Telling Time

The girls have been learning to tell time on an analog clock and have been doing such a great job. Today we discussed the hour hand and it's movement around the clock. 

Gabriella preformed the duties of the gear in the middle of the clock while Mikey took care of holding her blanket in place. A very important job indeed. Alyana worked as the hour hand and Isaac as the minute. Alyana is the one who pointed out that she should be the hour and Isaac the minuet, given that she is younger and Isaac is older (making connections to the length of the hands). Perfect, perfect, perfect! We all got quite a kick out of the fact that Alyana just happened to be wearing a red shirt and Isaac a blue! It was all very coincidental well planned out by God! 

Since Josiah felt his duties were to karate chop the construction paper minute and hour hands, I held him the entire lesson. (Oh, to be a two year old.) He wasn't happy about being restrained. It does feel quite strange not to see him in any of these pictures. 

Alyana did an incredible job demonstrating the very slow movement of the hour hand as the minute hand makes it's way around the clock. 

I didn't plan on it but while the kids where having fun running around the clock, we learnt about clockwise direction. So cool! 

I have experienced time and time again, the better moments of a teaching career are often unplanned and spontaneous. I had a few of those moments today...

As we talked about the hour hand, we talked about the space from one hour to the next being like a Yellowbrick road. If we leave one number, we haven't arrived at the next until we actually touch that number (or get to it's doorstep, right smack-dab in the middle of it).  I drew the Yellowbrick road and colored it in, bit by bit, all the while dramatically asking the kiddos, "Are we there yet?".  Over and over I'd ask and over and over they'd respond with a loud and confident "NO!".  When we finally reached our destination they where excited to shout "YES!". Mikey took it upon himself to dot the number after everyone affirmed we were there. (His dot was much like a representation of the doorknob to the number's house we just arrived to.) WOW! He did an incredible job hanging in and listening to the girls' lengthy lesson. And, not only that, he stepped up and offered to help in ways that were adding to rather than taking away. 

The whole experience of Mikey's contribution was a bit of an awakening to me. There are times when his contributions occur at not-so-convenient times but this awakening reminds me to dismiss the thoughts that dictate things should be "just so" and allow them to just "be". Because really, we are all learning from each other here and as usual I have the very most to learn. So thank you for teaching me today, Mikey, and thank you for your contribution not only today but everyday.