I’m a teacher of many grades. It’s been done before and it has been done more efficiently by countless schoolmarms in sparse schoolhouses without math manipulatives, microscopes, or the internet. I don’t count myself as being remarkable or unique, but it IS a very exciting life.

My subject matter ranges from early phonics lessons to Dante’s Inferno. In the same day I will answer questions such as, “What is a mushroom?” and ask, “How do roots help trees?” Later I will teach teach field markings for birds. Then I’ll correct errors in scientific method questions and give directions for a dissection at my kitchen table. I juggle time periods in history, algebraic algorithms, and geometric proofs. I drill basic addition and multiplication facts and direct Mark to color the longest snake orange and the shortest snake blue. I snicker at inventive stories and correct grammar in book reports; I dictate sentence after sentence for my young elementary student to write. I search out and make up thought-provoking essay questions for the study of classic literature.

Why do I do it?

I have insatiable curiosity, I perceive a necessity, and I love teaching.

Where do you thrive?

I thrive where there is plenty for me to do.

I’m thriving because school’s in session.

I decorated the school room with Chinese lanterns and polka dots. After all, it’s not every day we have a kindergartener in our midst.

Thank goodness for friends across the street who also home educate their children so we can hold a multi-family recess, share lab supplies, draw on various skills, and save money on equipment. I know my friend needs a big paper cutter, but I am NOT going to buy her one because it gives us an excuse to be useful to her.

Someday her children will remember me as the lady with the paper cutter.

That’s okay.

I just want to be useful.