Think...Think...Think...!

As I have been teaching over the years in all my different dance classes I have  had much influence in my teaching style and technique coming from other teachers that I work with as well as the children, themselves.  A natural development also takes place when teaching as you discover ways that you can say things that the children can relate to better. Building on itself like rolling a snowball through the snow. I am sure the principle is much their same with parenting with a higher learning curve because you are teaching all of the time not just a few times a week. A teacher that I look up too would always tell her dancers to think like Winnie the Pooh, this was a way for the children to stop moving and think about what they were going to do next or solve a problem etc. Well this inspired me I went to the original Winnie the Pooh stories and was surprised to discover what I learned. Winnie the Pooh would come upon crazy problems of his own making or others and he would stop and think about it till he came up with a solution. The solution he came up with were not normally very good and would even lead him to worse problems yet it was this that furthered my resolve to adopt this practice of having my dancers stop and think.  Children and even us adults try our best to solve our problems but we too do not come up with the best solutions. The point is that we are trying and learning from those problems and solutions that we are coming up with.

I start with my first day of classes of a given year, with talking of Winnie the Pooh and then try to find problem for my dancers to stop and think about. For example when I first have the children go into the dancing space, they almost always without fail clump together in one area of the floor so before we move forward I stop them and inform the class that we have a problem, quickly following that statement with the question, “Are problems bad?” and then answer my own question, “No!”  I explain to the children that we don’t want any lonely dance floor that way everyone will have enough space to dance. So I have them think about how they can solve this problem that I have given them. Sitting on the floor they tap a finger to their temple and say “Think, think, think.” In the same manner that Winnie the Pooh does. After a few seconds I have them tell me what they came up with. The answers I get are always entertaining and as the year progresses become more profound.

Going through the weeks I find the time to have them do this and look at the problem that by the end of the year when I ask, “Are problems bad? They quickly answer NO! I love watching a children learn and grow and become a problem solver. When they do I feel I have had a moment in which I enriched their life like a mommy would.

Push Off

Recently I was doing a temporary Nanny job for a week. If you have ever tried to jump in and help someone else's children can be a crazy experience. They have their traditions or routines and they get upset if you don’t do it right. Well naturally my first day was a tough one a lot of battles on who has the authority and how far they can push me etc.  We also managed to have mostly a good time however. The following day was much better as we got use to each other.  Then on the second day as I left I was given the best gift they could have given me.

The first time I came to the house their father was about to leave for work and they all wanted to ‘push him off’ meaning they wanted to push on the front of the car as he back out of the driveway.  It was a cute sight to see.  Well, on this second day one of the little girls all on her own fruition wanted to ‘push me off’ and she did so! The following day all the children wanted to do so; pushed me out of the driveway.  I had been accepted as part of their family on some level and I was very grateful for it. Children are so accepting.

The Wet Lesson...

Being A Moment Mommy I also get my fair share of the hard moments - I wish not to dwell on these moments so I will not share many of them however this one was a doozy.  In one of my dance classes I had sisters - in many cases this works out well, but this situations only made it worse  they had more power in numbers as I am sure many of you mommies can relate.  To give some background in this particular studio there is no close drinking fountain so I encourage my dancers to bring a water bottle. On the occasion I have allowed them to do the great old trick of the hand cup in the bathroom sink. Well these sisters had reached their attention span so I let them go and get a drink. I saw that they went to the restroom so I figure that they had forgotten their water bottle.  I was not worried until no one came back… I went to check on things and well the bathroom door was locked. “Great”...  if one of the girls is using the bathroom there is no problem, however knowing them some small alarm goes off in my head.  I have a key but I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and I knock... nothing… I knocked louder my worry building, for me the worse part of misbehavior is I must help with the learning of natural consequence and I don’t get to be my happy ‘no worries self’. Yet there was still no response so  I knocked LOUDER and talked through the door, this time. A few moments later the door opened and much to my chagrin there was water everywhere. Some how it missed the toilet paper - Thank You- but other then that it was everywhere. I can almost give a half smile as I think back on it with so much time past. Well natural consequences were dealt this day has I handed each girl a hand full of paper towel and for most of dance class time we dried the bathroom instead of doing our fun dancing ways.  

As a side note I am much more wary of allowing children to do this drinking method anymore.  And really I've even been cutting back on number of drink breaks all together because really in 50 to 60 min lessons they should be able to handle it and wait till after class, famous last words right.

Speed Crawler

Children have so much love to give no matter their age and their communication skills. They find ways to show it, we as adults just need to have our eyes open for it. The following is one brief example.

It was my nephews birthday party as their birthdays were only a few days apart. I had my arms full of gifts and other assorted things, I always have my arms full of this and that, sometimes giving me the nickname of “Bag Lady”. I was excited to see them but I could do little about it until I relieved myself of my small burdens. I walked past my youngest nephew, his eyes lit up so, that I wanted to squeeze him. He would be turning one and was only crawling at the time. After I set the gifts down with the others I stepped back to greet him. As I had stepped back I stepped on my little crawling nephew. I knew he was behind me yet in my mental calculations of where he would be with my understanding of an average crawling speed; I was wrong. He however was making his record time I am sure he broke some record for crawling speed somewhere. I quickly scooped him up consoling him as well as giving him as much love back, as I could.  Doing this all without laughing so he would not think I was laughing at his pain.

The gift I gave him that year was a ‘Lightening McQueen’ - the race car from Pixar’s “Cars” movie - baseball cap, because he loves hats so much. Because of our insistent  it was given a second meaning. A gift for a speedy boy!

Cup of This and tsp of That...

A few years back my family and I were traveling and visiting many places. One of our many stops was to visit some of my parents cousins, my first cousins once removed.  Being some what on the shy side. Meeting new people makes me a little weary at times. Do not get me wrong family is great its just the meeting new people.  Upon entering the house we were greeted by my Mother’s cousin and once the small talk was out of the way.  She walked up to me and with a smile asked me if I would like to help her children bake some cookies. I consider it a miracle or tender mercy from the Lord. A miracle that I did not need but was given has evidence of my Father in Heaven’s  love for me.  We all have these moments we just have to open our eyes and see them for what they are and then remember them.

Baking is one of my favorite things in the world and children another. I have always dreamed of teaching my children to bake. Father in Heaven knew this and gave me a chance to me a Moment Mommy through a woman I had not met before, therefore she must have been directed by the Holy Spirit, which I am very grateful for. I had a grand time helping the children mix the batter add the ingredients and so on. I will treasure this memory and look forward to doing this same thing with my own future children.

Husband Hunt

There are times when I have  learned a lesson that I have needed while trying to teach a child a concept. The best example I have for this took place a few years ago when after teaching a class a little girl stayed and asked me if I were married. I informed her that I was not and that I had simply not found him yet. Well, she remembered this conversation the next week and stayed after class to ask me, “Miss Camilla, why haven’t you found your husband?”  My mind instantly started to spin has I tried to calm her mind, because she had obviously been thinking about it  for a week and she wanted to understand.  All this compiling took only a few seconds I am sure, but it felt longer. One came to mind after a bit I opened my mouth not having time to make sure it was the perfect analogy before I started. As I spoke as simply as possible I was taught.

Sometimes finding a husband is like finding that hard Easter Egg that your Dad hinds during an Easter Egg Hunt. He keeps telling you that it is there and that it will be worth it. He gives hints and tries to help you but it takes a long time sometimes to find it. Because you have to be the one to find it.

The girl seemed to accept this explanation and really I am not too sure how she reacted because I was too amazed what had just come out of my mouth. You know there is something to keeping things simple enough a child can understand. All the complexities are stripped away and you are left with the solid truth that we as adults like to build on and manipulate to find out our answers, maybe we are going about it the wrong way?

Jitter Bugs

Working with 3 and 4 year old children is quite the adventure, yet know matter how much  they learn and grow over the year it is always a surprise what will happen on the day of the recital. Overcoming Jitter Bugs are a big part of a child having a successful dance experience.

One particular 3 year girl worked so hard to be brave  through the whole class of 45 mins, without her mother. By the end of the year she was able to leave her mom and happily dance for the whole class. She showed no sign of fear or worry during our spacing rehearsal and I did not give her much thought. Not until the recital day itself that is, she enter the warm up room with all the other children most of whom she didn't know but she found some of her classmates  and all seemed to be well. Until she started to cry. I try to give her hugs and tell her that she would be alright that we would be going into the room with her mother very soon and she would watch her and loved her. Nothing I said consoled her I was getting worried that she would not have a pleasant experience with this whole recital experience that and that I would have to go and find her mother. I took her to go get a drink and when we came back she agreed that she could finish the warm up if I did it with her and held her hand I did so and has we did the movements together she soon forgot her fears and slowly no longer needed my hand to hold and became her happy fun self again.  She was able to participate with her class and did a wonderful job. She had a positive and successful experience with her recital which is so important for children.

How was this a Mommy Moment for me? Well in truth it was a collection of Mommy Moments has I help this child that struggled more than most to overcome fear and learn and grow with the rest of her class. I was and am so proud of her for overcoming this trial in her life and having success in that.

Cutest Pillow

Just finished running a dress rehearsal with a lot of children as well as being in charge for the first time;  I was drain physically as well as emotionally. The rehearsal went well and I had no complaints I was simply exhausted. However my night was far from over I was going to watch my nephews. I really had no idea how exhausted I would be upon agreeing nor did I know immediately after my rehearsal. At the time I only had two little nephews the oldest was 2 and youngest was some amount of months. After some time I put the younger of the boys to bed and not feeling up to our normal outside play or dance lesson I put on a movie. It was probably one of the clues to my nephew that Aunty was not her usual self. I got the movie playing and sat on the couch he came and joined me sitting so still next to me this was not normal but I was pleased I did have the energy to convince him that Aunty was exhausted. What took place next I will never forget and will cherish the rest of my life. My perceptive nephew, with his legs stretch out in front of him patted his lap, feet not even close to the edge of the couch and said, “Pillow? Pillow?”  I understood he recognized I was not my self; super tired and in his way he wanted to serve and help me, show me his love! At 2 years of age I knew his attention span would not last long so I put my head carefully on his lap and he then proceeded to stroked my hair with is gentle little fingers. I stayed down there maybe 30 seconds and sat up again. Thinking he would want to jump off the couch at any moment and play with his toys. I was so wrong.  He looked up at me and patted his lap again and said, “More pillow? More pillow?”  Once more I put my head down and he proceeded again to stroked my hair but this time I didn't get up until he wiggled out from under my head maybe two or three minutes later. At which point he quietly alternated between playing and watching the movie, until his bed time. Tears come to my eyes even now as I think of his self sacrificing act of love for me. In his pure and simple little way. Where he came up with the idea I have know idea most likely watching the great examples of his parents. Children are truly perceptive and loving how much we can all learn from their examples.