I can't believe that September is already gone. I've been back to work for just over a month and it seems like both forever and like I just got back. Work is severely cutting into my knitting time!
I was invited last week into a third grade class to talk to the students about my life as a reader. The teacher was looking for an adult to model to the students how reading is a important part of his/her life. I had such a great time with this. I organized my talk into three parts, my childhood and teen age reading, how reading helped me with an interest- knitting (no surprise here!) and what I read as an adult. This is a inclusion class where one third of the students have a form of autism called Aspergerger's Syndrome. The rest of the students are mostly minority students, many new comers to the US and struggling with English.
I showed the kids my knitting books and explained how my grandmother taught me to knit but that she never had the opportunity growing up in Italy to go to school so she was totally illiterate. They were fascinated looking at pattern books and seeing that the socks and sweaters came from them! I was able to explain how I could expand what my grandmother taught me by reading and sharing with other people by writing what I know.
We had such fun especially when I told them stories about how I got into trouble sneaking to read books in school when boring lessons were going on! One little boy who really has trouble with conversations responded more then his teachers have ever seen him do before. He wanted to know if my mother is still telling me to stop reading and go outside and play in the fresh air!
I went on a kitchen and catering house tour in Bayhead, NJ yesterday with my mother and two of my sisters. The homes were beautiful but some were so perfect and decorated that they seemed so cold. One house really seemed like a home and appealed to me because the owner was obviously into crafts and had some beautiful needle points and quilts around. There were also pictures of young children in beautiful knit items so I wondered if she also knit. None of these home looked like anyone actually lived in them or that they grew with the families!
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3 comments:
I agree with you on the "sterile" home. While it is nice to have places for things and have clutter put away, who wants to live in a house with less personality than a hotel room?
Frances, that class visit sounds like it was so cool! In an age where everything is served up on the TV, it is so important that kids read! And with children that came from foreign lands, your recounting of your grandmother must have hit a lot of chords. How wonderful...wish *I* could have heard this! I am sure it was wonderful!
Sterile homes....oh my...THERE is a subject! Homes, in general, seem to be getting bigger and bigger in our area. People are building houses that look well over 3,000 square feet. WHAT are these people thinking?
You walk into the homes and EVERYTHING is perfect. Everything is in its place. BUT, most of the homes are owned by two working parents. I guess they work hard and have someone come and clean and straighten things for them. I am rather content in my almost 1,500 square foot messy home! When I see everything "perfect", I feel as though I cannot relax! Of course, I must also say that many times, I am running through the house, putting things away, and feeling VERY much like a hamster running on one of those wheels!!!!
3rd graders are so much fun! I was the same way as a kid--reading all the time when I was supposed to be doing other stuff.
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