Lessons
At this current moment in time, I'm teaching my 5 year old to read using a book called Learn to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. The premiss is you teach a lesson everyday for 20 minutes and since it's only 20 minutes of fairly easy concepts and repetition it should be 'easy'. We are on lesson 50 and it is the hardest thing I have ever done! Imagine teaching Dory from Nemo, who has short term memory loss, combined with Animal from the Muppets. I'm not even kidding. It's that bad.
On our last lesson we read a sentence that went something like, 'The goat ate the coat'. I asked him what we had just read and he looked at me point blank and said, 'I have no idea'. Cue my head exploding. What do you mean?! We just read it!!!! I thought I was patient. Wrong. By the end of every lesson, I want to pull my hair out and throw things at the wall. Very rarely, can I hold it together through the entire lesson without threatening sever consequences or loosing my temper.
Why is this important? Why am I even doing this? Am I making a difference? Will it even matter?
These are all questions that flash through my head every time I sit down to do our lessons.
So why do I press on?
With the reading, I wanted him to have a head start going into kindergarten because I realize sitting still and being able to pay attention are not where our strengths lie. But the questions resonate and I have to consider them.
As we were doing the school run the other day, he pipes up and says, 'I'm doing a really good job reading, aren't I mommy?' I reply, 'Yes, you sure are! And I appreciate your hard work.' He says, 'You know, I really love our lessons. I like doing those with you.' I almost crash the car.
He enjoys them??? What?? He actually enjoys them! My mind is blown.
Then the truth seeps in. He likes doing them because I'm setting aside a special time for just us to work on something TOGETHER. He IS learning to read but the more important thing is that he likes that I care enough to invest my time and energy in HIM. And with this, all my questions are answered.
I enjoy staying at home with the kids but I'd be lying if I said I lived without these questions everyday. I think we all live with them regardless of what we do. With all the time and energy we put into the things that matter to us we want to know that what we are doing IS important, it gives us reason, it's making a difference, and it Will matter.
So as I try to find my way and who I am, I remind myself of the lessons. Sometimes we don't always see the results right away. Sometimes we want to pull our hair out and throw things at the wall. Sometimes we don't feel like doing anything at all (and sometimes we don't). But we hang in there and stay steady because what we do does matter...at least to someone. The truth is, life has a lot to teach everyone. They are lessons.
P.S.--Teaching my son to read has made me realize another truth: Teachers are severely underpaid!
On our last lesson we read a sentence that went something like, 'The goat ate the coat'. I asked him what we had just read and he looked at me point blank and said, 'I have no idea'. Cue my head exploding. What do you mean?! We just read it!!!! I thought I was patient. Wrong. By the end of every lesson, I want to pull my hair out and throw things at the wall. Very rarely, can I hold it together through the entire lesson without threatening sever consequences or loosing my temper.
Why is this important? Why am I even doing this? Am I making a difference? Will it even matter?
These are all questions that flash through my head every time I sit down to do our lessons.
So why do I press on?
With the reading, I wanted him to have a head start going into kindergarten because I realize sitting still and being able to pay attention are not where our strengths lie. But the questions resonate and I have to consider them.
As we were doing the school run the other day, he pipes up and says, 'I'm doing a really good job reading, aren't I mommy?' I reply, 'Yes, you sure are! And I appreciate your hard work.' He says, 'You know, I really love our lessons. I like doing those with you.' I almost crash the car.
He enjoys them??? What?? He actually enjoys them! My mind is blown.
Then the truth seeps in. He likes doing them because I'm setting aside a special time for just us to work on something TOGETHER. He IS learning to read but the more important thing is that he likes that I care enough to invest my time and energy in HIM. And with this, all my questions are answered.
I enjoy staying at home with the kids but I'd be lying if I said I lived without these questions everyday. I think we all live with them regardless of what we do. With all the time and energy we put into the things that matter to us we want to know that what we are doing IS important, it gives us reason, it's making a difference, and it Will matter.
So as I try to find my way and who I am, I remind myself of the lessons. Sometimes we don't always see the results right away. Sometimes we want to pull our hair out and throw things at the wall. Sometimes we don't feel like doing anything at all (and sometimes we don't). But we hang in there and stay steady because what we do does matter...at least to someone. The truth is, life has a lot to teach everyone. They are lessons.
P.S.--Teaching my son to read has made me realize another truth: Teachers are severely underpaid!
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