The Shoe is on the Other Foot

I am the teacher. I teach math, reading, grammar, spelling rules, phonics rules, chemistry, sewing, baking, cleaning, baby caretaking, morals, religion. Really the list could go on and on. I like being in that position; I like knowing the practical and the trivial material. And I can say with absolute sureness that I do not like not knowing. Learning how to crochet has put me into a position of not knowing, BIG TIME. Grace learned from a friend and is hastily trying to teach me the basic chain and single crochet stitch so that I can be in the know when I attend a women's gathering where we'll be crafting crocheted kitchen scrubbies. I've had a couple of lessons so far. The first one let Grace in on my little secret. She turned to me at one point and said, "Mom, crocheting just takes practice, you'll get it." I unraveled the yarn and tried again forgetting how to even make the beginning slip knot. Again she reassured me and showed me step by step. I clumsily held the yarn and H hook and made another mess of it all. I needed a break. Grace said, "Mom, you know how you feel right now, that's how I feel when I have to do nouns and verbs and predicates and all that grammar stuff." We ended the first lesson. I really thought about that comment. So often I get frustrated that she can't remember the difference between a helping verb and state of being verb or that certain is spelled with a 'c' and not an 's'. For gosh sake I just told her five minutes ago. Why can't she just listen carefully, internalize it and remember? She opened my eyes this week to just how hard it is to learn something new, brand spanking new and for the very first time. I need to remember that my 5th grade knowledge comes easily because it's not new anymore. I've had years (and years and years) of perfecting it. Someday she'll understand grammar and I will, with Grace as my teacher, learn how to crochet.