carolcooperruebermusings: Even with a child along, education is so very valuable...and fun!

I was absolutely in my 'realm' on campus. Every class was an adventure, and I loved the challenge. Below is the 'farm' etching I did that I mentioned earlier...

And, I had a good babysitter for my daughter, eventually...

The first gal I left her with was from Columbia, and spoke a bit of English, but had absolutely no trouble relating to small children. Our daughter warmed right up to her, and looked forward to going to her house every morning. I had to ride my bike about 1 mile up hill to where she lived, in the higher-priced married student housing, but the weather was still nice, when I left her there, and the ride was actually fun. I had a child seat on the back of my bike, and our daughter enjoyed riding in it.

But, people on campus are very mobile...they come and go...and this gal's husband graduated, so I needed to find other child care for our little girl.

One of the sitters I left her with was not so great. This was a lady from India who had never taken care of her own children, since in her culture her mother and sisters did all the work for her when she had a baby and for some months afterward. She had literally no experience with little kids, other than relating to her own. Luckily, I didn't have this problem until I was ready to do my student-teaching (which in one way was not all that lucky after all). I only had to complete my student-teaching satisfactorily, and I would be able to graduate that term (by this time, ISU had switched to the semester system, so the fall term ended in December). I had two hours of classes every morning with my student-teaching supervisor, and then the rest of the day was doing the actual student-teaching. Since my degree would give me certification to teach all grades, kindergarten through 12th grade, I needed to do student-teaching in both an elementary school and a junior high or high school. But, all of that got a bit sticky when our daughter just couldn't adjust to the lady from India. This woman was the wife of a student, and they lived in the married student housing complex, so it was close to my quonset house. She was trying to sit with about six children, in addition to her own two, and if you've ever been in a quonset hut that is being used for housing...there are two tiny bedrooms, a bathroom, a very small kitchen-living room combination, and that is it...and the rooms are extremely compact. I would drop our little girl off, and when I came to pick her up after my day, she had terribly red and puffy eyes from crying the entire time. She wouldn't get off of their couch, and even one time wet her pants there, which - needless to say - made the woman quite unhappy. But, this lady had no idea of how to comfort a child, and just let her sit and cry. Well, I knew I couldn't do my best with that kind of thing going on with my little girl, and I was thinking I might have to quit just shy of accomplishing my goal to get my teaching certificate. I actually liked the woman, and was sorry I had to take some of her income away, but I really had no choice. (This lady showed me some of the most beautiful saris! She had about seven of them in different colors and designs, of course, embellished with a lot of gold embroidery. They were lovely!) But, I know she realized that I could not leave our daughter there anymore with her crying every minute that I was gone, so we parted in a friendly way. She was probably relieved to not have a sad child in her care!

David was always good to keep our daughter during end-of-term tests. He would take her to the neighbor lady in Kanawha who was the wife of our minister, and took care of several kids, and she was fine there. But, David had a busy job, and it was asking too much for him to have her all the time, even if the babysitting situation was ideal. So...I mulled over quitting.

But, luckily, I called the child development department and found out that they had an opening at the on-campus preschool, which I snapped up for our daughter. She loved it! The girls in charge of that facility were excellent with her, and she actually looked forward to going each morning! They had a 'water-table' and sometimes had extra cartons of milk that was not spoiled, but was out of its 'sell-by' date, so they would dump that milk into their water table, and let the kids play with it...what kid doesn't love to mess around in liquids? They also spent a lot of time reading to the kids, and our little girl enjoyed sitting on the lap of one of the gals who did the reading. One time I went, and they had been pouring syrup onto paper plates and sticking macaroni, beads, liquid tempera paints, and other stuff into it! So much creative play! We both loved it! So...my problem got solved, just in the nick of time!

Later on, I'll tell more about my student-teaching experiences. I had a blast with the kids. I was lucky to be able to teach at Ames Junior High School, and at Sawyer Elementary School, also in Ames.

Here are some other pieces of my art work that I have hanging around in our house...pieces that I have done on my own, outside of required student projects.

This big watercolor (about 24"x36") hangs above our bed. I painted it at the request of my sister Jean, who had it hanging in her dining room for several years. When she was ready to change decor, she gave me the painting back. It is painted 'after' a similar watercolor by Rachel E. Levenick (I used a painting done by my Aunt Rachel as the model, with a small bit of alteration). It seems to have a bit of a Grant Wood 'feel' to it...

This one was an assignment for my 'color' class, where we had to take a 'masters' painting and make a paper cutting to match it as best we could. This is from a Gauguin painting. (Can you see my reflection in the glass?)

Here is one I did after college: