blah, blah, blahing


It's funny how time and experience changes a person.

One very hot summer years ago I sat through a terribly boring elementary education course and decided right then and there with beads of sweat rolling down my face that teaching was not for me. The teacher kept blah, blah, blahing about how to teach small children the alphabet and her words would not stick in my brain. They left as quickly as they entered. I somehow managed to squeeze an A out of my teacher that term before rapidly changing my major.

I changed it three more times over the course of the next few years before finally returning to teaching--teaching high school students. I would never return to el. ed. Children were about as foreign to me as Russia so I decided to stick with the older, more sarcastic generation. For some reason, I can only find my groove as a teacher if sarcasm is involved.

Fast forward nine years, and what do I find myself doing? Teaching small children the alphabet. Isn't life interesting? The difference between then and now is that children don't seem as alien-like as I once had thought. Since I understand my children and their developing brains, I feel like I am the most qualified person to teach them life basics.

My Mya is a kinetic learner. She learns through touch and movement. She squirms the moment she is asked to sit a minute too long. You can only imagine how breakfast, lunch and dinner go in this house. It is torture. But because I know how she learns, I am constantly creating small activities to teach her math, reading and writing. And I also know how to stretch her in areas where she struggles. I know the public school system isn't designed with Mya's brain in mind so I am trying to help her sit longer and learn in other ways.

And it's working. Mya is one smart little lady. I can't take all the credit. Her natural intuitive being and the loving pushes from her favorite daddy really propel her forward. I can't wait to see who my other two peanuts become. I love discovering how their minds tick and know that my day with Genevieve is soon coming.

While I'm glad I gave up on elementary education (the thought of teaching 30 little Myas rattles my bones), I am happy that children are no longer foreign subjects to me anymore. I love my girls.

1 comment :

  1. I felt the same way about teaching little ones, which is why I only ever taught high school kids. But to be honest, I now get really excited about the prospect of teaching my little girls. I can't wait to plan fun days out and set up art projects and such, and even though I know like most plans, they might not all work out, even now when an art project goes well I feel such a sense of accomplishment I haven't felt since my highschoolers showed me their final grades on their exit-exams! x

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