the things we take for granted...

(...that kids can't actually do!)

I'm still tackling my way up the steep learning curve and discovering a few loose boulders on the way.

So far I have learnt that there are some things that are not actually innate and that some people (most of them 5 years old) have to be taught to do. Namely:

How to look through a pile of exercise books (usually only 4 or 5 in a pile) and find the one with YOUR name on it rather than writing in the first one that comes to hand.

How to open said exercise book (yours or otherwise) and find the next empty page, rather than just writing on whichever page happens to fall open first.

How to check with the writing on the front of the book (and inside, if the book you are holding has been lucky enough to have been picked up and opened before) to make sure you are writing in the book the right way up.

That when you are holding an exercise book with your name (or at least a name) on the front, writing your name at the top of the page before you start working is not necessary, especially if your name is 9 letters long and will take you the entire lesson to complete.

I'm dreading that day when the parents come in to look at the work!

My class literacy books will read like a set of those Choose Your Own Adventure books everyone had in the 80's. I'll have to go through them and write sentences at the bottom of each page such as:

To see some work on sentence structure, turn to page 15

To read work on the Three Billy Goats Gruff, turn to page 7

To view similar work by another pupil, turn to page 27

If you are having trouble reading this page, try turning it upside down or hold it up to the mirror provided (some of my kids write perfectly... backwards!)