My younger son， Kelly， started preschool when he was four， attending twice a week for two hours each time. I soon noticed he was always the last one to leave the classroom， so I asked the teacher if he was having problems. "No， no." she assured me. "He is doing fine—just involved in a creative project."
Once I asked through the classroom door if he was ready to leave， he yelled， "Don' t come in！ It' s a surprise." So I waited patiently each day until he finally emerged， smiling and mysterious.
"What are you doing in there？" I asked.
"Making something." he said.
My curiosity was getting the best of me. What held his attention for such a long period of time？ He liked building things by stacking alphabet blocks， then attaching Lincoln Logs until he made a structure big enough for parking his Hot Wheel cars.
Eventually the day arrived when he led his class out the door carrying his creative project， with both hands. His eyes rarely left the tissue-wrapped package as he carefully walked to the car， instead of running as usual. He handed it to me. "Here， Mom， it' s a surprise. I made it just for you."
Carefully I lifted the tissue off first one side and then the other. Inside nestled a string necklace made of hand-colored macaroni pieces—red， yellow， green， purple and every other color in his crayon box.
"It' s beautiful， " I said， holding it carefully and turning it this way and that so the sun shone on it through the car window. "It looks like a rainbow necklace."
He leaned on my arm and stared at it with me. "I made it， " he said confidently， "all by myself."
The necklace caused a lot of excitement at home. Kelly' s dad， his older brother and both younger sisters admired it. I carefully stowed it in my jewelry box so it would not get broken.