Recently, I've been thinking about what it is I do with my kiddos during that block of time. I'm not really teaching any core subject areas. Sure, on occasion, I help a kid with homework. But homework assignments are few and far between for most of my kids since they're young and often times even if they do have homework, they don't need my help. They've got things under control. Anyway, so I've been thinking, "What am I doing with these kids other than entertaining them until their parents arrive?"
And it hit me. I get to teach them life. Or maybe better said, we teach each other life. Sometimes our lessons are simple: rolling down the hill is lots of fun. It's something I think every kid should know. And so the other day, I took my kids outside to the hill on the side of our school instead of the playground, and said, "You can roll down the hill or just run around." One kid looked at me quizzically and asked, "Roll down the hill? We can do that?" "Yeah, it's really fun. You'll love it." My entire class rolled down the hill over and over and over again for a solid 15 minutes. And the smiles on their faces were huge. One little girl, after about her fifth trip down the hill, ran past me and exclaimed, "This is so fun, Miss Melanie!" After we finished and went back inside, I spent time picking grass out of all the girls' hair, just talking and sharing our days with one another as they colored and wrote notes.
Sometimes our lessons are a little deeper. This week I read my kids a book by Max Lucado, If I Only Had a Green Nose. It's a story about all these wooden people who get their noses painted green to be "with it." And these three wooden boys decide not to do it, at least until peer pressure gets the best of them. And then they're always having to change the color of their nose to be in the cool crowd. One day it's red; one day it's yellow; one day it's orange. And finally they realize it's better to be how they were created to be. So they go to the woodmaker and he uses sand paper to file away all the layers of paint until their noses are back to their "common" noses. And so after we finish the book, I say, "Any take aways?" Hands shoot up in the air. And these are their direct quotes:
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| If other people show you what they got, you don't have to get it too. Be yourself. Don't follow what other people do if it's not the right thing. Don't try to be someone else. Don't let other people tell you who you are. If people tell you to fit in, you don't have to do it. |
And then there's dodgeball. We learn a lot from dodgeball. I line the kids up and someone shouts out a way to divide the teams. I tap kids on the head as I alternate between the two team names: "Alien... dragon... alien... dragon." I end by tapping myself on the head with the next team name and join in the game. And dodgeball... it teaches us lots of lessons: how to solve problems when there's a difference of opinion, how to share, how to work together, how to have fun and laugh together.
I also think it's important to teach them through owning up to my mistakes. Last week, I was helping one of my girls with her math homework and felt like she was really invested, actually understanding what it was she was doing and learning new strategies to solve the problems. And so when another little girl came over to us and started talking to and distracting the child doing her homework, I spoke a little more harshly to her than I should have. I knew it as soon as it came out of my mouth. So a few minutes later, I called the girl over and apologized. Because I think it's important that they know adults make mistakes too. And in modeling apologizing for her, she learns a little more about what humility and apologizing look like.
Our days are not perfect. Not everything goes how I want it to go. Not every book I read them inspires thoughtful conversation. Sometimes a dodgeball game makes me want to pull my hair out. But even then we're learning life from one another-- how to deal with frustration and expectations that aren't met, choosing your battles, how to help one another make wiser decisions. And life, sometimes it's messy and it doesn't look perfect. And that's a part of the lesson.
