Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have Lift-Off

TODAY'S ACTIVITIES

• Pouring
• Clothespins
• Folding

Today is the first day of hurricane season here in the Caribbean, and the first day of school here at the Prout residence. Coincidence? (OK, yes. But amusing, nonetheless.) I prepared the materials for today's activities last night, fairly brimming with excitement about starting homeschooling my son today. I lay awake in bed for hours, unable to fall asleep until almost midnight (don't laugh--that's really late for me). Upon waking this morning, I discovered a slight snag: we had run out of drinking water and Parker and I would need to go fill up our twelve gallon jugs before we could get down to business. (There's no city water here on island; people have cisterns, and rely on rain water or water delivery services to keep them full. Though cistern water is OK for showering, flushing toilets, doing dishes, etc., it's pretty sketchy to drink.) Undaunted, I built Parker a train track, made a smoothie for him and my husband, went for my morning walk, showered and dressed my son and myself, drove my husband to work, drove to St. John Water and Ice, filled up the jugs (thankfully, there was no line today), drove home, hauled the twelve gallons up the stairs to our apartment, washed the inevitable film of sweat off my face, drank a glass of said water and FINALLY! The moment had arrived.

It should have been so easy. The Montessori method is based upon the belief that children learn best when uninterrupted. As stated yesterday, instilling in a child a sense of independence is of primary importance; this applies to the child's learning process as well as to his ability to take care of himself and his surroundings. Every Montessori activity by design includes something called a "control of error" which enables the child to see and correct mistakes on his own. (For example, he sees for himself the rice that he spilled while he was practicing pouring.) In other words, a Montessori student doesn't need a teacher hovering over him, telling him how he did this or that wrong. Constant criticism is discouraging for a small child to hear, and only diminishes his sense of independence. My job, as teacher, should be to first demonstrate, then observe. The authors of the books I've studied stress over and over again, "Do not interrupt when your child is working." So, in theory, our school session today should have been a cinch for me. The hard part was preparing the materials; today all I had to do was sit back and watch Parker "work." That's not so much what happened. It appears that I'll be needing to practice patience at the same time that my son is practicing pouring (and folding and sweeping and cutting and what-have-you).

Now, you would think that, after living in the Caribbean for well-nigh four years, I would have the patience of a saint. Ditzy tourists, horrible drivers, high-maintenance living (did I mention the water situation?) and islanders confoundingly determined to "live slow" all conspire--sometimes on a seemingly minute-to-minute basis--to try my patience. And I must say that I have adapted (maybe evolved?) to the point that not even a two-hour long trip to the bank to deposit just one rent check can frustrate me. But all my strenuously acquired patience skills disappeared when I watched my child spill rice, struggle with clothespins and fail to fold a washcloth just so. I kept jumping in, saying, "Maybe if you hold the pitcher like this you won't spill so much..." and, "Wait, wait! You need to clean up the rice you spilled!" and, "No, you're not squeezing the right end of the clothespin!" and, "You should try again because you didn't fold it nice and neat like me..." and finally, "No, you may not take a picture of me. I'm taking pictures of you!" The enthusiasm with which Parker approached today's school activities quickly dwindled in response

to his mother's hyperactive and impatient helicopter-parenting. He had fun at first, and seemed unperturbed by his several "unsuccessful" attempts, but he was discouraged by the end, stating, "Oh no, I just can't do it! I can't fold the yellow washcloth!" Poor kid. The pathetic part is that I even made a note to myself that I should blog about how importance patience is. Well, folks, I'm here to tell you: patience is important. We will try again tomorrow. Perseverance is also important.