The Garden School Tattler

Yesterday in class we had some frustrating tears over a paper a lot of the kids took for granted and then when they couldn't do it, just went to pieces.

The dot to dot paper was a lion with numbers from one to one hundred. "Let's take this paper one part at a time," I said, "So first thing is to choose a yellow, orange or brown crayon."

Some of the kids picked up green markers, some picked up pencils, and some actually did what I asked. Two children started the dots randomly. "Is that what I asked you to do?" Big surprise. Listening and following directions was going to be a battle yesterday.

"Here's what I want you to do. Find the number one and put your finger on it. Now go to 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and finally 10. "Draw a circle around the 10" Half the children had connected the dots, some with pencil, some with marker and only two circled the ten. "Is that what I asked you to do?" Then we connected the dots to ten and began again. Put your finger on the 10, now find the 11, the 12, the 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and circle it."

Well you would have thought I was preaching Greek. The tear started to flow. "I can't do this." I mentioned that we had just played Bingo with the same numbers and most of them got it right.

"You can do this if you follow directions. How many of you have already filled in the dots to 20?" Most raised their hands. "Is that what I asked you to do?"

When we finally got to sixty, and they finally started to "do what I asked them to do," they began to get it. They began to see that first we find the numbers; we're careful; we look; we search; we're sure before going on. We look not for the tens number but the ones and the ones keep repeating themselves which is what I really wanted them to see. We will do the same paper today and keep doing these dot to dots from 1-100 until they see that between any ten numbers the ones will repeat.

So why keep plugging? They are only little kids and maybe this is too big for them. Because once we get by the tears, the triumph is just behind it. It's the triumph of the human heart. How big is my heart? Many of them learned a little lesson yesterday. "If I keep working, if I continue to try, if I don't give into my worst temptations - to quit - I will triumph," and they did.

After we slogged through that trial, we did an art drawing. They all wanted to know how to draw a chair earlier, and so I gave them 3-D directions for both a chair and a table. They followed directions like their lives depended on it, and they all discovered a table and a chair at the end of their short lesson. Then they drew Easter bunnies on the table and some got creative.

Working with children is sometimes like herding cats. But when you pull out the food, they usually get organized. In this case, the food was knowledge, and once they realized it was worth doing, they wanted it.

Later, after a chicken lunch with stuffing, fruit, and a big salad which seems to be the favorite these days, the children jumped the Hopining. They put forth the same effort in the afternoon that they exhibited in the classroom earlier. I was stunned by their fortitude. Not a single child wimped out. Each one hopped at least close 200 times in three minutes, and Jalen in Mrs. St. Louis's class jumped 500 times. He was outstanding. He jumped just like a boxer, neatly, evenly, and his jumps were about 1/2 and inch off the ground.

These are really really good days in school. We're studying music and yesterday we listened to Gregorian Chant. It was the first written music in the West. Today we will listen to Renaissance music - the Madrigal and Dance music. We will listen to both to compare. We added finger cymbals and triangles yesterday to try to accompany the chant. It was fun. Today, we will dance. This ought to be rich. You're all invited. I'll take pictures and report back later.