Do you have vivid memories of elementary school?

[Heidi @ Mt Hope]

A friend and I were talking about enjoying the younger years with our children. Reading picture books, library story time, what have you. I don't think I have a single memory from before age 5, or so. It saddens me that my boys might not remember a single thing of their glorious early childhood. (My 3yo ds just came up to me with the cutest little smile. I said, 'Guess what?' and he answered, 'I make your heart sing.' Yup.)

 

Then I was thinking back to what I learned in school during the elementary years (specifically what I *didn't* learn of science). I can remember very little. Just small snippits here and there. I understand that solid educational foundations are imperative (particularly in the 3 Rs), but I wonder how much my boys will retain from these years (both information and general memories). I'm hoping that learning history (with literature, science, art history, music history, etc.) chronologically, and then repeating that cycle will give my boys more pegs for their memories than my early education did.

 

Do you have memories of your early childhood and particularly of lessons from elementary school?

[AuntieM]

Well, I got "THE" lesson on the school playground in 4th grade.

 

The biggest memory aside from that was the great playground at my kindergarten, and one time my K teacher blew her stack because we used too much glue on an art project.

 

I remember looking at some words my teacher wrote on the board at the beginning of first grade. I already knew how to read well, and I think I just brought books from home and tuned her out the rest of the year.

 

I did love my beautiful 3rd grade teacher.

 

I remember winning an art contest in 4th. Guess I used just the right amount of glue for that one.

 

I remember the strong but not unpleasant scent of a substitute teacher's aftershave lotion. He reminded me of one of my uncles.

 

These memories are all so scattered, but there's one thing they have in common. Not a one involves academics!

[elegantlion]

I have a lot of memories from early childhood and elementary school. I was pondering the same issues recently and realized I remember more about the attitudes and personality of teachers/students than actual information. That helped me to understand that it may not the what I teach but how I teach that sticks with ds.

 

- I remember kissing a boy in kindergarten

- I remember learning to bounce a ball in kindergarten

- I remember the giant house behind the school catching on fire and we all got to go out and watch the firemen work, from behind a giant fence of course.

- I remember moving in 4th grade and hating it.

- I remember the art teacher who grabbed the brush from my hand because I wasn't painting the tree right. :glare:

- I remember the art lady (different woman) bringing prints around once a month. That's when I became fascinated with Dali paintings

- I remember all of the girls crying and the boys laughing when our teacher read us "Where the red fern grows". I will not read that book to ds, too sad for me.

- I remember my hands shaking when I had to give my first oral report in 6th grade.

- I remember watching the first space shuttle take off during class. I think that was 6th grade.

- I remember playing bloody knuckles with my best friend on recess with those giant plastic combs we used to carry. :lol:

 

I hope my ds will have some good memories to carry with him, maybe he'll forget the bad ones.

[Desert Rat]

Preschool-age 4- I remember lining up for recess, the gigantic playground equipment that scared me, getting my siloquette drawn and singing songs.

 

Kindergarten- I remember my teacher's name was Mrs. Lipky and we used to point to our lips and turn a key as a signal, triangle shaped milk cartons and the way my desk looked.

 

1st grade- My awful teacher who told me the devil was in the TV. Sje wouldn't let me use the bathroom so I had an accident. I remember getting a reward for learning to tie my shoes and having to sit by myself during lunch because I took too long to eat. I remember getting laughed at for the way I sneezed and Tim Wille throwing up all over the teacher's desk (again, not letting him go to the potty.) I do remember learning to read that year and hating memorizing my catachisms.

 

2nd grade-The boy who pulled up my skirt and got a paddle for it. My sweet teacher who fixed my hair when my daddy tried but failed at pony tails. Working to get straight A's the entire year so I could get my ears pierced (I did!).

 

3rd grade-Making paper mache puppets for Noah's Ark play and having a rough time with math. Loving music. Nature walks around the school and crayon rubbings of leaves.

 

4th grade-My cool guitar playing teacher and doing poorly at spelling. Loving reading.

 

No memories of 5th grade and social memories of 6th. I don't ever remember learning one stitch of science and learning only history as it related to the Bible (Noah's Ark, the Exodus, etc).

 

I remember very early on and vividly. I remember entire days starting around kindy. My first grade year left me with lots of emotional damage. That teacher only worked there that one year. She should never work with children.

 

I hope me kids don't remember me yelling. I hope they remember the fun science experiments and art projects. I hope they remember field trips and history lessons and none of me crying out of frustration. That's my hope. We'll see how it turns out.

[Alphabetika]

When we started HSing, our oldest dd was in 2nd grade. As I agonized over curriculum in the giant hall at the homeschool convention, dh said, "I remember two things from 2nd grade: we used to line up chairs and sit in them to play train, and we played post office in our classroom.":tongue_smilie:

[dragons in the flower bed]

Oh yes, I remember tons from early childhood and elementary school. I do remember exchanges with my father similar to what you describe with Leif.

 

In first grade I switched schools halfway through the year. Just from that year, I remember:

 

- meeting the fifth grader who helped me find my classroom on the first day of first grade. She seemed like an angel. I swear her eyes were crystal blue.

- going back to my first grade class to visit after I moved to a different district

- being given a phonics workbook and exploring it, including reading the instructions to teachers

- hiding a banana in my desk, forgetting it, finding it rotten later and not knowing what to do

- the way the light flooded in to my first grade classroom from the long set of windows

- being the only kid in the 1st grade who could consistently accurately spell our teacher's name, Mrs. Tiebermann

- being asked not to use cursive they'd taught in the first school where I had first grade, but to use print instead

- yearning to go into the woods that bordered the school playground and knowing I shouldn't

- the flaking paint on the tubes in the school playground

- the chubby, greasy kid I expected, from my reading of Beverly Cleary, to be a bully, but who turned out to be sweet and a good friend

- the texture on the trays on which they served our lunch, noticing they were the same trays used in art class, and wondering if there was ever art-food cross contamination

- the sound of my mother's laugh and the sway of her hair when she found out boys were paying me to sit at their table

- being suddenly rejected by a girl named Cynthia when she was accepted by the other girls

- learning to do the hand game that goes with, "Here's the church, here's the steeple, open it up and here are the people"

- being the only kid in class willing to play with the new kid, a Spanish speaking immigrant named Judy, and then being sad when they put her in special ed instead

- obsessively cutting paper, believing that when the metal closed down on the edge, the paper must initially be trapped under, so when there should be microscopic twisting occurring before the scissors can separate one set of paper molecules from another. I got in big trouble for this one and they eventually brought me to a psychologist.

- being bored out of my mind, faking illness so I could get a pass to go to the nurse, and taking the longest, weirdest routes there, essentially exploring the school. (I also got in trouble for that.)

- the learning centers! each was set up for a different subject

- the chart of the seasons that seemed so trippy to me, as though the eternity of it could reveal divinity.

 

I was a weird first grader, I guess.

 

Those are just the memories that have to do with school. There's a whole 'nother bunch from my home life. My parents divorced that year. It was memorable in many ways.

[secular_mom]

I remember:

 

1st grade: teaching another child their colors because I already knew them, doing art projects, listening to stories on those old cassette players with the huge head phones, going to speech class (I didn't say the s sound correctly because I was missing my two front teeth), I loved my homeroom teacher but not the reading teacher, one boy kicking me in the back during reading class (we were sitting on the floor listening to a story), 'the snake man' assembly, a magic show, a winter pageant, watching Darby O'gill and The Little People on St. Patrick's Day, a boy kissed me on the cheek because he loved his xmas present.

 

2nd grade: Learning division and not quite understanding fractions, misreading behave (pronounced the last part as the word have), misreading brow (pronounced it bra) and all the kids laughing, being in a beauty pageant (I was also in one in 1st grade) and practicing for it during school hours, eating lunch in the cafeteria, playing on the playground and in the gym, making certain things during art, learning spelling words, going to the office to buy a pencil when I lost mine, standing in line during break (recess) to buy chips and soda, reading teacher telling me to not bother to start my work if I wasn't going to finish it (she gave me a zero on that worksheet- I didn't understand the instructions and she wouldn't explain them to me- she said I should have been listening when she told everyone the first time, I was but didn't understand it then either).

 

3rd grade:

Learning anatomy (tracing my body on butcher paper and coloring paper organs and pasting them onto my body as we learned each system), the reading loft (we got to climb up in it and read when we were done with our work), taking names when the teacher stepped out of the room, going home early for a snow day and watching it snow while I waited for my mom to come and get me, standing in line for break and lunch, entering art contests, going on a field trip to see a puppet show, going to the zoo and botanical gardens, a friend puking on her notebook during class (it was a neat little puddle of puke, only on her notebook and the janitor came and put it in the trash and sanitized her desk), seeing puke in the floors on the way to lunch/gym and it was covered with that orange stuff they put on top of it to absorb it so they could sweep it up, a boy in class started using a different name, etc.

 

4th grade:

hated my homeroom teacher who called lots of the boys "pig in the mud puddle" when they didn't do their work correctly, telling lots of boys they'd be ditch diggers when they grew up because they wouldn't get a good job because they didn't do their work well, making a puppet for a puppet show we did, watching the Challenger take off and explode, going to the Space Center, going to xxxville (a state park with exhibits from Native American tribes), doing reading comprehension work after my regular work was done (for extra credit), teacher reading How to Eat Fried Worms to us but not on the day we had spaghetti for lunch, studying geology and collecting rocks/fossils.

 

5th grade: science teacher was a blast- we studied the milk way and got candy bars, studied earthworms and got gummy worms, etc.- she reminds me of Miss Frizzle as she was always wearing bright colored skirts with neat patterns on them that sometimes fit the theme of what we were studying, watching 'the film' and getting a goody bag with pads, deodorant, noxema, and some other things; winning a prize for best costume (halloween), winning art/coloring contests, having visitors to our school from Japan who brought us origami paper and Japanese toys- they sponsored our school and built a Kumon Library, creative writing, math, history, various assemblies, eating crackers at lunch with our hands under our mouths like our teacher did so that we didn't get crumbs everywhere.

 

7th grade:

 

Greatest history teacher- I learned EVERY country in the world, I learned a LOT from him that year, science- great teacher that we learned LOTS of things from as well (how to take blood pressure, what causes tornados, etc.)

[LaxMom]

Sure, lots of things:

 

• I remember my 4'10", late fifties, first grade teacher lifting a boy out of his chair, over his desk and putting him over her knee in response to him telling her she was not the boss of him. (I have many fond memories of her, actually, from giving me books to read to walking with her and her Siberian Husky, Cairn, after school. Her name was Miss McGinness and she lived with her brother and sister a few streets away from me.)
  
• I remember telling my mother in no uncertain terms that my nursery school teacher was crazy and I was NOT going back. (She wore overalls and pigtails, and referred to herself in the third person) (Two of my FB friends were in that same class!)
  
• I remember going to the "media center" (which was 70s-speak for the school library) and seeing my mom (who worked there because the principal found her sobbing on the steps my first day of K and gave her a job)
  
• I remember the enigma who was my second K teacher (the first left shortly after we started), who was a dear friend, someone I looked up to very much, and who I still try to emulate, 30-odd years later. (Though I think I fall short in many ways)
  
• I remember squirting a cherry tomato down the front of Bill Cohen's shirt at dinner, during his first Senate run. (I was 7, he was gracious, my parents were mortified)
  
• I remember the mundane stuff (though soiling a congressman was probably fairly mundane at 7) like watching my cat chase a marble all over the house like a maniac, until it went down the heating grate, sitting in the top of the apple tree in the side yard, playing in the woods for hours making little fairy houses out of moss and toadstools and whatnot... lots of stuff.
  

[BamaTanya]

of my early childhood and of school from K on. I also remember the lady who used to babysit my brother and me (and her daughter and the Barbies she let me play with) when I was 4-ish and Mom was working. I remember each elementary teacher and things about the students in my classes. In first grade a boy named Dan drew my name for Christmas presents and brought me a pack of hair bows, for instance. I remember the 2 teachers I had who had babies during those years and the teachers who replaced them during their maternity leaves. I remember the games we played at recess and the stories the teachers read aloud . . .

 

My dh, OTOH, remembers very little of his childhood. None of his elementary teachers.

 

Dh and I had very different childhoods, however. His was chaotic (ill mother, lots of moves, struggles in school) and mine was rather idyllic (close family and lots of success in school). We have different personalities, too. He has trouble remembering names and that's relatively easy for me. So . . . I don't know what that tells you . . .

[snickelfritz]

--Hatching eggs in K

--Not getting to sing "All I want for CHristmas is my 2 front teeth) in K, because I wasn't missing teeth.

--Getting spanked in K because I scratched off that fake snow window decoration stuff from one of the class windows

--Sitting with my nose in a corner in K ALL of the time, because I guess I talked too much (although I never again got in as much trouble as I did in K. I really don't think she liked me.)

--A 1st grade teacher who let me go to the library as often as I wanted

--Bits and pieces of other things. I can come up with multiple things for most of the grades. There is one grade/teacher (oddly-4th) that I just can't remember anything about.)

 

 

I DO remember books. I will see a books on a booklist and I will get SO excited that a book that I loved is actually famous and I look forward to reading those with my dd's. (The Endless Steppe, From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler) are two that come to mind.

Edited September 5, 2009 by snickelfritz

[specialmama]

I was not homeschooled, but do you know what I remember about learning? I remember when I was in grade 1, my dad got down on the carpet with an orange, a walnut and a flashlight. He taught me about an eclipse. I remember him teaching me about rubber eggs around the same time. We had 5 jars lined up on the kitchen counter. He used that lesson to also teach me about good dental habits (acidity eating away at calcium) and I remember him demonstrating Archimedes' Theory of Water Displacement with a fridge crisper filled with water, a plastic ruler, and different items we'd plop in there. To me, those moments spoke volumes and are forever etched in my mind. He took the time to get down to my level, have hands-on fun, and explore the world around us. It's one of the many reasons I homeschool. I am counting on my daughter remembering our model of a synogogue, complete with the upside down pudding cups placed all around, with a family name on each, and knowing why God placed each family precisely. I am sure she will remember many of the times we explored together. :001_smile:

[mommaduck]

Kindy: 1/2 year the most wonderful school and teacher. 1/2 year the most horrible teacher and different school. I was a elfish little child and was berated by the German kindy teacher (military base here in the US) because I was unable to hold myself on monkey bars and cross them...I had no arm muscle. I also remember being taught about MayDay and doing the Maypole.

 

1st and 2nd grade: I remember quite a bit. Snake skins in the bathroom, no windows in our school, only slats, and a teacher that literally SPAT curse words at me in Chamarro.

 

3rd grade: best year ever. Private school on my island paradise. Uniforms, challenging schoolwork and caring teachers.

 

4th-8th: I won't even describe...let's just say that there should have been intervention, teachers fired, and a school shut down.

[lauracolumbus]

I have virtually no memories. What I do remember usually revolves around a photograph. I guess I better get back to scrapbooking.

 

My kids' memories so far seem great. I think if we keep talking about some of their memories it will cement them even more.

 

Laura

[sbgrace]

All of my pre-3rd grade school memories are negative ones. There aren't many but the few are cemented in my mind.

 

I don't think the really young kids retain a lot of specific memories but I still think their experiences shape them. For example, I believe most kids in school have formed visions of themselves as competent or incompetent learners by K to 1st grade that are hard to change. They form visions of themselves as persons too from adult response and interaction (parent and other significant people in their lives).

Edited September 6, 2009 by sbgrace

[gandpsmommy]

--Hatching eggs in K

--Not getting to sing "All I want for CHristmas is my 2 front teeth) in K, because I wasn't missing teeth.

--Getting spanked in K because I scratched off that fake snow window decoration stuff from one of the class windows

--Sitting with my nose in a corner in K ALL of the time, because I guess I talked too much (although I never again got in as much trouble as I did in K. I really don't think she liked me.)

--A 1st grade teacher who let me go to the library as often as I wanted

--Bits and pieces of other things. I can come up with multiple things for most of the grades. There is one grade/teacher (oddly-4th) that I just can't remember anything about.)

 

 

I DO remember books. I will see a books on a booklist and I will get SO excited that a book that I loved is actually famous and I look forward to reading those with my dd's. (The Endless Steppe, From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler) are two that come to mind.

 

I can't believe the teacher actually spanked you for scratching off fake snow! That's horrible.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Didn't go to K - but my memories from that time were of teaching myself to read from the Dick and Jane books that my mom had at home.

 

1st grade -

 

*wetting my pants on the first day because I was too scared to ask the teacher where the bathroom was.

 

*having to sit and do stupid phonics lessons when I could already read at a higher level.

 

*sitting and listening to the much more interesting stories that the older kids read in our one-room schoolhouse.

 

*learning to take two city buses (with a transfer) to school all by myself. Falling asleep on the bus and trying to get a cab to stop for a 6 year old. I took it to the school and the teacher paid the cabbie.

 

* learning to dance the Tinikling (Filipino bamboo dance).

 

2nd grade:

 

* tracing ourselves on butcher paper and then decorating it according to what we wanted to be when we grew up. I wanted to be a stewardess (we had no flight attendants back then).

 

* trying so hard to get those stars on our addition facts chart for math.

 

* jogging for the first time with our teacher.

 

3rd grade:

 

* teaching the younger kids in the 1 room schoolhouse when they needed help and the teacher was busy.

 

* getting a handmade kokeshi doll (a Japanese doll with painted features) from my Japanese teacher. I still have it on my china cabinet.

 

4th grade:

 

* the shock of going to American public school. Being marked for the year when the teacher introduced me as "our friend from Japan" - I am still called "Jap" when I go back to that little town in Michigan.

 

* getting the bus bully to stop bullying me when I finally had enough and punched him out.

 

* getting the class bully to stop bullying me when I finally had enough and punched him out.

 

* going to the 5th grade class for reading. Being so embarrassed because whenever there was a new word to sound out I automatically would sound it out with Japanese syllables.

 

* going to the nature preserve for a field trip. This was cool. I made a plaster cast of a wolf's pawprint.

 

* getting those chewable things that turned your teeth red wherever you didn't brush well enough in health class.

 

* mixing up fake "throw up" so that my mom would let me stay home.

 

5th Grade -

 

*back in the one room schoolhouse - having our elderly teacher make us all relearn cursive because she didn't believe in that new-fangled way that the previous teachers had taught us.

 

* climbing over the cinderblock wall at recess and escaping.

 

6th grade -

 

* having the same teacher as in 5th grade have us do her weeding (she lived at the school) for "nature study".

 

* learning Dr. Suess songs for a musical.

[cillakat]

I remember so so so much. My first day at my beloved montessori school when I was three....so many clear memories from that entire preschool experience....

 

so many memories that my mom says are from early on....12-18 mos......24 mos.....tons of them.

 

K

[AmeliaJade]

Here are the ones that spring to mind right away--

 

*Being yelled at in front of my 1st grade class because I used a piece of white crayon that had been in the chalk tray to draw on the blackboard during a rainy recess.

 

*My 4th grade teacher getting snotty with me whenever I went to her desk to ask for help. I can still remember that glare as I approached her desk.

 

*That same 4th grade teacher telling my parents that I was boy crazy and did nothing but chase boys. My dad was livid and I was actually in trouble. I was a tomboy and spent my recess playing tether ball or pretending to be a storm trooper with all the boys rather than playing jump rope or climbing on the monkey bars. For this I was labeled boy crazy.

 

*My 5th grade teacher, whom I adored, reading to us every day after lunch. She read "The House of Dies Drear", "Summer of the Monkeys" "A Pup Named Kitty" and others. I still love all those books and reading aloud to my kids now is the best part of my day.

[fshinkevich]

I have four vivid memories, two of which were bad, and one was "ok" I guess. The rest of the memories are little snippets, nothing substantial.

 

Ordered best - to NIGHTMARE

 

1. We planted tomato seeds for science that went into space. I've no clue what happened to these seeds, so I don't know how much of a learning experience it was but I remember being very excited about touching something that would be in space.

 

2. In 2nd grade I found out that my 3rd grade teacher would be Mrs. Withop, who was rumored to be a "for real witch". She had black hair, and was real mean :) I cried for the whole summer, I was truly terrified. She turned out to be not so bad.

 

3. I was outside watching some friends play basketball. A ball flew at my face and knocked me out. Cold.

 

**4. This one was truly traumatizing. Seriously, it still has an impact on me today. I would love to find the teacher and give her a piece of my mind. All of one grade level, for example all the 5th graders in this situation, met together once a week to sing songs while the music teacher played piano. All the students sat together on the floor. We happened to meet Fridays after lunch. I had a terrible tummy ache and to my complete horror farted :eek: I was SO embarrassed, I wanted to crawl in a hole and die. I am already and incredibly shy person, so this was horrible. A few kids near me heard and were laughing and teasing me, but what made it worse is the music teacher heard and got ANGRY with me. She started yelling at me at the top of her lungs telling me how rude and disgusting I was. Now not just a couple kids near me knew, but the ENTIRE 5th grade and their teachers knew. OMG I almost died. I went home, cried, and have never forgotten that feeling.

 

** I have never told anyone this story :D

[Moni]

Not a one involves academics!

!

 

They never do.....;)

Nor if folks tell you about their "favorite" things about high school, etc. ;)

It was the extracurricular activities...the not-academics. :lol:

 

:seeya:

[ma23peas]

I remember 3 teachers, one was just amazing...I remember the way she used to take the rubberband off her list of index cards....and read aloud to us when we had extra time..she was the ONLY teacher (k-6) that read aloud to us!! She really is a big part of why we read aloud even to this age of 10-14!! :)

 

Oh, and the boy who put mustard on his eskimo pie....what we remember is quite odd...

 

Tara

[LibraryLover]

Not really. My most vivid memories are parental/sibling ones. Those are most wonderful or most nightmarish. lol And my parents were quite not horrible. I have a lovely, wonderful memory of 6th grade. Otherwise, school was neutral, memory- wise, until high school, then they were lovely. It's where I played sports, wrote for the school newspaper, did theater, and met my sweet nerd hubby. :D

[LibraryLover]

I remember 3 teachers, one was just amazing...I remember the way she used to take the rubberband off her list of index cards....and read aloud to us when we had extra time..she was the ONLY teacher (k-6) that read aloud to us!! She really is a big part of why we read aloud even to this age of 10-14!! :)

 

Oh, and the boy who put mustard on his eskimo pie....what we remember is quite odd...

 

Tara

 

My sixth grade teacher used to read to us daily. My mother read to me for years, so I was primed! Plus, this teacher was interested in literature, interested in deep discussion about literature, so excited about books! My mother was a book lover as well, so with my mother, plus this teacher so full of joy about text, 6th grade stands out in my memory as one of great discovery and warmth. :001_smile:

[i.love.lucy]

I have virtually no memories. What I do remember usually revolves around a photograph. I guess I better get back to scrapbooking.

 

My kids' memories so far seem great. I think if we keep talking about some of their memories it will cement them even more.

 

Laura

Me too. I am NOT a long-term memory kind of person. I will come up with a memory and my mom will tell me that I am remembering seeing a photograph. The photo might trigger the memory, or maybe I don't really remember and I can just "see" the photo in my mind. My DH has tons of very good memories of his childhood and has found lots of people from his school years on FB - even some teachers. I have no interest in trying because I don't remember them. It's kind of distressing sometimes and I have wondered if it's just the way my brain is wired or if I am supressing something terrible. As far as I know my childhood was no bowl of cherries, but it wasn't horrible either. *shrug*

 

I have a few memories of high school, of course, but most are bad. I hated those years. I think my life began in college.

[mrsrevmeg]

 

• Pre-K- I had the most fabulous baby-sitter!She had a daughter just a little younger than me. We would play, make things, she cooked "blue salad" (a jello salad thing), she would take us to the park and zoo.
  
• K- We only went 1/2 the year. My boyfriend kissed me behind the Christmas tree. My teacher was the sweetest and most enthusiastic teacher in the school. (as far as I knew) The second half of the year my grandfather lost his job so he was my babysitter. We would go to the beer store. I would sit at the bar eating peanuts and drinking Dr Pepper. We would make a chocolate cake in the afternoon to eat for breakfast the next morning.
  
• 1-My teacher (who to this point I adored) asked to see my brand new shiny Calvin Klein belt. I thought she liked it. She used it to SPANK a boy in my class! My boyfriend of all the boys!!!
  
• 2- I had the most precious teacher ever. Really. There was a girl in my class who would periodically get taken from her home and placed with foster parents. When with the foster parents, she came to school clean, fed, etc. When with her real parents, not so much. My teacher would get her off the bus early in the mornings, feed her breakfast, give her clean clothes to wear and brush her hair. That teacher came to a yard sale at my house to buy my old clothes. (My grandmother found out what she wanted them for and gave them to her)
  
• 3-I had a rude wake up call! I went from wonderful teachers to a mean woman. She paddled the whole class, one at a time, in the class, in front of everyone, for not making 100 on a science test. (Her answer key was wrong,so some of us actually got 100) a girl in my class had to go on nerve pills because the teacher put so much pressure on us with timed multiplication tests. I made my first B.
  
• 4- my school was having financial problems. I was in a class that was split half 4th graders/half 5th graders. I remember wondering if the white streak in the front of her hair was actually gray or if she just bleached that one part. I remember my reading teacher that year was the complain about how teachers are underpaid type.
  
• 5- I was devastated the first day of school. We had two 5th grade teachers. The "cool" one and the mean man. Guess who I got? The man!! The big scary man who made people do math out of SEVEN different books!! (what older kids told me) I learned that year that sometimes the "cool" teacher is not so cool. (she was my reading teacher, I began to hate reading time) and that wherever my friends are is the cool class. Even if that means going to the class room that is separated from the rest of the school and I have a big mean-looking man who smokes every day after lunch for a teacher.
  
• 6- I had a really good teacher. She read the Bible to us every morning. Even though she was told not to. She taught from her heart. She made history come alive. We wrote a class newspaper. We sang. We did art. We learned TONS about Mexico. We had an end of the year fiesta, complete with us making costumes and learning songs, which we went around to the whole elementary school to perform. It was great!
  
• *almost forgot! I had the most wonderful librarian in elementary school! She would let me get extra books AND get books from above my *grade level* since I never read on grade level! I can remember thinking that being a librarian would be the coolest job ever because I would always be surrounded by books!
  

 

Edited September 6, 2009 by mrsrevmeg
Forgot a memory!

[LibraryLover]

 

• *almost forgot! I had the most wonderful librarian in elementary school! She would let me get extra books AND get books from above my *grade level* since I never read on grade level! I can remember thinking that being a librarian would be the coolest job ever because I would always be surrounded by books!

 

 

I had a very difficult time in Jr High. (I think most kids do, as it's an emotional time). The school library was a haven for several of us who loved books. The head librarian would assign us certain areas of library to tend ; tidy, organize etc. Most of us would get lost in books and she was OK with that. I think she created jobs for us...knowing all she wanted us to do was discover books and read them. It took me two semesters to organize the small historical fiction area. lol

Edited September 6, 2009 by LibraryLover

[Heidi @ Mt Hope]

I've truly loved reading through each of your memories!

 

Mine:

 

K: I think I liked my teacher. We had to bring in things from a list of items such as toothpaste caps, thread spools, etc. We used them for sorting. I really liked sorting.

 

1st: I can picture the alphabet cards in a border at the front of the room. The S card had a picture of a tire hitting a nail. We did timed math tests. I always finished early and drew a horse on the back of my paper. One boy was always getting in trouble and spanked. Two of the kids were held back at the end of the year.

 

2nd: I was very nervous about my teacher. She seemed very old and spinster-ish. My mom loved her because she recommended the book Honey For a Child's Heart (which jump-started my mom into reading good books to us) and she also read aloud in class. I remember Little House on the Prairie. I remember nothing but reading from this class.

 

3rd: I was miserable and had no friends. I loved my teacher, though. Her name was Miss Jewel and we made t-shirts that said Miss Jewel's Gems. She got married at the end of the year. I cut out her wedding picture and announcement from the newspaper. She let me pick any words I wanted for my spelling list. I picked dictionary and encyclopedia. She taught me private guitar lessons in the library during lunch. I did a report for the class on Britain. My mom brought in tea and jam thumbprint cookies we had made together for the class to enjoy. That report boosted my morale tremenduously. I don't remember learning anything except how to spell interesting words and a few facts about Britain.

 

4th: My teacher played the piano in the room and the class sang together everyday. She was always loosing her voice and using cloreseptic spray. I memorized a chapter from the book of John (this was a private school), and the teacher took me out to lunch. We studied early American history. We made ourselves little primers out of cardboard. One day the teacher dressed up in period clothing. I never forgot to bring my Bible to class, but I did this day. I had to go up front and get my hand slapped with a ruler. I was mortified. We had weird new-fangled learning machines. Each machine was a station. Either I didn't get any instructions or I didn't read them, and I failed the machine that taught how to hyphenate words when I broke them up with part of the word on one line and part on the next. (My brain still fails me... What on earth is that called?) I took private flute lessons at the school from another teacher. She was positively delightful.

 

5th: I switched to public school and was rewarded with my favorite teacher out of all my school experience. I absolutely blossomed this year. He let me go at my own speed in language arts. I finished the 5th grade book in the first quarter. He had me be a teacher's helper for math (along with a couple other kids) and gave us each apples. :) We learned about similies and metaphors and lots of other interesting grammar terms. He and the other 5th grade teacher shared history and science. The other teacher taught us the states and capitals. I loved making my map beautiful. I remember music class. I remember being in the 4th/5th choir after school. I was in the TAG program and we read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and then did a fascinating unit on German (learning the language, having a feast, etc.). I also remember someone coming in and going through everyone's hair to find lice. We were supposed to go on paying attention in class while someone was picking through our hair. Oh, and we had flouride rinses every so often, too. ETA: I thought of so many other memories after posting. Like the fact that it was very popular to bring jello mix (just the powder) to school in a plastic bag, lick your finger, coat it with the powder and suck it off. During recess, of course. I also made friends with a boy who had a curse word for every letter of the alphabet....

 

I do have quite a few memories from my home-life (which was idylic) during the elementary years, but not before, sadly.

Edited September 6, 2009 by Heidi @ Mt Hope

[Kirch]

I was not homeschooled, but do you know what I remember about learning? I remember when I was in grade 1, my dad got down on the carpet with an orange, a walnut and a flashlight. He taught me about an eclipse. I remember him teaching me about rubber eggs around the same time. We had 5 jars lined up on the kitchen counter. He used that lesson to also teach me about good dental habits (acidity eating away at calcium) and I remember him demonstrating Archimedes' Theory of Water Displacement with a fridge crisper filled with water, a plastic ruler, and different items we'd plop in there. To me, those moments spoke volumes and are forever etched in my mind. He took the time to get down to my level, have hands-on fun, and explore the world around us. It's one of the many reasons I homeschool. I am counting on my daughter remembering our model of a synogogue, complete with the upside down pudding cups placed all around, with a family name on each, and knowing why God placed each family precisely. I am sure she will remember many of the times we explored together. :001_smile:

 

 

I think that's the key to making memories of early lessons stick--the hands-on, concrete, exploratory learning. I hope so, anyway! I'm sure most of us remember the content we learned in those early years (learning to read, basic math, learning to write, basics of US geography, etc.), but like several others have said, I don't have many memories of actually learning those things. When you all you do for social studies is read the book, answer the questions at the end of the chapter, review, and take a test--and that's what you do for EVERY chapter, there's not much reason for anything to stand out, even if you do remember the material later on.

 

I'm hoping for great "memory pegs" with our kids too. :)

[swellmomma]

I remember the bullies (teachers and students), I remember illnesses that kept me out of class, I remember losing my turn to be attendance runner in grade 3 due to a hand injury, I remember making little plays with my best friend in grade 5 and performing them for the class. I remember running the milk machine, and working in the school library and school office starting 4th grade every lunch hour (I did that for the next 5 years as it was a K-9 school). I remember being told by my music teacher I should never open my mouth to sing because I was horrid in 5th grade. It wasn't until I joined a choir in University that I found out I could sing, but I sing alto not the soprano my music teacher felt all girls should sing, (though I only have a range of 5 notes) ;). I remember my mom dismissing my 4th grade class from detention and reaming my tacher out(we all got a 30 minut DT because we spelled more than 3 of the oceans wrong on a social studies test). I remember crying everyday of grade 5 and 6 wishing I could die.

 

Actually what I remember more fondly is my summer vacations in those years to my grandma's in BC, and my first "boyfriend" that I spent every minute with those summers and the break from life those 2 weeks each year gave.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

K: I remember Doug throwing up all over the floor during circle time. I remember Tricia telling on me because I was copying her coloring, and the teacher giving us a K version of "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" speech. I remember copying out lists of rhyming words from Hop on Pop (I could already read) and giving them to my teacher, only to be totally devastated when I saw them in the trash can later that day.

 

1: The teacher told me that if I wanted to suck my thumb, I would have to go and stand in the cubicle in the back of the room. Not realizing this was a punishment, I thought, "Cool! I get to stand here and suck my thumb all day." Never received that punishment again.

 

2: Really nice teacher. Learned about Australia and Colonial Williamsburg, mostly through copius art projects.

 

3: "Mean" teacher. Would poke her finger into the shoulder of nearest kid when trying to get the attention of the class or chastise a group of kids. However, I distinctly remember her walking up and down the rows of desks reading novels aloud to us. She was into the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books, and Beverly Cleary books. I loved the Ralph Mouse books.

 

4: Vague memories of making a model of the island of Java out of salt dough. Realized I needed glasses when teacher moved me from front to back of room. Teacher always said, "People, stop talking" with a particular accompanying hand motion. First boyfriend, Chris, brought me flowers. Got to go to Maps and Compasses Class for "gifted" kids. I still remember the stuff I learned about maps, scale, direction, etc. Very cool class!

 

5: My grandma died the summer before and it was a sad year. Mom pulled me out of gifted program because she thought they were brainwashing us. We had to write an essay on who we were in a past life, and I wrote that I was Beethoven, and my teacher said I was wrong. Not kidding!

 

From then on, went to a various number of Christian schools, and things just got uglier and uglier!

[kalanamak]

I have many, many memories. Nice ones of going to 4th grade in Canberra. Not so nice ones from here in the US. My most persistent memory was my first step on the road to homeschooling: my 1st grade teacher thought my handwriting was too messy and put a big frowny face on every bit of my written work all year long with a red marker. Daily. Within months I no longer cared about pleasing her or doing anything but grinding through the day and getting the heck out of there. I disliked school ever after. My cheery brother called that grade school grim and dreary.

What did that teacher think she was accomplishing?

 

I remember the geometry, the notebooking, the choir, and the creative writing in Canberra. School can be done right.

[Irene Lynn]

I have many memories from school, both academic and social, and from most other areas of life, too from a very early age and on. My dh doesn't have too many scholastic memories, though he did very well. Dd does not have a lot of memories of her homeschool either. That does sadden me. We did so many things together and read soooo many books and talked for hours on end. She has avoided all hands-on activities, so I think that the years have just blended together. Though evn as I say that, I realize that she doesn't remember a lot from her co-op classes either. She learned so well, but still doesn't remember actual events very clearly at all.

[The Girls' Mom]

My memories are pretty sketchy...I have a lot to forget...lol.

 

But I do remember liking my kindergarten teacher, and sitting on a carpet to sing. (I also remember having to stay in from recess for some reason with two 'mean' boys.)

 

1st grade, I remember flipping over my desk while trying to pick a crayon up off the floor and it landing on my finger. The teacher wouldn't let me got to the nurse. Imagine her surprise the next day when I came in with my broken finger bandaged, and an angry mom.

 

2nd grade I had a teacher that hated girls, and told us all so. My best friend Angie and I spent most of that year sitting in the hall doing write offs.

 

3rd grade- the dreaded multiplication tables and my first real kiss from a boy named Brandon.

 

I seem to have little recollection of the 4th grade..must have really blocked that out.

[Sputterduck]

I remember being in diapers and I was potty trained by 18 months. I do remember tons of elementary school. I could tell you many many stories from each grade.

 

 

I would probably start by telling you about the kid who got expelled in kindergarten for dropping his pants in class when the teacher stepped out of the classroom. I named my fish after him.

Edited September 6, 2009 by Sputterduck

[Closeacademy]

I remember quite a bit and pretty fluently all the way back to age 4 1/2.

 

K was ages 4-5 and I remember playing a lot in the flower shop that was set up in the classroom, the big alphabet project over Christmas break and boring worksheets toward the end of the school year.

 

1st--I remember the 100 word spelling caterpillar, we learned to spell 100 words that year. I remember making books and learning to write sentences. I remember that I was forgotten for my birthday and got my special day with the principal toward the end of the school year and he read Dann and the dinosaur with me. I remember playing on the playground and my best friend. I also remember that school was scary outside of the classroom. I also remember special gym class because I wasn't coordinated, and the fact that they got rid of the trampoline because children had gotten hurt on them. I remember the music teacher, she taught us how to sit crosslegged and was probably a bit on the hippy side looking back. I remember the art teacher and he would have us guess numbers or trivia to win a Peanuts picture he had drawn.

 

Do I go on? My friends say my memory is creepy weird because I remember everything and not just the major events.

 

Yes, I hope my kids have memories of a happy childhood.:001_smile:

[akmommy]

I can remember quite a bit:

 

I remember my first K teacher, Miss Good. She worked hard to take each child where they were at, so those of us who were already reading were allowed to read during reading lessons. I remember the big hand she had on the bulletin board for class jobs, and talking to my cousin in the other K class through the accordion doors that separated the classrooms. I remember library time. I remember riding a small city bus home from K (K was 1/2 day and this was provided for Kers who lived outside of town). I remember the time I thought my Mom was going to pick me up from school when she meant she was going to pick me up at the bus stop. I remember being devastated when we moved and I found out Kers at my new school were not allowed to check out library books and being bored to death with the Dick and Jane style readers we were forced to read.

 

1st grade: I adored my first grade teacher. Her lips drooped on the left side and I remember her telling us that her mom had been very sick during her pregnancy. This was the year I got my first kiss on the playground, and the time a classmate broke his arm falling off the monkey bars. I remember getting a little plastic trophy for having the most circles on the reading caterpillar.

 

I actually remember quite a bit from these early years but not so much for 4th and 5th grade and then my memory picks up again in 6th. My parents separated, divorced and both remarried (other people) all within a years time. It was pretty traumatic for me so I think my child brain just blocked out quite a bit from those couple of years.

[s.z.ichigo]

This is a great thread ^^

 

Unfortunately I don't have any nice memories from early on. My parents were drug addicts for my early childhood, so the fe scattered memories I have are things like coming home to find that our dad had sold the christmas tree for drug money, or calling my grandma because my mom had passed out.

I have a few school memories, but I don't remember actually learning anything. I'm sure I must have, but it wasn't much. I don't remember ever having science, or anything more than incidental history.

For Kindergarten the only thing I remember is my teachers name, the layout of the classroom, and not understanding what the word "random" meant.

In first grade I went to three different schools (I was in foster care while my parents received treatment for their addictions).

 

I may have spent all of second grade in a single school, but all I remember of that place is that I was a former city kid (I was the only white kid I knew for a long time, even my cousins were Hawaiian) who was now living in a very affluent suburb with my gandparents. I didn't fit in AT ALL and never made any real friends.

 

Partway through third grade we moved back to the city and I was again the only white kid around (this can be quite a difficult situation if you've never experienced it). The school was not a good one and I learned nothing the entire year except how to say "ax" instead of "ask"

 

In fourth grade we moved to a small river town that was part hippy, part resort, part bohemian, and part white trash. The first class I was in all hated me for some reason so I was moved to the "alternative" combination third/fourth grade room which was taught by a long-haired hippy who played guitar. I don't remember learning anything that year besides song lyrics and my multiplication tables.

 

I moved around a lot.....actually I switched schools again in fifth grade. I stayed in the same school through sixth grade, but by seventh I was so fed up with horrible children and do-nothing teachers that I dropped out entirely. Went to some school for delinquents and truants (10 kids in a trailer) for eighth and the same sort of deal for ninth (this time 15 kids in an emptied out hardware store) before I turned 16 and was old enough to take the California High School Proficiency Exam and (thanks to their super high standards) graduated without ever stepping foot inside a high school. Junior College was the first positive school experience I ever had. Oddly, even though I never really learned anything much in school, I did place at college level in the tests I took. Weird.

 

Sorry for going on a tangent there. Hopefully someone finds my non-conformist school career interesting at least. =)