So, this past week I watched one of my kindergarteners while her parents worked. She is loving kindergarten, loves to learn, loves the challenge, and loves helping her friends figure out things she’s figuring out. It’s really pretty precious.

On Monday, she begged and begged to go to Panera for lunch. I took her there for hot chocolate in the morning, but that was not good enough. We needed to go there to “work through lunch.” Now, I think I know where this comes from. This past summer I watched her older sister when she split her chin at camp and couldn’t return until the stitches were out. I took her older sister to Panera for snack one afternoon. I took my computer to check email, and she brought her summer workbook to do her daily pages–her work.

So, little sister must have gathered from all of that that Panera is where grown-ups go to work while they eat, and now it is her favorite activity with me. We went twice this week! Both days she worked herself so hard that she fell asleep on the two mile drive home. Bless her little heart.

Back to our hot chocolate at Panera on Monday morning, though. As we were finishing up, she decided to show me how she can count by tens. As we walked outside to head over to Target, I asked her if she knew how to count by fives. She said she didn’t and then eagerly asked, “Can you teach me?!” So, I started counting by fives for her, and she quickly figured out the pattern. As we walked through Target, she counted by fives to 100 many times. She was quite pleased with herself.

On Tuesday we ran to the mall for a couple of things. Our first stop was Williams and Sonoma to pick up some yummy biscuit mix that we could make that afternoon. After that we walked over to Macy’s so I could pick up a new compact of foundation. As we walked into Macy’s, her eyes got very big and wide. “Miss Val! Stop!” I heard. So, I stopped.

In front of us on the floor was a huge projected analog clock. She’s just been learning to read time at school, and she was so excited. She wanted to read the clock. So, I kind of cleared the area (as not everyone is so excited by the clock. She was mortified that people would just walk over it!), and I asked her what time it was.

“Miss Val, I can only tell time when the big hand is on the 12, and the big hand isn’t on the 12.”

“Well, where is the little hand?” I asked.

“It’s on the 11.”

“Ok. Remember how we learned to count by fives yesterday? That’s kind of how you read a clock.” I proceeded to walk around the clock and point out all of the numbers. Then I walked around the clock, and we counted by fives around through each number. Then I asked the big question, “So, what time is it?”

“Five. Ten. Fifteen. Twenty! Miss Val, it’s 11:20!”

And suddenly, we heard clapping! I was kind of stunned. I’d been so in our own little world that I hadn’t realized that about 20 people had stopped and gathered to watch me teach this little one how to tell time in the entrance to Macy’s. Oh, she was so proud of herself, but kind of embarrassed. She had a huge smile on her face, but dug her head into my legs. It was a precious moment.

After I picked up my foundation, we had to exit Macy’s the same way we came in. She wanted to see how long we’d been in Macy’s. So, we went through part of the process again. On Wednesday we were back at the mall for something else, and in between each store we had to walk all the way down to Macy’s to see how long we’d been in that particular store. It did slow down our trip a bit, but it was worth every second.