School Days

It is funny to watch how kids mimic their parents. In nature it is a survival skill. Mama tigers teach baby tigers how to hunt and prowl for food. They learn from the best to survive. So how does this translate to human behavior? Kids do the same thing. They follow their parents' example. Jacob and Brock often play school. They do this partly because school is fun and partly because both of their parents are teachers. So how do teacher’s kids play school?

Jacob my oldest plays the teacher. He puts together charts for stickers and develops mini-lessons. Brock, the ever eager student patiently listens…for about 2 minutes. Then decides he knows more than the teacher. As a result a fight ensues and Jacob demands to have parent/teacher conferences where he relates to me how poor a student Brock is. He asks me to spank him to correct his behavior. Then he tells me that Brock is suspended from school without further notice and goes about to play Legos by himself.

Today Brock attempted to be the teacher of his Baby School. His school motto is “Baby School is so fun because you don’t have to learn anything, you just have to do what I say.” Every activity included singing, body movement and encouraging words. The day started well with circle time. Brock told the students (Katie and Ben) the agenda for the day. Katie quickly exited. Brock gently persuaded her to return to her seat. The ever two-year old opted to ride the trike instead. In response to Katie walking away from Baby School, Brock knocked over her chair and said, “This is my school and I will teach you.” Brock is a natural teacher, but his technique needs to be refined a bit.

After that fiasco, Brock decided that Ben, a 6 month old, was a captive audience. Brock offered the following lecture to his new found pupil:
“Do not walk away from your mom and dad when they are talking to you.”
“Do not lie to your mom when she did not see what happened like Jake did yesterday when he told dad I made something up .”
“Ben, what is lying? If I say to my mother I was going to get an instrument to sing and I don’t that is lying. Don’t lie.”
Can you tell we are having many conversations in our house about the honesty of our word?

After lecture was the reinforcement activity to demonstrate learning. Feet clapping. (see pictures below)

The day ended with quiet reflection and story time from the book Brock read, “We love our Jesus and our God.” He then proceeded to “read” a book by reading the page numbers in ordinal number. He made it to thirteenth and I was quite impressed.

So what did I learn today? Kids are fun to watch. They are especially fun to watch as they try to be grownups. They have not learned all the social conventions and tell it like it is (of which Brock is a master). They share honestly and openly. They know little, but have complete faith in what they do know. I learned that the best teachers in the world are children.