Kindlandia: Kindness. Be Nice. Make Friends.

Dearest Edythe,

We have the most adorable almost-two-year-old grandson, Benjamin. Thankfully he and his folks only live about an hour’s drive away. However, the past couple months I was not able to see him due to travel followed by healing from my car accident. We recently had dinner together with Benjamin and his folks. He went eagerly to Thom, his Opa, who’d been able to babysit, but he was more reluctant to come to me, his Oma.*

I’ve pondered how Ben and I might stay close even when our schedules mean weeks in between visits. I loved singing children’s songs with my own children and wondered how I might incorporate play and songs to connect with Ben, especially via FaceTime.

I started thinking about some of the songs that have several verses. “The Wheels on the Bus,” which we know as “The School Bus Song,”** came immediately to mind:
The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels on the bus go round and round, all through the town.
The baby on the bus goes wah wah wah
The horn on the bus goes beep beep beep
The children on the bus go up and down
The wipers on the bus go swish swish swish
​
Would you believe Fisher-Price still makes the “Little People School Bus?” Would you believe they are still carried at Fred Meyer with a special buy-one-and-get-the-second half price!? Would you believe the motto on the side of the packaging was, “KINDNESS: Being nice. Making friends.” Through play and song, my hope is that Benjamin and I will become friends.

Now Ben and I each have a yellow bus and school children to ride inside. With the push of a button on the bus roof, lights flash, a side door and stop sign open, and the Bus Song plays!

I made Ben a video showing him my school bus. His folks made me a video of Ben unwrapping his bus. Soon we will schedule playtime on FaceTime with our matching buses. During each exchange we will learn one verse of the School Bus Song together! Hopefully, by the next time we are face to face in real life we will have a song and bus game to play together! Oma will no longer be a stranger, but a friend!
Ah, Edythe, another chapter in Kindlandia: Kindness via a Fisher-Price School Bus with the motto, “Being nice. Making friends.” Making friends, especially with my precious grandson, Benjamin!

* It’s very common for German speakers to refer to their grandparents informally or affectionately as der Opa (grandfather) and die Oma (grandmother).

** We think the song was written by Verna Hills of Boston, as it appeared originally in the 25th volume of American Childhood in 1939. The song here is one of the many versions sung today.