Years ago, I was teaching Class 2 in an international school in Kumasi, Ghana where my children also attended. I enjoyed teaching my 24 six year olds, though I did feel the heavy responsibility of taking them from point A in September to point B in June! Our books and supplies were limited so I used small, white-papered exercise books for their writing assignments.

I remember one night after my three kids were in bed, I was using a ruler to draw lines in each of the 24 exercise books for the next day – so my kids would have lines to write on. As I drew the lines, I suddenly came to my senses! Being consumed with straight lines for these kids to write on was taking up way too much real estate in my brain – as well as minutes from my day that could be invested in a much more profitable way. I put the pen and ruler down and accepted the fact that the kids could write their assignments without the lines. Continue reading