Show Mom you care by printing out, coloring and writing a sweet note to your mom, grandmother, aunt, or special person in your life. Hurry! Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 9th.

Hint: If you want to use paint or have a more authentic=feeling card print these on cardstock paper.

Enjoy our Mother’s Day Bonus!

Read-along with the story titled;

The Day Kayla Stayed Home With Her Mother

by, Jo Carol Hebert

“My mother’s not going to work today. She’s staying home with me!” Kayla told her best friend, Shawna, when she came to walk to school with her.

“Are you sick?” Shawna asked, seeing that Kayla was still in her pajamas.

“Nope,” Kayla answered proudly, “I just get to stay home today. Just me and my mom.” Then she frowned, remembering the argument with her mother the night before.

“You don’t care about me at all!” Kayla had yelled at her mother. “All you do is play with the baby ‘cause she’s so ‘cute’!” Thoroughly frustrated, Kayla had added, “And I hate Rosemary’s stinky diapers!” Then she had slammed her bedroom door, really hard, leaving her mother standing speechless in the hallway.

 “Well, lucky you,” Shawna said, interrupting her thoughts. “My mom would never let me stay home from school without being sick. Well, gotta go, have fun,“ she said, skipping off across the lawn.

Mom wasn’t dressed in her fine clothes today. She didn’t pack her papers in the black briefcase and snap the lid shut. She wore old blue jeans and a faded plaid shirt with the button missing off the sleeve.

“What do you want to do after I take Rosemary to play school?” Mom asked as she stuffed the baby’s blanket in the diaper bag.

“No…want…go,” Rosemary said, whimpering when she heard the word school.

Kayla’s heart sank. Now Rosemary would ruin everything.

But her mother said, “oh, Rosie, this is the day the story clown comes to read!” She scooped up the baby.

“I know – let’s make cookies!” Kayla said. Her mother’s smile told her she agreed as she hurried out the door.

Kayla had everything ready to make peanut butter cookies when her mother came back.

Mom read the directions while Kayla mixed the ingredients. The dough tasted really good! 

Unfortunately, the cookies got burned. But they didn’t care.

“I know – let’s ride our bikes to the park and have a picnic!” her mother said. So they made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and packed them in a paper bag. 

Unfortunately, Kayla’s bike had a flat tire. But they didn’t care.

“Let’s walk and play the “sounds-like” game.” Kayla suggested. So they started out, crunching the dry autumn leaves under their feet.

“I see something that sounds like ‘loud,’ her mother said.

“That’s too easy – a cloud!” Kayla said, glancing up at the gray puffy clouds above their heads.

“Now, this is gonna’ be a really hard one.” Kayla looked around for a minute, thinking. Finally, she said, “I see something that sounds like ‘rider.’

Her mother walked along, her face crinkled in thought.

“Okay. Give me another hint, ‘Kaylee’,” she said, using her ‘pet’ name.

“It’s on your sleeve!” Kayla screamed in delight.

“Spider!” her mother yelled, brushing frantically at the little crawling thing on her arm.

“Just you wait, Kayla-Anne Crowder,” I’m gonna get you for that!” her mother threatened with a smile.

They were almost to the park when it began to sprinkle. It began to rain. It began to pour! 

But they didn’t care.

“Let’s take a shortcut through the soccer field,” her mother said, grabbing her hand.

“Run, ‘Kaylee’, she yelled as the thunder rumbled across the sky.

“Mom, watch out for the mud.” Kayla warned. Too late. Her mother stepped smack into the mud bog, still holding tight to her hand. They both sat down with a splat in the gooey slush! 

But they didn’t care.

“Oh, well,” her mother said, as she scooped up a handful of soft mud and quickly shaped it into a ball. Then, she did the unthinkable. 

Splat! 

Kayla felt the mud ball roll down her back.

“You asked for it!” Kayla cried, delighting at the game. She plopped a mud ball right on top of her mother’s head and it stayed stuck there, like a scoop of chocolate ice cream. Kayla fell over, laughing

In the distance, a jagged streak of lightning zoomed down from the sky.

“We’d better get to cover,” her mother yelled through the pelting rain. By the time they got to the playground and ducked under the wooden deck by the slide, the rain had washed them almost clean. 

“I’m starving,” her mother said. “Did you bring the sandwiches?”

Kayla reached into her jacket and brought out the soggy, smashed things.

“Lunch is served,” she announced formally, dangling the dripping sack in mid-air. “You can have mine, too!”

“Thanks a lot!” Her mother laughed. The rain pounded on the wooden slats above them.

But they didn’t care.

Kayla and her mother told stories until the lightning stopped and the rain slowed to a drizzle. 

“I know! Let’s go home and make marshmallow hot chocolate and play games,” her mother announced.

Back at home they wrapped up in warm terry cloth robes. There were no marshmallows for the chocolate. 

But they didn’t care. 

“I know,” said Kayla. “Let’s play ‘Go Fish’. 

While the thunder growled faintly and rain ‘pitter-pattered’ lightly on the roof, she and her mother played card games. They put together puzzles and cut and pasted pictures from old magazines. They even made a house and furniture from cardboard boxes. 

That night, Kayla lay in bed, listening to the leftover rain trickling down the gutter spouts on the edge of the roof. She snuggled down in the covers and tucked her hands under the pillow to prop it up under her head.

A crack of light appeared in the doorway.

“Are you asleep?” her mother asked softly. Kayla lay still, pretending to be asleep. She knew her mother would tiptoe in to tuck the covers around her like a cocoon, leaving her feet sticking out, just the way Kayla liked it. 

Very quietly, her mother whispered in her ear.

“There’s a tiny little spider on your back.”

“Yeow! Get it off!” Kayla screeched as she threw off the covers and jumped out of bed.

 “Got ya!” her mother laughed.

“Well, that mud hat looked really nice on you today, too.” Kayla teased back.

“And those soggy sandwiches were quite delicious!” her mother replied

“Mom,” Kayla said quietly, as her mother expertly tucked the blanket in place again. “I really don’t hate Rosemary.”

“I know, ‘Kaylee,’ her mother said.

Just then, the baby woke up and started crying from her crib.

“Well, I have to go help your sister, now,” her mother sighed.

“It’s okay, Mom,” Kayla answered, squeezing her mother extra hard. She couldn’t wait to meet Shawna in the morning. Her friend would want to know everything she did – the day Kayla stayed home with her mother.

THE END