock we will be done! What was I thinking? Seriously?! 😊😊

What an adventure it has been! We wanted it to be a surprise in the mailbox and were very excited about imagining the smiles on the children’s face and their reaction when they find it. Zsuzsa even bought the only existing mail box sized cookie packages… Still it was a challenge, not all mail boxes are the same size, we learnt. And some even have crocodile teeth-like insides from metal. Ouch!

BUT everyone was at home! 🙂 So we got busted multiple times… 😊 But it was definitely worth it. We felt like naughty teenagers. Ring the bell and run… 😊 And when we looked back sometimes we saw smiling children waving from the window or happy moms at the doorstep.

While we were still on the way, we already started getting feedback from happy children via their parents. It was an amazing feeling! Laura came to the rescue and took over some addresses when we realized that we slightly bit underestimated the enormity of the task… 😊

We were almost done close to six o’clock, last but one address…big house, toys and slide in the garden. Yes, this must be it. Number 2, right? Yes, number two….Ok, done! Missioin complete! No…, wait, …..number 2…yes, but straat? ….Errrr….no, it ends with …dael. This is the street right next to it….What now? Ok, we made someone happy we don’t even know, but it’s ok. 😊

Luckily, we had an extra card and an extra pack of cookies. Mission saved! As a finishing moment, Zsuzsa came back running from the door and she said: I am afraid I dropped the cookies on the dog, it was right under the mail opening and now it is barking a lot! 😊 😊

By the time we got home more messages with pictures, and video messages were waiting for us and a nine-year old girl called me to say thank you. I was so happy!! This day was full of joy and it was totally worth it! We are a real family here, with all the colleagues who are always ready to jump if help is needed. And of course, let’s not forget about the creativity and talent here if we need to come up with a magic card (immediately).

P.S. No way Santa can do this in one night!!

Cookie Monsters

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