Friday Faces: Little Wonders

Happy Friday, friends! It’s Friday Faces time and our Little Wonders team is up! Yesterday, we heard from one of the parents in our Little Wonders program and today, we’ll get to hear from the teachers! We are delighted to share about these lovely ladies. They are another wonderful group of people, coming together from their rich and varying backgrounds, whose main goal is to provide the environment conducive to learning classically.

Join us and scroll on down as we introduce who’s been helping your young students make wonder-filled discoveries at school!

1. Do you collect anything?

• Stacey: As a family, we collect small rocks, shells, fossils, etc that we find in nature and have a shelf my husband built to put them on in our homeschool area.
• Kaitlyn: Cool rocks.
• Amy: Actually, I am more of a hoarder of fabric and yarn for all of the projects I plan on making…someday.
• Anna: I love collecting tin mugs from different campsites we visit.
• Margot: I collect sea glass anytime I go to the beach
• Mary: No collecting over here. I love purging though.
• Julie: The little purple shells that wash up on the beach.
• Heidi: Anything vintage, we have 3 vintage trailers!  Vintage dresses too.
• Sarah: Cookbooks, cute stationary/note cards, and Lisa Leonard necklaces.
• Nitana: Laughs.
• Karen: I don’t have any collections or things that I look for at second-hand stores. I do have a hard time parting with objects that belonged to people who were near and dear to me though.
• Jessica: If you go by the rule of three, I collect many things. Picture books are at the top, with my mister-made sock monkeys next, followed by kitschy vintage lobsters and/or chickens.

2. What is your favorite cereal?

• Stacey: My favorite cereal is Cocoa Puffs.
• Kaitlyn: If I could go back to my gluten/dairy days…I’d eat Kix!
• Amy: I don’t really eat much cereal, but sometimes Corn Chex just hits the spot!
• Anna: Fav cereal is lucky charms – and they are gluten free with my allergies!
• Margot: Granola and the charms from Lucky Charms
• Mary: I love me some junk food cereal for dessert – Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Captain Crunch are two favorites.
• Julie: Fruity Pebbles
• Heidi: Rice crispies with fresh banana slices in it.
• Sarah: Homemade Cherry Chocolate Chip Granola or Honey Nut Kix.
• Nitana: If it’s flaky, nutty, and crunchy, I probably just poured coconut milk on it!
• Karen: I buy cereal for my kids. As for me? I’m a protein person. Hardboiled eggs, leftover meat from dinner…If I start my day with one of these I’m a happy camper.
• Jessica: I am a cereal fiend! I’ll take a bowl of cereal over a bowl of ice cream any day! I will shamelessly admit that Lucky Charms is maybe my favorite…it’s in the top three, definitely.

3. You have to sing karaoke – what song would you pick?

• Stacey: If I had to sing a karaoke song it would have to be a duo with someone else. I don’t love the spotlight but would have fun singing with someone else.
• Kaitlyn: Probably something from the Backstreet Boys era, no shame.
• Amy: Queen of Hearts, by Juice Newton
• Anna: Karaoke? Ace of Base – all that she wants is another baby. Random! But easy to remember and belt out.
• Margot: All Good Things by The Weepies
• Mary: If I had to sing karaoke I would probably pick a song from a Disney movie.
• Julie: The Bare Necessities
• Heidi: Lucky Lips by Ruth Brown
• Sarah: Just the thought of performing a song in front of others terrifies me, but if I had to I’d say, “The Eye of the Tiger” because lately my husband has been playing his guitar and singing it and now our two-year-old walks around the house belting it out so it is constantly in my head.
• Nitana: Dancing Queen
• Karen: For the sake of the human race it would be better if I didn’t sing karaoke. Since this is hypothetical…I might sing “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics.
• Jessica: Do I have to? I really do not want to but if you caught me in my car, you may catch me singing New York City by Cub, but in an instant, I would be happy to sing Someone Like You by Doris Day.

4. What’s the coolest thing about your job?

• Stacey: The thing I love most about my job is watching my students grow over the course of a year and seeing all they can accomplish by the end of Junior Kindergarten.
• Kaitlyn: All the great people at SLOCA and the intentionality of this community.
• Amy: That I can buy a hot or cold drink, lunch, and even my next work outfit without ever leaving campus!
• Anna: PLAY!! My fav thing in life and to do with kids
• Margot: Seeing children’s growth and the way all their individual personalities play out together in the classroom. And also I can’t believe we have cold brew and kombucha on tap!
• Mary: The coolest thing about my job is building relationships with my students.
• Julie: The things kids say!
• Heidi: Everything! Looking forward to snuggling babies and playing and reading with kids!
• Sarah: Playing with, and learning from, 5 and 6-year-olds! It is the most delightful age!!
• Nitana: Getting to play, sing, laugh, learn and make a mess with preschoolers!
• Karen: There are three things that I love about my job: 1. SLOCA is not stagnant. 2. The Little Wonders staff. 3. Seeing the children in Preschool come around and join the fold. I can’t tell you how fulfilling it is to see a child come out of his or her little world by showing concern for a fellow student who is absent, or by addressing me by name.
• Jessica: Picture books! Messy art! An awesome team!

5. What is the nerdiest thing you do in your spare time?

• Stacey: The nerdiest thing I do in my spare time is read medical journals. I love learning about how the body operates and the new things scientists are discovering.
• Kaitlyn: Research nutritional ways to biohack.
• Amy: Play solitaire
• Anna: Not sure what I do that’s nerdy but I enjoy crafts and sewing, building, video games with my kids, organizing 🙂
• Margot: Spending absurd amounts of time researching backpacking and camping gear before I can commit to buying any of it.
• Mary: The nerdiest things I do in my spare time is write to-do lists, budget and make meal plans.
• Julie: Organize everything in the fridge into neat rows!
• Heidi: Sew or listen to any kind of oldies music.
• Sarah: I love learning about holistic health and nutrition so I’m always finding new recipes to try, researching ways to keep my family healthy, etc.
• Nitana: Statistics! I LOVED my statistics class and still talk about it.
• Karen: My husband laughed when I read this question to him. Immediately  he said that, “Whenever you view a movie or read a book that you like, you will research the story, the author, the subject.” Most recently, we saw Music of the Heart. I got lost on a rabbit trail about Arnold Steinhardt…
• Jessica: I’m pretty much a colossal bird nerd. I can’t tell them apart most of the time but I love discovering new birds that come through our garden or when we are out on a hike.