Many Hands Make Light Work

I think I've figured out a way to cure childhood obesity. All you have to do is build all elementary schools on steep hills, put all the classrooms at the top of the hill, and put the parking lot, playground and cafeteria at the bottom of the hill. At least that's what it felt like a couple of weeks ago, as I was trudging up the slopes of Roosevelt Elementary School with a huge box of Leapfrog Tag readers and books. I was delivering the Tag Reader classroom kit that Leapfrog gave me to donate to a kindergarten classroom as part of their Tag. Give. Read. program. My friend's sister-in-law teaches fourth grade at this school, and she introduced me to a lovely kindergarten teacher named Jennifer, who was delighted to receive the donation for her students.

Of course, Jennifer's classroom had to be at the very top of the hill. But I'm not complaining: it was really good exercise, and I had three sets of hands to help me. Since all my kids already know how to read, I decided to donate all of the old Tag readers and books we've collected over the years, so Jennifer's class would have even more resources to work with. They carried three kids and three years worth of Leapfrog educational toys and I sweated like a pack animal with the 20"x20"x20" box on my shoulder.

It was all worth it when we entered the classroom and I saw all the drawings and projects of the kindergarten kids who would be benefitting from the Leapfrog donation. Teacher Jennifer is going to use these Tag Readers to help her kids -- many of do not speak English as their first language -- to learn how to read. She has twenty-four kids, and since she can't split herself into 24 pieces, the kids can use the Tag readers and books to read to themselves during reading time, while she goes from student to student. The classroom kit comes with headphones, so students can listen to the Tag reader sounding out letters and words without disturbing anyone else.


I'm honored and proud that Leapfrog chose me to lend a hand and help kids learn to read!




This post and photos were inspired by the Photo Hunt theme of the week: Hands. Feel free to leave links to your own Photo Hunt entries below.