Connecting Home and School Experiences

Though I didn't realize it at the time, I had many experiences with my content as a child, even if the experience was a lack of experience.

Foods and Nutrition: My mom cooked dinner almost every night. While I didn't help her cook very often she set the example of having family dinner every night. My sister is a registered dietitian and she would teach me about health and nutrition.

Child Development: Being the 4th of 5 and being quite a bit younger than the next oldest sibling meant that they were married and had kids when I was fairly young. I'd tend their kids and listen to their conversations about raising children and loved every minute of it.

Financial Literacy: Oh boy! This has to be the content I was around the most! A few of my Dad's degrees include an MBA and CPA. He is a mortgage loan officer so money is what he does best! Add that to growing up with a Mom who only sees clearance racks and you get a very money-conscious little girl! I was taught very strictly not to be frivolous with money. However I feel that their methods were sometimes stringent. I've enjoyed my financial freedom lately.

Interior Design: My mom gave permission for me to paint my closet door once. It took up most of the wall it was on. Fortunately for the value of the house we never got around to buying the pink and purple paint I so desperately wanted to paint hearts and flowers with. I didn't really have an eye for decorating and we spent more time out on a soccer field so our house was usually left a tad dejected.

Sewing: The extent of watching my own mother sew was hanging up a damaged article of clothing on the "to be mended" rack in the craft room and then never seeing it again. I once tried to work the machine without ever even watching someone do it and got a great mess of thread on my project. My grandma did sew us pajamas most Christmases and my dad taught me how to sew on a button when one fell off my favorite pair of olive corduroy pants. This was something I really wanted to learn though and was excited that in order to graduate I had to take a CTE course.

How this affects my teaching: I wasn't exposed to many of the areas I will be teaching but I was always drawn to them. As a teacher I will be more understanding of the students who take my classes to learn something they aren't learning at home. It took me a long time to become proficient at these skills and if I'd grown up being good at them I might not be as understanding of my students who are trying.