What I learned from teaching Joy School this year

(If you would like to participate in Joy School, the code christea3 will get you $5 off your membership. Also see this post for more information)

We found a puddle on our nature walk. They didn't need any instructions to know what to do!

I debated teaching Joy School this year because I had a 2 month old baby at the time. I am so glad that I went ahead and did it because it turned out to be just what our family needed. Here are some highlights and thoughts after having taught Joy School for a year.

I needed Joy School just as much as the kids did.

Joy School gave me a lift and gave me a brighter perspective. Not many adults get the chance to remind themselves that the world is really a joyful place. And it was fun!

My depth of family involvement increased.

Every month brought a new joy to learn about. The parent discussions by Richard and Linda Eyre gave me great ideas of ways for our whole family to internalize the joys we were learning in Joy School. They were simple enough to do that I got excited in helping make that joy a part of our family for the entire month. Some of my favorite memories were from our whole family experiencing that particular joy. (During the imagination unit, we had our little plastic animals coming to life and getting caught doing funny things each morning....folding clothes, hiding in random places, etc).

Looking for interesting things on our nature walk.

It gave me great tools for interacting with preschoolers.

The idea of trying to keep a group of wiggly preschoolers engaged while balancing a new baby on on arm was really daunting to me. But as I taught, I picked up neat activities and tips for teaching them in a way they could internalize a concept. It also helped me think on their level, which helped with communicating with kids I talked with outside of Joy School, as well as with my own daughter at home.

If I had to babysit someone's kids, I'd just whip out a Joy School activity or start singing a Joy School song, and they were instantly my best friend.

"I'm a tall tree! I'm a tall tree!"

I can now have a meaningful conversation with a three year old.

I really treasure this skill that I learned while teaching Joy School. I don't know at what point I acquired this new talent, but it is a joy to be able to have a heartfelt conversation with my daughter about an abstract idea like "feelings."

Practicing making faces. This one was a scared face. 

My husband is engaged and got into some of the joys even more than I did.

Dads sometimes struggle to know how to stay involved with their children. The parent discussions on each Joy School CD encourage dads to get into the joys and find ways to share in the fun. It is contagious and my husband really had fun experiencing the joys with us. I felt that he really took charge of our family and his ability to lead the family was strengthened.

Surprise! Playing Jack-in-the-box.

It gave us good topics for dinnertime discussion.

We had a lot of great discussions about the joys we were learning. One that really stuck with us was asking each member of the family if they had any "happies" or "sads" today. It gave us good insight into what each person experienced that day, and often led to really meaningful learning moments. We still ask each other about happies and sads.

Joy School inspired me to be more spontaneous and imaginative.

When I taught the unit on imagination and creativity, I realized that my inner child is just as active as it was when I was little. We all tend to suppress it. But Joy School inspired me just to spontaneously do silly, imaginative things. We had a LOT of fun in our family with that one. It was especially rewarding to see the explosion of imaginative play blossom in the Joy Schoolers.

Learning about pets.

It taught me to look at the world through a child's eyes.

The children taught me so much just by their interest and questions. I really enjoyed seeing their reactions to the different activities and lessons.

On a nature walk to pick up trash. They found some turtles to watch.

I'm not afraid to teach my children large words.

Some of the joys are long, uncommon words! Honesty and Candor. Confidence. Communication. Spontaneous Delight. Uniqueness. I had my doubts about them really internalizing some of the concepts, but they ate it up. The lesson plans were laid out to help them really understand these basic joys of life. And they could say and understand all those big words after all.

We had a chance to socialize with friends twice a week.

Seeing each other twice a week gave us the chance to chat among friends. We all became great friends. It was really neat to see how all the moms took so much interest in each others' children (and patiently helped us work through some behavioral issues). At graduation, we were proud of all the children and the progress they had made that year. 

Halloween party

I loved having a break when it was another mom's turn to teach.

We teachers alternated who taught each week. When it wasn't my turn to teach, I had 2 hours of time with no preschooler to tag along! I love my kids, but a break like that is really nice :)

Holding their "warm fuzzies"

The feeling of teaching and understanding simple joys is extremely satisfying.

There is a lot of information at our fingertips and we get to filter through to find what is truth and what is trash. Joy school  focuses on things that are simple and absolutely true. 

Here are more pictures from this year. These kids just ate it up! So did I   :)

A field trip to the zoo! "They had such enormous fun..."

Sharing cookies and our songs with some special friends at Christmas time.

Walking to a neighbor's house to deliver cookies.

The children worked together to make this beautiful work of art.

Blowing bubbles and learning about spontaneous delight.

Our imaginative costumes.

Riding in our rocketship

Sharing days were really popular. So was Joy Boy.

Field trip to the park

Tossing their mortarboards at the end of the ceremony. Look at those faces!

One proud joy schooler going up to receive her diploma.

Singing their songs at graduation.