In preparation for more academic home-learning, Haley and I sat down to do a lesson...
...in Spanish!!
Our session was about an hour (longer than I anticipated but Haley was determined to "learn how to say something in Spanish" THAT night!!) And in her eagerness, she became impatient. I think she felt like she had my attention for only 10 minutes...and whatever she didn't master after 10 minutes would have to "wait until next time." OR perhaps *I* would "get bored" or "discouraged" with her perceived lack of knowledge...and call it quits for the day.
And she REALLY wanted to "learn *something*" that day.
When we sat down, my idea was to teach her the basic idea of verb conjugation of regular verbs. We went over "what a verb was" and the conjugations in English. Then easily enough I explained the conjugation of 'hablar'
I - yo - o
You - tu - as
He/her/you - el/ella/usted - a
We - nosotros - -amos
They/you all - ustedes - an
She couldn't/wouldn't just memorize the various forms. She had to know "why" and "what happens when" and "what if I want to say...." Which is excellent, but was beyond the scope of what I was ready to teach at that moment. I thought we'd sit down, and she'd memorize the above 5 lines...and that's it.
Her thoughtful questions took us on various tangents...
...and somehow we ended up *also* learning the Spanish alphabet as well.
After a few tears (hers) and a rising desperation (mine). I explained to her that we could work on this for as long as she wanted to. She would be the rate-limiting factor...not me. I stayed focus on the end-goal, and reflected back to my childhood home-learning days....
I recall feeling frustrated when I didn't understand adding fractions in the 5th grade. I had a teacher (Mrs. Duvall) who didn't think I was very smart...and to "show her" that I "belonged in the smart kid group" I
So without teaching a single lesson in fractions (not one) she assigned me (only me) an entire page from the back of the math book. I accepted the challenge proudly. Got home. Had no idea what a fraction was!! (Crazy in 5th grade to not know what a fraction was, right?).
I remember crying as my mother tried to explain it. (I had accepted a challenge, afterall. There's NO WAY I could go back with my face in my hand and ever proclaim my intelligence, EVER, if I couldn't even master 5th grade math!!). So when I didn't immediately understand, I felt like I would 'never get it'...that perhaps I was somehow not capable of understanding. And...my educational journey would come to a screeching halt at that moment of confusion. And I'd be relegated to the throes ignorance forever...and ever...
...and I'd live on the streets. And never amount to nothin'...
But my mother persisted. Maintained composure and told me "if you keep crying, I can't show you how to do it." So I stopped crying. And I learned how (and why) to find common denominators in 1 night...so I could go to school the next day a shining (intelligent) star.
Take THAT Mrs. Duvall!
(Back to Haley)
After our hour, Haley learned a basic Spanish exchange, the alphabet, and the sounds the letters make. She knew how to conjugate a verb...and understood the idea that an adjective comes after the noun in Spanish. And she was happy. And I am excited that she could learn so much in such a short time from me...in a subject in which I'm no master!! That renewed my confidence that together, we could make it thru.
