The Teacher and The Taught

Can you see those thumbs up in the picture above? Did you notice that smile and those bright eyes? What you see is a picture of a sense of accomplishment.

Also in the picture, you see my fastest, let's-get-this-done-quick-so-I-can-go-change-clothes, no-nonsense, I'd-prefer-if-you-didn't-make-me-write-too-much student, Kate.

Kate, who didn't want to learn to read and made am impressive stand against it, but then decided it was the only way to fly in this book-crazed family, and now is as book-crazy as the rest of us. Kate, who told her entire softball team and anyone else who will listen that "I really don't do school work."

Kate, would prefer that we call her by her given first name "Lauren" and
somehow her softball uniform bowed to her wishes, but we can't because she is just so much a...

Kate. 

Despite her claim of no school work, our girl certainly made me grin with one of her latest assignments. Often, Kate is assigned copy work as part of her school day. The benefits of copy work are many including reinforcing the mechanics of punctuation, grammar, spelling, and practicing handwriting. Kate has been using one of our favorite school books for her copy work called Primary Language Lessons.

See it up there in the middle? It has a very old-fashioned look to it and really, it should.  It is, at heart, an old-fashioned book which is a large part of its appeal. The above picture is from 2 years ago when Cole and Meg were working in it, which is another wonderful thing about such books, they travel nicely from one student to another!

Kate's assignment was to copy and complete the first four sentences on the following page...

This was one of the first of such exercises I'd asked her to do and I was curious about the results as she handed me her completed assignment...

Translation: (in case your 1st grade spelling is a bit rusty...)

1. James was late at school because he was sick.

2. Nellie did not know her lesson because she did not study.

3. The squirrels had nuts to eat all winter because they stocked up. 

{Haaaaaa! Loved this one especially!}

4. Tom's garden did not grow because he did not water them.

Not bad for a child who claims to do no school work, no?

As is usually the case, I learned more from this assignment than Kate did. Later, we reviewed the spelling and punctuation, and made corrections. She finished the next six sentences the following day feeling much accomplished and very confident, if not in her spelling, then absolutely in her ability to craft engaging sentence endings. I loved getting a glimpse at how her busy mind was working. 

"While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about."

~Angela Schwindt