Learning To Grow

We're getting ready to move into our new home, a big transition for the beginning of the school year.  We have decided to wait until after we move to begin our semester.  Ah!  That's the beauty of it!  No matter what happens in life, we don't have to miss a beat!

I have our curriculum ready, but I'm waiting until after we are settled to purchase school supplies.  This way they are still new.  There is something about freshly sharpened pencils and a package of new construction paper that helps put my kids in the mood to learn!  It's especially fun because they are young.  Everything is full of color and their little faces get animated when they use their new pair of scissors and fresh finger paints for the first time.

I remember the excitement I felt when mama took us school supplies shopping.  We would try to pick our favorite color in everything.  It was more fun than clothes shopping, and for me Lisa Frank stuff was where it was at!  I will never have a little girl to buy Lisa Frank for, so I will have fun picking out Star Wars notebooks and Spiderman pencils.  I am just as big of a superhero fan as they are!

I am so grateful for the opportunity to teach my children.  I will be teaching Isaac to read small words this year, and we will be working on his fine motor skills so he can gain control of his pencil to write them on paper.  He is so smart.  But I have a feeling I will need to get creative in order for him to learn.  He needs more than the boring workbook routine.  I may have to sing and dance, but by golly this kid is going to learn!

Aiden is advancing quickly.  But as he progresses I find myself wanting to slow him down.  He is growing up way too fast.  Yesterday, he turned on the tv and one of his favorite cartoons came on.  It is about a town filled with cars that talk.  It's not the movie CARS, but another "fake" CARS cartoon.  I asked him what he was watching and he said, "We are watching cartoons, mom."

After I fed the baby I went to the living room to see they weren't watching cartoons, but the Olympics.
"This isn't cartoons.", I laughed.  He said, "Mom, I changed it.  I am too big for cartoons."
My heart sank!

"What do you mean, you are too big for cartoons...?  You are six!", I laughed.
"Mom, that cartoon has talking cars in it...", he said using his whiny baby voice.
"Really?  I don't think that is for six year olds.", he says.

"Oh.", I replied sadly.
He goes to his room and leaves me there questioning where my little boy was and if he would ever be back.

I have learned to slow down on the "nudging them to excel beyond their years" mindset in my teaching.  Why rush them?  They grow way too fast without our help.