To learn, you must teach

Work: Still good. Just under a month to go on the contract. Still crossing fingers. Hopeful, because people seem to be digging having someone doing what I'm doing. It's crazy, I know. You listen to the support team, you write up what they say, you capture information they're sharing with each other and gosh, lives get a little better. I've even had a couple of people who were disappointed I wasn't at the onsite this week.

Kids: Haven't eaten them. Tempting sometimes though. C is still working on her workbook, and doing other stuff. R is picking out letter and we're just doing some basic word play and teaching.

Home: New couches! We ordered new couches. They're supposed to take about 4 weeks to get here. We're seriously considering recarpeting the family room at the same time, because that carpet is ew nasty. We'd like to restore the hardwood floors in the dining room, hallway, and the bedrooms. The bedrooms are (Reasonably) easy. The dining room and hallway have been covered over with carpet and.. it's hard to tell how bad of shape they're in.

Kung-fu: TAKE ALL THE CLASS TIME. I've been having a great time helping out in class, with the young students. I know some of my technique is not where it ideally should be, especially because if I'm modeling something badly, I'm going to teach the other students badly and that never ends well. So while C is out of school, we're going a little extra training. Sifu is nice enough to 'make up' the time I help in class with extra time for us privately, so all of a sudden I'm getting an extra half hourish a week of personal instruction. Holy whipping through the form basics is pretty awesome. I've gotten the basics of most of the blue belt material down quickly enough that a) I'm concerned I won't actually be able to do the 20 pushups I need to do for the physical test and b) I haven't actually studied up on the written material for the written test. C is benefiting from that extra bit of personal instruction as well. She..might be getting close.

I also started 'teacher training' today; because hey, make sure our forms really are right. We're spending extra time slowly going through the basic forms, making sure we can talk our way through each step. I think I might have a bit of an advantage there because I *have* been working with the younger students and really having to think about how to break down every single piece of each form or stance. I've got a long way to go through. Still, it was a lot of fun, and it's already forcing me to do things I know I *can* do, but I'm not entirely comfortable with. Practice will make that better and easier, right?