lessons learned

When I first started teaching I remember being overwhelmed with lesson planning and figuring out what I was going to do with my students every day. I started out teaching three different classes -- Oral Communications, 7th grade English and 8th grade English. If you don't know what you are going to do with 28 7th graders for 49 minutes, you will be doomed. :)

Every week I would make the plan for what was to come and we'd make it through and I'd make a new plan. I made notes about what to change and add on the next time and before I knew it, the year was over. The beautiful thing about year number two? I had a rough sketch of what to do. I could look back at the plans from the year before and go with it. This was great considering I was in grad school, coaching volleyball and had added on another class to teach.

By the time last year rolled around, I was a pro. I had a rough idea of what every week would look like months in advance. I still added new things every year, but having one brand new unit after two older ones was no problem. In fact, I like to add on the new things because it kept me fresh as a teacher.

And while I thought my "lesson planning" days were put on hold for awhile, I'm finding the opposite to be true. Being a stay-at-home mom means you are constantly "lesson planning" -- for life. The only thing is, I can't just write down what Vera and I did today and then do the same thing a year from now. Because a year from now she'll be a year older. She probably won't need to practice crawling. She may not be as interested in reading her newspapers. Watching me build towers may not carry the same appeal. And then of course there's the day when we have another baby.

Let's not talk about that quite yet though. ;)

I've realized that I am a much more social person that I thought. I've always loved getting into comfy clothes on a Friday or Saturday night and curling up on the couch to watch a movie. When Derek and I first got married we loved having Saturday mornings to make breakfast and just relax. But what I didn't realize until recently is that during the week I interacted with a lot of people. A LOT. I taught roughly 150 kids a day. I would probably talk to five or six adults at school a day too. I had a lot of time to be around people and have conversations and be social. When weekends rolled around I needed that time to debrief but I didn't realize how much the weeks fueled me until I didn't have them.

I love being home with Vera but if I'm honest, I get lonely. A lot. Adding in seeing kids in the hallways, I used to see 200 people a day, like really see them. Now most days I see 2. And they are, by far, my favorite two people, but one of them isn't quite a conversationalist yet ;) I remember days when I would guzzle water because I was talking so much. Days when my voice would get a little raspy from so much speaking. I talk as much as I can to Vera, but sometimes those one-sided conversations can be tricky.

I didn't anticipate being lonely. I didn't anticipate how much a "no nap day" could completely change my day. I didn't anticipate how much of an adjustment everything would really be. I didn't anticipate how hard it would be to make new friends with other stay-at-home moms. While I learned I'm more social than I thought, I'm still shy at first.

But I guess if we could anticipate everything that would happen then life wouldn't be quite so exciting would it? How would we learn and grow from things if we always knew how they would go?

I'm trying not to get my hopes too high, because I don't want them completely dashed, but I'm really putting a lot of pressure on Spring to get here. I think that the ability to go on more walks and get outside will help change things. I'm going to look into some community ed stuff too -- Eagan has a puppet wagon that travels around each day during the summer. Vera and I might just attend every single show.

Until that snow melts and those puppets start their show I guess I better fill up those lesson books :) As long as Vera and I have at least one thing planned each day we're pretty good. Who wants to hang out with a cute baby (and her mom)?