Preschool Carrots

I have to admit that, for the last year or so, I've had a hard time coming up with blog posts. Or maybe it's not that I don't have things to write about but rather I don't think my stories are that interesting. But I was talking to my mom this morning on my drive to my foot doctor and as I was filling her in on the latest goings on in southwest Kansas she would say, "I thought I'd see a blog post on that" or "I saw so and so last night and she was telling me how she keeps up with your blog". So and so happens to be someone I haven't probably seen in 15 years! Maybe it's time then to start posting , what I think, are some of my more boring stories. First up....pulling carrots.

Yahoo has started preschool this year and she loves it! Every morning she's excited to get up and go and every afternoon she rattles on about what she did that day at school. I love this preschool too. It's through the public school so I'm not paying tuition like I did with the boys in Illinois. She goes a half day every day and best of all it's only two blocks from our front door. Her teacher is young and only in her second year and she's great! Mrs. Lang is so energetic and open to all kinds of new things. I thought the preschoolers and their teacher may like to take a "field trip" to my garden so on Monday they came down to to visit me. I think teachers and schools should use as many resources in their community as possible and I'm all for volunteering my space and skills! 

Their class has 8 girls and 3 boys, poor boys! They were so quiet standing there as I talked, well all but Yahoo. We talked about how plants start as seeds and what they need to grow. They searched out my tomatoes and zucchini and helped me pick them. Then we looked at the carrots and talked about how some plants grow under ground while some grow where you can see them. The highlight for the kids was when each got to grab a handful of carrot stems and pull. Don't worry, I moistened the soil up really well for them to make picking much easier. Once pulled they counted how many they picked, usually four or five a piece. They all wanted to pick more!!! (Wish I could have taken pics but I kind of had my hands full and dirty.) We didn't have time to clean the carrots they picked but I sent some carrots I had picked earlier with Mrs. Lang that they could have for a snack. 

I was more than happy to share my garden with them and see them so excited about growing things. Later that day when I picked up the kids, not only do I get Yahoo but I walk three others to their day care which is our neighbor, they talked all about my garden and so I asked them if they enjoyed the carrots. A couple had no qualms telling me they didn't like my carrots at all. Got to love their honesty! 

Maybe this spring Mrs. Lang would be interested in bringing them all down to plant some seeds! Wouldn't THAT be fun! 

Two Sculptors

Last week I was substitute teaching for a 4th grade class and their classroom teacher had this poem on her desk. I thought it was just lovely so I copied it and I thought I'd share it with you real quick this morning. 

Two Sculptors

I dreamed I stood in a studio

And watched two sculptors there 

The clay they used was a young child's mind

And they fashioned it with care.

One was a teacher; the tools she used

Were books, music and art. 

One, a parent who worked with a guiding hand

And a gentle, loving heart. 

Day after day the teacher toiled

With touch that was deft and sure,
While the parent labored by her side

And polished and smoothered it o'er.

And when at last their task was done, 

They were proud of what they had wrought; 

For the tings they had molded into the child

Could neither be sold or bought. 

And each agreed she would have failed 

If she had worked alone, 

The parent and the school, 

The teacher and the home. 

-Author Unknown_ 

Providing Educational Experiences

It's no secret that I love rural life and our little rural school is no exception. Yip and Yap are two of only 20 1st graders. Their teahcers and principal konws everyone. My boys routinely give hugs to the varsity football players when they see them right after school. And there is ample opportunity for students to have one on one attention from their teachers. 

Recently, however, I was talking to a mother of a high school senior in our district. She did have some complaints about the school; it doesn't prepare students for college and it doesn't provide enough experiences and opportunities for students. 

I have to disagree with her 1st point. The school DOES prepare students for college. Last year's seniors included a pre-med major and an student who is in the engineering program at Purdue this year. A state senator can also boast of being a recent graduate of our little high school. I believe my friend's son's problem isn't that he isn't prepared for college but that he doesn't know what he wants to do when he gets there. 

But the fact that this particular senior boy doesn't know what he wants to major in could be from lack of experiences. Of course our high school, of 100 students, has sports, band and an academic team. But there is no FFA program, which I hold in hig regard for its ability to instill leadership qualities in high school students. Like any school our students go on field trips but honestly, destinations are limited. For our students to have the opportunity to visit a museum of the same caliber as those in Chicago or Indianapolis would require an overnight trip. 

I'm an advocate of the importance of a well rounded education, not just in school but at home as well. If the school can't provide the experiences that my kids need then I see it's DR and my job to provide them. 

If you've read my blog routinely you know DR and I take road trips...a lot. Amarillo, Taos, Ft. Larned, Colorado. It's not just about our family seeing new places but experiencing new things and learning about people and places outside their community. DR and I have been discussing visiting a military base because Yap wants to be a soldier. I'm not pushing Yap to be a soldier if he changes his mind in the future but this is his interest now and I feel it's important to provide support and experiences for my kids' interests at any age. 

We also read....a LOT in our home. Books, magazines, newspapers....it's not uncommon for my kids to be on the floor surrounded by books before they go to school. DR and I both are constantly on the lookout for new and interesting reading material for our kids. 

Rural living is wonderful but it does have drawbacks. Isolation and lack of broad educational experiences is one of those obstacles we face out here in SW Kansas. For some the solution would be homeschooling. NOT ME! Overall, the school does a MUCH better job that I ever could on my own. Right now my job is to supplement my kids' educations with road trips, reading or whatever...but I know I could do better. 

So, my question to those of you living in very rural America, how do you provide educational experiences  for your children outside of those offered in your rural school? 

Education; When is Enough?

Our community here in my small town is largely Mennonite. There are a couple different groups of Mennonite that are fairly segregated; the Holdermans and the Germans. The Holdermans have been here for many generations and run a private school for their children. The Germans have only been here for less than two generations and many came from Mexico. In fact, my neighbor who is about my age, lived in Mexico until she was twelve. The German Mennonites attend public school. Both groups only send their kids to school to about the 8th grade. I don't believe all Mennonite communities are like this.


I have no problem with Mennonite customs, religious beliefs or lifestyle...until it comes to education. I can't agree that only educating a child to the age of 14 or 15 is beneficial to them or the Mennonite community. It's not as though these kids don't want to go to school either. There are some, if given the choice, would finish high school and continue on to college.


We are all citizens of a community, a town, a country, and a world. There are very few of us in this life that are so isolated that we aren't affected by others or influence the life of someone else. Therefore as a citizen of humanity isn't it our obligation to educate ourselves as fully as possible (not everyone is PhD material) for the benefit of not only our lives but of the lives around us as well?


My dad has told the story he heard of an Amish farmer. After the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986 the Amish man was asked how he thought it would effect him and marketing his crop. He had no clue about anything that had happened in Chernobyl. The Amish man was furious that his religion so isolated them that he wouldn't be informed of something that could effect his livelihood so drastically that he left the church.


I'm not advocating the break up of the Mennonite church. It just really bothers me that education, what I consider a right, is denied to someone who wants to pursue it. And it bugs me that other people (church elders, etc.) decide what is the 'right' amount of education for someone who isn't even their child.

I've been substitute teaching recently at the local preschool. It really bothers me to see some of the very brightest boys and girls working so hard and to realize that they probably only have nine or ten more years, at the most, of schooling ahead of them. I'm all for the first amendment and the freedom of religion but where is the guarantee of freedom to pursue an education?