NOVEMBER!

Thank goodness for Ellan's Preschool!  I'm a better coach than teacher and quite frankly I'm not sure if I'm all that good of a coach.....and let's be honest...by coaching I mean just generally bossing people around.  But I'm certainly no teacher.  I was actually an education major in college until I realized that I lack the patience to teach a roomful of children the same thing over and over again.  It's not my cup of tea.  Ellan and Heather, on the other hand, are pro's at it!  Three days a week my kids come home with their handiwork.  Learning their letters and numbers.  Writing their name.  Matching. Cutting and pasting.  All of the usual preschool tasks.

I know I teach my boys.  Good, bad, and otherwise!  I only have to read past blog posts to see they learn from me whether I intend for them to or not.  I try to be a positive role model for them.  I hope and pray I am not failing them.  This parenting thing is tough and I know I am not alone in feeling like I can't ever get it quite right.  Tonight I tried to channel my inner Ellan/Heather and tackle the pack of site word cards Justin discovered on our game shelf earlier this week. 

We have never done site words so he was pretty clueless about the "game."  We started with an easy one.  Mom.  (Hey, I embrace my narcissism).  We start sounding it out, letter by letter.  Mmmmm.  Oooo.   Mmmmmm.  Repeat.  Repeat a little faster.  Then Justin says "I guess CAR."  What?  This isn't a guessing game.  And how do you guess car?  How the hell do you get car from MMMMM OOOOOOO MMMMMM? 

So we try this a few times trying to get the hang of it.  He can easily recognize all of the letters and gets the sound of each one of them right most of the time.  But the concept of sounding each one out to form a word is seemingly lost on him at this point.  He still thinks it's a guessing game.  Or a rhyming game.  Which makes sense because up to this point all of our games at home are in fact rhyming or guessing games. 

On to the second word.  Not.  Meanwhile, Leo is hovering nearby like he always does when Justin and I play card games.  He never wants to actually play but he wants to make sure he isn't missing anything. He is busy making Batman attack a Hot Wheel. 

So back to "not."  Justin recognizes the first letter as N and starts to sound it out.  From out of nowhere Leo yells "NOVEMBER!"  They are so proud of themselves. They are convinced that the card says November and they are congratulating themselves on getting it right.  I actually felt bad telling them it wasn't November and to sound out the whole word.  Nnnnnnnn.  Oooooooo.  Ttttttt.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat a little faster.  Then Justin yells "BATH!"  And Leo yells "November!"  What???  How do you get Bath or November from Nnnnnnn Ooooooo Tttttttt? 

I am the worst teacher ever.  They are totally not pickin' up what I'm puttin' down here!  We continue on through "red" and "run."  It's a slow and painful (for me) process.  Everytime we got to the N in run Leo would yell "November!"  At least I know he's got that one down pat.  He learned it at Ellan's....of course!

We made it through a few more words before it was time for dinner.  I was amazed that neither of them showed any frustration with not getting the answers right the first time, or the second, or the fourteenth.  I guess that must be what it's like to be so open to learning.  I could probably learn a little bit from them.  Is there a mommy school?  I think I need to enroll!