Thankful

I just had my final class last Tuesday.   Through Skrivanek, I had been teaching English  to adult learners this past school year.  It gave me something to do while my son is out in school.

At first, I never really thought that teaching was for me.  I didn’t think I had the passion and diligence to do it well.  My mom was a high school teacher and she was very passionate about it.

When we got to the Czech Republic,  teaching was the only job I could find that didn’t require any Czech knowledge.  Since my Czech was not yet at a professional level, I thought, what the heck, I’ll try it for a year.   Little did I know that I would enjoy it and regretted that I didn’t do it sooner.  I was able to expand my network and meet new friends.

Through interaction with my students, I was also able to gain a deeper understanding of Czech culture and have come to love this country and its people.  My students were adult learners with advanced knowledge in English so teaching was not difficult at all.

I am quite sad that this chapter of my life is over, as I know I would miss it.  However, I am very thankful to all those people who were part of this life -enriching experience:  the people at Skrivanek, my students, the people at Krokodyl, who took care of my son while I was away, and especially my husband who had always been very supportive of this endeavor.

Anyway, I’d like to share with you 2 of my favorite art pieces that Jakub made in school.  As I was teaching, he was making these.

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He calls this:  “Flowers for mama.”

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Have a great weekend!

One Happy Mama

Today is one of those days when I feel like we hit a significant milestone.

On a normal day, Jakub plays like this.

He is either on his bike or pulling his toy trucks.  Sometimes he will be pushing his toy mower.

Since I was busy with house work, I allowed him to play by himself in his room.  When everything got quiet, I thought he fell asleep.

Some days, it is normal to find him like this.

Sleeping on the living room couch.

But it was way too early for a nap, so I got nervous.  What happened to my son?  Did he get into an accident?

But here he was…reading a book.

Apparently, he took a chair to go up and get the book.

Normally, he would take my hand, point to a book and ask me to read it to him.  But today he decided to do it himself.

Although going on top of the chair can be dangerous, I appreciated the fact that he loves to read!

To add to my joy, he even handed me a flower he made out of his legos.

Today, I am one happy mama.