Teacher? Whether I like it or not!

I've always made it clear that I don't have that teacher gene that everyone else in my family possesses. My dad is a great bible teacher, my mom is a great math teacher, and my sister is a good explain-er of nearly anything. I tend to look at people and think something to the extent of, "What is their deal? Why don't they get it? It's not that hard." Or, I just don't care. I know that sounds awful, but its true. Someone else will explain this to them (or me!). So, yeah, not exactly a teacher...I know this and I tend to stay away from situations where I am expected to teach.

But, despite my claims otherwise, apparently I am a teacher. Because God decided it would be so and informed me I must train up my child in the way she should go.

I denied my teacher-ness until recently. I've been intimidated in the past by my lack of knowledge about 'curriculum' and 'lesson planning' and all those other teacher-y sounding things. So I would just do nothing. I realized she was craving it and it would be wrong of me to not make an effort to teach her.

And now I realize that is doesn't have to be perfect. She learns a lot just by me talking to her. She has known her letters for a long time because we played around on Starfall.com before she could even talk. She learned the numbers 0-9 from a puzzle I bought 2 years ago that she put together approximately 8.5 million times. And now that I have come to the conclusion that it doesn't have to be perfect and I don't have to have a set schedule or check this or that off a list, I am enjoying teaching her.

I find resources on the internet (also overwhelming at first because there are so many options, but I pushed through!) and my printer is my best friend in this endeavor.

She has a lot of knowledge now regarding the obvious stuff preschoolers learn: shapes, colors, numbers, letters, etc., and I try to review those regularly. But since she has such a good grasp on those, I realized I needed to start working on skills rather than just knowledge. So, we've started some pre-writing exercises and I've been teaching her how to cut with safety scissors and properly use glue. We've been learning things like patterns and 'which one doesn't belong' to help those critical thinking/problem solving skills develop.

I've been thinking about writing a few posts on what I do with her to help other 'non-teacher' type people who want to be a part of their child's learning process. Because, honestly, if *I* can do it, anyone can!