I Wish I Could Think About My Birthday

“To teach children, you must like them. Only then can one help the child discover the joy of working, of friendship, and humanity. The teacher must find his way to the heart of every child. Only then can he or she teach children to love their families, their school, work and knowledge, and their homeland.” — To Children I Give My Heart by Vasyl Sukhomlynsky

What makes a good teacher?

“First and foremost, a teacher must be a person who loves children, finds joy in their company, believes every child can become a good person, knows how to make friends with children, takes children’s joys and sorrows to heart, knows a child’s soul and never forgets that they were once a child themselves.” — Our School in Pavlysh by Vasyl Sukhomlynsky

I have never forgotten some of the feelings I experienced as a small child. To a child, sorrows are deep. Yesterday, Clark slipped on the riverbank and landed on his bottom, right on a large rock. As I watched him struggle to get up, crying big tears, I felt as if my own tailbone would begin to ache. He made his way up the bank for some comfort.

As I tried my best to be empathetic, he wisely cried, “I wish I could think about my birthday.” And so that’s what we talked about. It was only about thirty short (or long) seconds that his words were muffled by cries, and after that, he was happy to go on.

I do love all the children I have met. It isn’t hard for me to do so. The children I work with in the nature kindergarten are, of course, very easy to love.

One little boy in the class, Bentley, loves to be outside. On the very first day of class, we spent part of the day in a small classroom at the school. He kept pacing around the room, anxious to get back outside and barely able to pay attention to the things we were doing inside.

He is very independent and wants us all to do and go where he says. We usually comply, as I tend to follow the lead of the other children, and they usually go wherever he suggests. I have begun to gently ask him to consider what the other children would like to do as well. And he has begun to do so.

Yesterday, they found a big frying pan next to the river. Of course, they had to use “poisonous” berries to make a soup. I put the quotes around that word because the berries weren’t actually poisonous. They were Dog Rose berries and don’t have much of a taste.

The children have learned several of the plants and trees along the river. They know I have an app on my phone that can tell us what everything is, and they are often asking me to take a picture of a plant so they can learn what it is.

When the children decide to eat their lunches, we usually gather together on a blanket, and I offer to read to them. They always say yes. Of course, we always read The Three Billy Goats Gruff first of all. Over in the Meadow is becoming a favorite as well.

Snails, Snails, and more snails

There were many snails out after it had rained the day before and we had a great time counting them and observing them.

Art Notebook

Clark really loves to draw.

Fremont Cottonwood

Evy was excited to learn what kind of tree this beautiful leaf came from.

Speaking of Clark’s Drawings

This one features his whole family as well as the river, trees and the sun.

Another Clark Original

We have read several times a book about animals that live in trees. Howler Monkey’s are one of those animals. Whenever we draw, I offer to either spell words so they can label their drawings, or I offer to label it for them. Also, when we first read this book, they were very interested in how a howler monkey sounds. I have a magical tool that has youtube so they can hear what they sound like. We have used that same tool to hear the sounds by swordfish, penguins, toads, turtles and many different kinds of snakes.