Baby School

At the beginning of the school year, I was feeling very envious of all my teacher friends and homeschool friends who were posting how excited they were for the upcoming school year and posting pictures of their classrooms on Facebook. I felt this nostalgic longing for packs of freshly sharpened pencils, cartons of crayons and stacks of Hilroy books. I remembered with fondness afternoons where I would sit at my desk and plan out the next day's activities or when I would stay up late at night organizing an activity for my own boys to complete the next day when we were homeschooling. I was really sad that I was not teaching this year. 

Can I just say that being human is absolutely ridiculous?! When I was teaching, I was envious of all my stay-at-home mom friends who were posting pics of their littles on Facebook . . . ugh! Can we ever truly just be happy with what we have and where we are at each moment? I think so, and I try really hard to do so, which is why moments after my melancholy hit, I looked at the two-under-two crew and enthusiastically decided that they would be my two newest pupils this year. And so, like all my fellow teachers, I hit the internet looking for ideas and activities, when what to my wondering eyes did appear but a link to a website selling Montessori curriculum for babies and toddlers . . . say what? It was like Christmas morning! I was giddy to get my hands on an actual curriculum for the two-under-two crew and impulsively threw those suckers into my virtual shopping cart. Within days they appeared at my doorstep and I have been happily perusing their pages ever since. We, teachers, are nerds . . . what can I say?

Now, baby school looks nothing like real school. There is no schedule and no tests to take. It is just me and my babes playing with a purpose; for instance, this week, Harriet is working on rolling over, so Leif and I place her on the floor on her belly and enthusiastically encourage her to lift that head up and move. This morning she earned a gold star because she actually rolled over, not once, not twice but every time we placed her on her belly. Yay, Harriet!  oh, and I am joking about the gold star . . . or am I?

After working on sorting teddy bears by colour last week, Leif has taken a real interest in colours. Yesterday while we were making some play dough and I asked what colour he wanted to make, he shocked me when he shouted out blue as he reached for the container of blue food colouring. Being a true-blue nerd . . . I admit that sometimes even I find myself to be a bit too much . . . I made an official declaration proclaiming this to be "Blue Week". We went on hunts for the colour blue, we played with blue play-doh, we are wearing all blue today and we sorted out the blue bugs from a colourful pile of plastic bugs. We are having a lot of fun with this and I think we might dedicate the next few weeks to a single colour.

I am particularly enjoying myself because these short snippets of our day are a nice break from all the laundry that needs to be folded, all the dishes that need to be washed, all the toilets that need to be scrubbed and so and so on. These moments are also special because I am able to enjoy myself with my babies. I am able to say yes more than I have to say no or in a minute, and I can laugh and smile along with them.

Hi! I am Harriet Webster and I am running for Prime Minister

There she goes . .  .

I really love being a teacher, especially to my own kiddos!