Julia's Math Homework at the Little Red Schoolhouse

The Little Red Schoolhouse

JULIA EMILY KRISS, 4 years old

Little Red Riding Hood

When Julia was three years old, Mom and I took her to Storybook Forest at Idlewild Park. We strolled down the path, squeezed through Alice’s keyhole, munched on a cookie from Little Red Riding Hood, passed bowls of porridge and Humpty Dumpty on a wall.  We walked through a crooked house and passed a bad wolf and a large shoe dwelling. But we spent the majority of the day in this Little Red Schoolhouse. The picture, however, is misleading.

The Little Red Schoolhouse, Storybook Forest

This picture shows the tiny school on a beautiful, summer day. On our day, the sun was hiding and we were drenched. Mom strode around the park under a yellow and blue umbrella. It rained all day long right up to the drive home when we didn’t need windshield wipers.

The school had small, old-fashioned wooden children’s desks and a bigger desk for the teacher. Catchy music blared through some speakers making sure we knew the alphabet and how to count to 20. In the corner stood a statue of a naughty dunce.

An entire year later we returned to the park. I stuffed some swimsuits and towels into a backpack. Then Julia added her own essentials. She crammed some papers in our luggage. When we got to the schoolhouse, she took out her work (I had been home schooling her) and she completed several math pages. 

I’ve always cherished her enthusiasm! 

She had assigned herself homework at age three and carried it out a year later! She was enthusiastic, and confident, and oh-so organized. Currently, she is an honor student taking 11^th grade Calculus and a member of the National Honor Society. Yep. I predicted this while she was doing her “math homework” in the little schoolhouse at Idlewild Park.

Julia getting accepted into the
National Honor Society, 2017

 Amy Louise Geertz Kriss

Mom in the rain at Idlewood Park, 2003