Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Am I a Teacher?

I was trying to make sure the little girls were doing their chore of folding laundry. Isaiah was getting in and out in and out of the laundry basket and each time he'd shriek, "SEEEE!?!?!?! SEEE?!?!?!" He'd continue to shout out until I'd respond, "Yes Isaiah. Momma See's you! You're such a BIG boy!" Emma Claire and Addison were fussing at each other off and on intertwined with playing more than they were folding. Apparently there were more important things to think and talk about besides laundry. Imagine that! All the while, Olivia is sitting at the school table trying her best to get her work done.
I'd been sitting there with her off and on throughout the morning. We're currently "visiting" Mexico, so she'd been brushing up on the Spanish alphabet, color names, numbers, and simple phrases. We're also talking about deserts this week as part of our Mexican theme, so we'd been looking at facts on desert animals. She was reading aloud to me all about camels and how they can go a long time without drinking. What she was reading was so important to her and she was so passionate about sharing it with me.
I started to get irritated as her reading became something like a drone in the background noise of the moment. As Isaiah's volume began to rise and the girls fussing became predominate over the folding I looked around and started to lose it. Then, in the distance, first quiet and soft then loud and dramatic, I heard Amelia start to cry from waking up from her morning nap.
At this point there are five kids all needing my attention at once. I did the only thing I knew to do. I got up from my spot in the living room, and went into my bedroom. I took a few long breaths, then walked back into the room ready to attack the situation. Know that this was after minorly losing it with them earlier, but after realizing that my earlier breakdown had done nothing to help the situation I knew I was going to have to try something else.
First, I disciplined the little girls and got them settled back into a steady pace of folding the laundry. Next, I pushed Isaiah around the living room table in the basket, then we pushed the basket back into the laundry room together and SLAMMED the door(since Amelia was already awake anyway.). I had him come upstairs with me to "help" with Mia. We changed her diaper, and got out some fun toys to take back downstairs for the two babies to play with while we finished...SCHOOL! It hit me like a ton of bricks! I'd left the room and not even addressed my sweet oldest daughter who was so excited about what she was learning! I had not even thought about saying anything to her. I left her while she was reading TO ME!
When I got back downstairs I ran back into the school room and there she was just sitting happily in her seat reading what the Living World Encyclopedia had to say about desert animals. I apologized for walking out on her and told her I really did love hearing about what she was learning, but that I'd gotten distracted by the other kids. She didn't even seem to notice. She was too excited about dry animal droppings to care too much! She said, "Oh...OK, but MOM!! You've GOT to see this! God made these animals so their POOP is dry and they don't lose too much water! Isn't that COOL!?!"
What a great blessing to "teach" this lovely girl, but I'm starting to think she may end up teaching ME!

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