My brother and I began Pre-School when we were four and a half years old. My mom has a picture of him and I in class with our "brown friend." We came home one day after Pre-School telling my mom that we made a brown friend. She almost dropped to the floor. I begin with this story because it is the first thing I can remember that had to do with us differentiating a person from our "white" selves. We did not say "brown friend" in a mean way but mentioned it simply because we saw him as something different than us.
When my brother and I first started Kindergarten my mom said my brother and I were balling crying when we had to split up and go to different classrooms. We were in different classes for Kindergarten which after the first separation tantrum we threw my mom thought would be a problem. After the first day my brother and I both had plenty of friends and did not care about being in a different class at all! I still remember Mrs. Laten's class and having so much fun playing games in the classroom! I remember playing with building blocks and being really good at it because my brother and I had so much experience building things! Matthew and I were very confident young children who liked being in a social environment which allowed us to make friends very quickly! My brother and I had developed a high level of trust and autonomy due to the fact that my mother was a stay at home mother and we always had someone with us. We had a "partner in crime" in everything! By this age we had also played a year of tee ball in which we were two of the better players on the team. We also played in a flag football team in which our team won the championship and was undefeated.
As my brother and I grew older we continued to love recess! We were great on the playground which and our environment among other kids which gave us confidence in the classroom as well! My parents came to all of our little league games in all sports and my mom began to work at our school in third grade!
I remember a time when Matthew and I broke our parents glass in the coffee table. While our parents count have yelled at us and punished us they decided to sit us down and simply ask us what happened we both pointed to each other and said we broke it together. My parents told us that we needed to go get the tape measure to measure out the size of glass we needed to get. My mom has video of us measuring out the entire house after finding measurements for a piece of glass we broke on her coffee table. This was a huge learning point in my life along with a few other instances. We broke something but did not get in trouble for it. It was taught that as long as we were honest about it and fixed the problem everything would be o.k.
In the portion on cognitive development we can see that with the successes in academics and on the playground it is no wonder why Matthew and I have always had a positive self-image and an ability to succeed.
From second grade to fifth grade Matthew and I were on very successful tournament baseball teams, flag football teams and got good grades in school. Our parents were always at our games, our dad only missed a few due to his job! It was a very happy time in my life. I remember being the best on the playground and always being on a winning team; in and outside of the classroom!
No comments:
Post a Comment