Welcome Life Long Learners

Welcome to my blog. Thank you Michelle  and Jessie for waiting two years to get a post and thanks to Katie Knight at Teacher To The Core for inspiring me to start blogging.
                            Recently I came across a quote from Mahatma Gandhi:
               "Live your life like you might die tomorrow - Learn like you will live forever."
I am a life long learner and one of the reasons I went into education was to inspire others to become life long learners. My goal in creating products is to give our young learners exciting concepts and activities which instill a desire to learn more.

During a recent move, I was clearing out a file and came across a poem I wrote for an assignment in one of my college education classes. We were supposed to write a short paper on the meaning of education and this was my response. I hadn't seen this poem for years, but apparently, even back then, life long learning was a theme for me. So here is my poem:

                         When I Was Four

Four walls and a floor
A roof and a door
A schoolyard gate
Where I used to wait
"Till I was five.

One day as I sat
There by the gate
Humped in a lump,
Pondering my fate
(You see, I still had
One year to wait
Until they would let
Me inside that gate.)

When a beautiful creature
The kids called a teacher
Said, "Don't look so blue.
Come, I will take you
Inside for a preview."

The door opened wide
I peeked 'round it, inside,
And before my eyes whirled
A new, wonderful world.

Some children were playing
A game called mathematics
Counting the objects
From cellar to attic:
One pair of oars,
A dresser with drawers,
Four windows with shutters,
Dad's old golf putter,
Two chairs and a table,
A picture of Mable,
A canopy bed,
A broken snow sled,
Six pairs of shoes,
Old editions of news,
At least 500 stairs,
The cores of two pears,
Add to it a mouse,
It all equals house.

Someone gave me a book,
"Here's your suitcase!", he said.
"We're sailing the seas,
One's black and one's red.
Page 41 is your ticket to France.
On page 62 an anteater eats ants.
There are two kinds of Indians,
Different from birth,
Each born on opposite
Sides of the earth.
We can go anywhere
That you'd like to see
From Afghanistan to
The great Zieder Zee.

The next game we played
Was with words, oh what fun.
We mixed 'em and matched'em
And made up some puns.
We heard with our ears
Of a herd of reindeer,
We peered with our eyes
Off the edge of a pier.

We heard a sad story
Steeped knee deep in gloom.
It seems that a girl
Would not clean her room.
Low and behold,
She turned into a broom!

Our hands are the tools
That we use in art.
But we can draw with either
Our minds or our heart.
We can draw with our minds,
Like the scientists do,
We can draw with our hearts,
Either happy or blue.

We can draw pictures
Of houses or trees.
We can chart maps
Of lands or of seas.
Writing and drawing
Are one and the same.
With lines we draw pictures
Or write out our names.

As the day ended,
I sighed with great sorrow.
I certainly wish
I could come back tomorrow.
And the day after that,
If only I could.
Maybe she'd let me,
If I am REAL good.

The teacher then winked,
"Don't be silly!", she said.
"We can learn every day
Just by making our bed.
Or by combing our hair,
Watching birds in the air,
Spending our allowance,
Watching a cat pounce.
Helping a friend
Build a castle up high,
By helping Mom
Bake an apple pie.

All these things
And many more.
Every thought, every action,
Can open new doors.
The real trick to learning 's
Not JUST going to school,
Active learning everyday
Should be your first rule.

By that, I mean this,
Enter in and take part.
Learn with your mind  and
Learn with your heart.
Don't wait 'till you're five
Just to start in
And don't ever stop
Once you begin.

     copyright Wendy Weir

    Today I am learning how to blog. Yesterday I learned that porcupines can climb trees in the winter to scavenge seeds and nuts still hanging from the branches. I wonder what I will learn tomorrow!
     If you are reading this blog you are probably a life long learner too; someone who always wants to keep on growing in mind, heart and spirit. Glad to meet you!