Mommy School

By the end of last school year I was so completely ready to be done with teaching school and just be a mom. I am so happy with the way things have turned out. Being a stay at home mom is the greatest, and I promise I'm not just saying that. Luxurious it is not. Extremely frustrating at times? Definitely. But what job isn't? I love being here to watch Emma grow. She amazes me. But there is still part of me that misses teaching.

Luckily I was recently called to be a primary teacher. It has only been two weeks, but I love it. I think I have the best behaved class in the senior primary. I like pulling out my old teacher tricks such as "Put your finger on your nose when you know the answer," "I'll wait until you're ready." And what kind of teacher would I be if I didn't have a good teacher look to warn them from down the row in primary?

As much as I'm enjoying primary, I'm really itching to teach Emma all about letters and numbers and colors and shapes and everything. My pinterest board is already bursting with fun things for us to do. This week we started having Mommy School time when we do activities to help with her motor skills and exploration. They are super basic so don't be impressed.

Monday we played with play dough. I made some because I knew it would end up in her mouth no matter how closely I watched and this way I at least know what's in it. I also cut up some pieces of plastic straws for her to stick in the play dough. Mostly I played with the play dough and she played with the straws. But it was fun. Yesterday school was cancelled because she wouldn't nap and I was frustrated, so we doubled up today. First I put plain sticky notes on our sliding glass door. She would peel them off and crumple them up, and then I would stick them back up. It was great. We probably played for 10 minutes. Later I put some finger paint in a ziploc bag for her to finger paint without making a mess. Dang child figure out how to open the bag while my back was turned. I caught her before she touched anything with her yellow paint covered hand. Once the bag was closed again she lost her interest. We'll have to try that one again another day. Tomorrow we are taking a walk to explore trees and grass and whatever else we find, and then we'll blow bubbles.

I don't know how long this will last, or if I'd be able to keep it up when we have more children, but for now Emma and I are having a good time.