05/07/2026
For those of you who might not know (marked by my occasional disappearance from basically all social media), I teach 4-5 afterschool enrichments a week during the school year. I plan, prepare and instruct lessons for approximately 30 students across different towns/districts for anywhere from 5 to 12 week sessions depending on the program. A lot of heart and hard work goes into teaching these programs…sometimes 20 hours just on prep a week alone. I didn’t realize how much effort it would be when I started doing this for myself over a year ago. I am often flying by the seat of my pants, and I can get pretty stressed (but this is baseline for me - a personality defect). I’d say the part that makes me the most crazy is having to load and unload my car four times a day, and having to store everything in my house. It’s like a craft dungeon, with heaps of art supplies on all sides, constantly stepping on pins, needles, bits of crap stuck to the back of AL’s pullover as he leaves the house…you get the picture. And a lot of you have seen the inside of my car. I have a pet spider in there now lol (there are cobwebs). 🕸️
As tired as I am, AL mentioned to me recently that when I come home from class I am always happy, telling him silly stories about the kids, and I rarely complain, which I found bizarre (to know me is to listen to complaints). Funnily enough, I had never planned on working with children. In fact, it was the last thing on my list…but making art with them has taught me so much, and opened so many doors for me. It’s also fun!
I figured I’d show everyone what I was working on for them today. This is the project for two of my enrichments next week. I think when they’re done, I’m going to prepare a scavenger hunt where I take their swords, and they’ll have to mine the ore from various places to “craft” them. Then hopefully they don’t try and hit each other with them…but that’s tomorrow’s problem. ⚔️👾
