Ben's Day Wednesday

“Get Used To Stuff”

Posted on by Liz

Italian food is probably the most popular cuisine in our household, so we were all happy that Ben’s world food tour took us to Italy. Though I make lasagna pretty often, I don’t have much more of a recipe than you can find on the back of a pack of lasagna noodles, so I won’t bore you with that. I always use sausage, along with whole milk ricotta and mozzarella, but everything else can vary based on available time and ingredients.

Ben “took a break” from helping in the kitchen, but he never takes a break from eating!

Sophia, who has been here doing remote instruction since Virginia shut down, decided to work with Ben today on some scholarly endeavors. He complied, she praised, and she pivoted when she informally assessed his skills to be higher than she expected. 

We are a family of educators. Sophia teaches kindergarten inclusion, I teach fifth grade, and Phil is a college administrator (after having taught economics for many years.)  I guess it’s in our blood. Sophia decided early on that she wanted to be a teacher, and she used to practice extensively on Ben. By the age of 5, she was scheduling parent teacher conferences with us and issuing report cards. (Frankly, she had some fairly harsh criticism regarding his ability to focus and our shortcomings as parents!) I distinctly remember frantically trying to clean the house before having a big party, and I wanted Ben to be occupied. I asked her to “play school” with Ben, and she responded with, “Sorry. In-service day.”

By 6, Sophia made lesson plans, executed them with Ben, trained a student teacher (a 4 year-old neighbor) and wrote up rules for a positive learning environment.

Six-year-old Sophia seems to have covered all the bases. (The L. Y. is not for Liz Yoder, it is for Learning Years, the name of her academic program.)
Though in a Shakespearean preschool, rule #7 might reign supreme (“hands and feet to yeeself”), and #9 is one I’m still working on with Phil (“do not make stanes on the carpet”), our all-time favorite rule in this house remains #6, “get use to stuff.” This is the best advice I’ve seen yet about how to deal with our current pandemic situation.

6 thoughts on ““Get Used To Stuff””

  1. I love today’s post! Its a good window into Sophia’s 5-6 year old self and her natural teaching skills.

  2. Ben’s lasagna looks yummy!! He did a great job. My family does a new country every Christmas. Two of my nephews plan the meal and make it and I make a variety of pies for 80 people. We have been doing this for 23 years

  3. Its good to be reminded that teaching is in the Yoder – Sprunger DNA although I am not sure where I fit in that whole picture as the Yoder grandpa. I dearly love to see vignettes of Sophia and Ben’s development.

    1. I’m glad you are enjoying the blog, Dad. Teaching takes heart plus brain, so I think you would be well-suited to teach, even if it wasn’t your vocation!

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