What I Learned in Kindergarten

What  I Learned in Kindergarten This Year

by

Mrs. Bowen

 

I went back to kindergarten this year.

I hadn't been there in 23 years.

No, I'm not a slow learner.

I learned a lot of stuff.

I learned how to call things "stuff"

if you don't know the word for it.

I learned how to perform 

in front of an audience.

It's not every day I get to

use my French accent.

I learned that 

 full moons, especially 

phenomena called super moons,

do the same thing for five-year olds

as they do for second graders.

I learned the b-word,

remember,

b..b..b...bumblebee.

I learned how to 

dodge germs 

while at the same time,

embracing them with all my being.

I learned that 

if you want to make someone really happy...

sing.

I learned that 

I can indeed hear twenty

different things at once,

and still

focus on the task at hand.

I learned that the apple

does not fall far from the tree,

which makes we wonder 

what that says for

my family

tree.

I learned that being called

"teacher" a hundred times a day

can finally 

seem natural.

I learned that if you assume
they can learn all the lyrics to a french song
and how to correctly use "oviparous"
in a sentence
in less than two days,
they  can.

I learned that if you read a storybook

like you really believe it,

all your little friends 

will believe it too.

I learned that grandma-age kindergarten teachers
need naps when they get home
WAY more than
momma-age kindergarten teachers.

I learned that there is a 
direct correlation between how much
learning and fun took place in class that day
with how messy the room looks
when you're finished.

I learned that a piece of candy
still has amazing leverage.
It has magic powers.

I learned that if you tell a kindergartner
they have "one minute" to
get back from the restroom,
they really believe they can
get back in one minute.
Unless...they decide to 
sit in the sink for awhile. 

And finally,
I learned that if you tell your children
over and over all year 
that you're the Mother Duck and
they are your little ducklings,
it will only make it harder 
to send them out into the first-grade
world on the last day of school.

Aahh, (sigh)...
my work here is done.
©2012tbowenblog