Been feeling a little guilty lately

I've been thinking for quite some time now that I should be doing more "things" with Kaylee. For those of you that dont know my previous job (before mommyhood) was a preschool teacher. Yeah I know, if you dont know me and you are just blogstalking you wouldve never guessed because I dont do ANY cutesy little crafts, "learning time," or anything even remotely resembling any sort of thing that I was trained to do with little ones. I have no excuses, well no GOOD excuses! I'm just plain lazy! But I have decided to turn over a new leaf, and begin NOW! Better late than never I guess.

I started today with cutting, dont ask me why I started with cutting I just did. Let me just tell you that I had NO idea it would turn out the way it did, and that it would be so rewarding for me. I have taught 100+ children, and never gotten such gratification out of it as I did today. I know this is probably because she is MY child. Here is how our "craft time," as Kaylee called it, went this morning.

First I tried showing her how to put her fingers in the scissors, without much success. Then I tried showing her how to cut then paper, while she mirrored what I was doing, still no success. Then I tried holding her hand as SHE cut the paper, but it just wasnt working. Kaylee is such an independent little booger, and I knew that me "helping" her wasnt going to work (that's why I left it as a last resort, but thought I would give it a shot).

Kaylee was getting frustrated and so was I, I couldnt seem to get through to her. Then I had the idea of modifying the scissors to make it easier on her little fingers that kept slipping through the huge holes. I got some duct tape and made the holes smaller.


Then she TOOK OFF! She didnt want to stop cutting.

My favorite part was how she held her mouth as she cut! Priceless!

Notice her open mouth again! HA! And no she didnt cut her finger off. She got close a few times, but thankfully I was keeping a close eye on her.

(disregard all those Christmas boxes in the background, they still need to be put away)

When I told her it was nap time, she wanted to keep on cutting.

You know when you cut, but the piece you are trying to cut off is hanging by the tiniest little thread. Well she HATED that! She kept saying "mommy you get that piece."

Oh and my second favorite part of how she cuts is how, when I tell her to open her fingers, she opens both hands and ends up dropping the piece of paper in her left hand that she is holding to cut. It was so funny! But that just goes to show that she really is listening. ***

I should invent some scissors that have some sort of gel grip (or something like that) so that the tiny little fingers wont slip, and are able to conform to smaller fingers. Or are those already out on the market somewhere? For now I am settling on my modified scissors.

And here is the end result!

She wouldve made the pile bigger, but her pillow in bed was calling her name.

Doing this little activity with her made me SO HAPPY, in so many ways! I was so proud of her for sticking with it even when she got frustrated and wanted to give up! Thankfully she limited her cutting to the paper and not her HAIR! I'll never forget the first day I tried using scissors in my classroom, I had 3 children cut their hair! I was TERRIFIED for the school day to end and to tell their mothers what they had done.

I wonder what our next little project is going to be? I know I need to find all my "school" boxes that are hiding around in the attic, I'm sure I have tons of things to do in those.

***Here is a little story that I just have to share***

When i was teaching, Marcus used to come up to school every so often to visit me or bring me lunch and eat with me. Even if he just stopped by to chat, he would stay in my room and help out for a few minutes. (it is kind of tough having a COMPLETELY opposite schedule as your spouse, so you have to squeeze time in whenever possible). Sometimes he would come during our "work" time. Then children would be at their seats practicing whatever I just taught them how to do. Even though this wasnt as fun as other times in the day, Marcus loved it because I would let him put the stickers/ stamps on the kids papers when they did a good job. This particular year I had a child who was so young that he made the cut off date by a matter of days. He was so far behind all the other children, bless his little heart, and he struggled to keep up. He was such a good little boy, a pleaser, and a good listener. This particular day we were working on concept of same and different. He was stuck on this one problem, so Marcus went over to help him. Marcus tried talking him through it, he tried asking suggestive questions to lead him to the answer, and finally when nothing seemed to be working Marcus said "look closer." And you know what the little boy did.....he brought is little face so close to the paper that he had to look cross eyed just to focus. Marcus about died laughing, but the little boy did exactly what he was told to do. So Sweet! Those are the things I miss most about teaching!