I never imagined I’d be a kindergarten teacher, yet here I am. Each day I go to school and I teach five and six-year-olds how to do school. I tie shoes and I open juice boxes and I listen to silly songs on YouTube that they absolutely love.

My hesitation to teach kiddos didn’t come from any sort of dislike for that age. I love the kindergarten age. I love teaching little minds. I love that every day, I come home with funny stories and quotes. I love that I’m never bored. Every day is new, fresh, and exciting.

But I didn’t think I’d ever want to be a teacher, because kids are the first to notice someone who is different. And my whole life, I’ve had to deal with children staring at my arm, and looking at me like I’m from another planet entirely (just being honest). And I’ve learned that kids aren’t afraid to ask questions—and usually, they like to ask those same questions again and again.

It doesn’t bother me anymore, when people stare or ask questions. I’m used to it. I’ve had one arm my whole life. Still, I didn’t think I’d want to spend every day surrounded by kids for that reason. I didn’t want to be stared at all day. I didn’t want to sound like a broken record as I reminded students, “I have one arm because that’s how God made me. And God makes everyone different. The world would be awfully boring if we were all the same, wouldn’t it?”

I never imagined I’d be a kindergarten teacher, but God has a way of surprising us with the plans He has for our lives. God sure surprised me when I applied for my current teaching position, not to mention when I accepted the job. But that whole story of how God brought me into teaching is pretty long and I’ll save it for another day.

Instead, I’ll give you a few tips on how I teach kindergarten one-handed. This may or may not be helpful to someone out there, but you might at least find it interesting!

1. I tell my story right away.

It would be ideal if I could tell my students about my arm before they even notice it’s missing. Why? If kids have a lot of time to think about and talk about a person who is different than them before they get to know that person as a person, they’ll create a false picture in their minds. In other words, they won’t be able to see me for me; they’ll see me for my arm.

So I told my students about my arm on the first day. I’m always open to answering any questions they have. I brought in a bag filled with my old prosthetics for show-and-tell one day. I foster an environment of openness and vulnerability, and guess what? Within just a few days, my arm doesn’t matter one bit. If anything, they’ve learned a lesson from my arm. They’ve learned that it’s okay to be different. In fact, it’s pretty cool to be different and to still be able to do everything everyone else can do too.

We’ve gotten a couple of new students this year, and because my class is so used to my arm, the new students accepted me (and my arm) without hesitation. Actually my older students were quick to explain to the new students, “Mrs. W. was born with one arm, but it’s okay to be different! God made all of us different, and the world would be really boring if we were all the same.”

2. When I’m tying shoes, I ask students to put their foot on my knee.

I tie shoes using my hand and my “little arm.” Because my little arm only goes to my elbow, it’s much easier to tie someone else’s shoe if their shoe is as close to me as possible. So, I ask my kids to put their foot up on my knee when I kneel down to tie a shoe. It’s a little thing, but it helps a lot.

Sometimes it takes me a bit longer to tie a shoe than it would for someone with two hands, but you know what? That’s okay. It teaches my students patience, and maybe it’ll encourage them to learn to do it on their own sooner rather than later so they don’t have to ask me anymore!

Also, I use my knee to help zip jackets. Thankful for my knees!

3. I use a chair to help open mayonnaise packets.

As a kindergarten teacher, I have to help kids open a lot of things. We have breakfast, lunch, and two snack breaks in our class, so that makes for a lot of milk cartons, cereal boxes, snack wrappers, and juice boxes that all need opened. But all those things are pretty easy.

The most difficult things for me to open are the little mayonnaise packets. I don’t know why they’re so difficult, but they are. I still feel like I should win a medal for my effort every time I rip one of those packets open. What makes it worse is that my kindergarteners always try to open them on their own before they ask for help. When the packets are all stretched out and sticky, they’re even harder to open.

I used to have to use a scissors, but now, I’ve found a trick that works. I hold the end of the mayo packet against a chair with my little arm, take the other end in my fingers, and tear. It might look silly, but it gets the job done!

4. I have my assistant teacher help me out when we’re counting to ten on our fingers.

I haven’t thought of a great way to count to ten on my fingers since I only have five. But then again, I’m not in this alone! It’s okay to ask for help, and my wonderful assistant teacher is more than willing to provide her own ten fingers as a counting example. She also opens a lot of those tricky mayonnaise packets and ties a lot of shoes, so I’m super grateful for that, too.

There’s so much more I could write on this, but at the end of the day, teaching kindergarten one-handed is pretty much the same as teaching kindergarten with two hands. I might have to make some modifications, but the essentials are identical. Teaching kindergarten is about loving kids right where they’re at. It’s about learning together, playing together, and laughing together.

And that sort of thing doesn’t require two hands.

By the way friend, never forget… you are onederfully created.

Love,
Becca