The Kofford Family relocates to Colorado after 40 years as Californians. In December of 2007, Grandma Lorraine is diagnosed with Stage 4 brain cancer. Sadly, she passed away on Dec. 26th, 2008 after a year long courageous battle. Follow our journey as we keep Lorraine's memory alive, and as we learn to appreciate that each day we are given, is a gift to be enjoyed!

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”
~Maria Robertson

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Just because I thought it was cute...

My tutoring business has sure seen it's changes over the past 15 years. I started out tutoring children during the summer time as a way to supplement my school year income many years ago. What started out as a dining room "classroom" with about 4 kids, ended as a full "classroom setting" in the bonus room of our home in California with many students. It was complete with a library, shelves and bookcases of resources, bulletin boards, a waiting area, etc...Now that we have moved, and I haven't been tutoring, my "classroom" has long since been packed away.

I took on a few students this summer, wanting to help some friends out, and to see if I wanted to get the business up and running again. Once again I am back to my dining room table...which happens to be the same one I used 15 years ago!

Here's a photo of the action...and another of my little Wal Mart fountain (aka wishing well) that has a cute story to go along with it.
I like to play educational games with the kids to connect learned skills, and today two students played a game counting coins. The board game ended with a "wishing well" picture for the last coin counted. The well was the finish line that marked the sign of the winner. After the game, I quickly came up with the idea for the kids to use their coins to throw into my 'wishing well' and see if their wishes would come true! Of course all kids love a good wishing well! So with a long pause for wishing, rubbing of the beloved pennies, and with great exuberance, the coins were tossed into the "wishing well" with big smiles to go along with it.

One little girl exclaimed afterwards, "Tutoring is the BEST place to learn, and I NEVER want to leave!" I told her she could come back anytime, and she said she would because, "I like to make wishes and learn too...at school you just get a piece of paper to do...at your house I can learn, wish and dream!" I thought that was a beautiful thing for a 7 year old to say.

Even though I no longer teach in a classroom, it's those little magical moments that make me happy to still call myself, "teacher." The Wishing Well!

3 comments:

Kim said...

What a great story and what an amazing woman and teacher you are Denise! You can be any age to figure that out. Love seeing your work space and that you are making a difference wherever God places you!

LYLAS

Anonymous said...

You're a born teacher and definitely make a difference in kids' lives. It's sad that so many kids will be missing out of all the experiences we're not able to do anymore or provide for them. What has education come to besides testing? Sad scenario, isn't it? Keep up the good work. Paula was saying that Abby wil be in a 1-2 combo and she was happy about that because she felt Abby didn't get what she needed just like Ashlyn's situation. I hope next year will be better for both girls.

Anonymous said...

Hi Denise! I just wanted to say hi and love the site. I look at it almost every day while I'm at work. (It's pretty slow here) Anyways, it looked like you had so much fun on your trip and hope I will be a great teacher like you and your mom! Tell the kids hi from me and Fred! Hope to see you all soon. I know you are coming out in Aug. your mom said.

Crystal Null