The Lollipop Tree

By megret | October 13, 2008 at 7:05 am | One comment | Learning and doing

I went to preschool at the Baptist church on the campus of the seminary my dad attended. It was the early, early 80s (I’m showing my age here for all to see), so LPs were still the way to go — tapes were JUST becoming more commonplace, but weren’t always available for teachers.

I had a very creative, imaginative preschool teacher, Mrs. Kozlay. Several of the activities she planned for us still stick in my mind. Here is one of them. It was a late spring day. We read/listened to a story on record called The Lollipop Tree, narrated by Burl Ives.

After it was over, we walked outside to see all of the tall magnolia trees outside of our classroom windows covered with lollipops (DumsDums, to be exact). Oh, my — how magic and special! I can still remember jumping up to reach them, all of us in awe and dismayed, cramming all we could into our tiny pockets.

We tend to spend a lot of time teaching the kids true, logical, and factual things here in our household. I grew up an imaginative child, and I am sure that is partly because of the creativity and inspiration that my parents, teachers, and others modeled and encouraged in me. I think it’s okay to let the wonderment of children breathe and expand sometimes — one of the best part of being a kid is make-believe! I have been planning to do this with the kids for some time now — and the looks on their faces was priceless.

I found this book and record set on ebay a few months back and have had it hidden away. I looked through the kitchy, 70s illustrations right away, but I held off on listening to the record until the day I pulled it out for the kids to hear. It was a little bit magical for me, too!

Even before we stepped outside, G was peering through the glass to see if he could see any evidence of a candy-growing tree.

Sure enough! Lollipops hung from the branches above the play fort (DumDums, of course), ready for the picking. Even I couldn’t turn down the strawberry one that those little fingers picked just for me.