Some of my earliest memories were formed by Grace's two roles of "Mother" and "Teacher" being seamlessly blended into one in the private kindergarten that she taught out of our home in McAlester, Oklahoma. Kindergarten was not a required part of public school when my brother Robert turned five, so she converted our one-car garage into a classroom (you can see our 1949 Ford through the window) and opened her own private kindergarten. I began sneaking away from the sitter to take a peek at the kindergarten activities when I was about 18 months old, and was soon adopted by the students as a "classroom pet" and allowed to stay and participate for the next 5 years until I was ready for first grade. She made learning so much fun that I don't think I realized that I was "in school".... I just knew that there was something wonderful happening out there in that garage every day and I was determined to be a part of it!
I loved that school...it actually was a bit of let-down when I started first grade (directly across the street) as it wasn't as exciting as Mom's classes. Since I had already covered the 1st grade material in kindergarten, I got to be a TA my first year.
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