Parenting is hard - that's why I went to school for it!

Hi!  My name is Tanya Jo Potterf and most of the families in my life call me Miss TJ.  I am the proud wife to Mitch Potterf, mother to two adorable children, and a recent graduate in Early Childhood Education.  I started my early childhood education career in 1994 and eventually ended up at Gonzaga University where I double majored in Special Education and Regular Education.  Gonzaga's Special Education Program helped me develop skills with behaviors and children that I never knew existed.  I finally knew how to measure everything and maybe, just maybe at first I took that too far.  Then in my senior year at Gonzaga I became pregnant.  I decided to walk the talk of what I learned in early childhood and my husband and I decided I would be the stay at home Mom to our son, Mitchell V.  I withdrew from Gonzaga completing all of my classes BUT not student teaching therefore I left Washington State without an awesome piece of paper that reads B.S.  (take that where you may) 
My husband and I left Washington for promises of a great new job and opportunity in Ohio where I could be a stay at home Mom with family close by and hopes of adding another little one to our family.  Our blessing arrived in the form of a little girl, we named her Elizabeth and before you knew it I was signing these kids up for preschool.  I looked all over for schools.  I was in charge of finding the right one - I already attended local libraries all over the area and I did all that could possibly be done at home.  Then the day happened when I went to the basement of a old creepy church in Delaware, Ohio and I met, Miss Anna-Marie.  She was perfection to me and my training and even though the building scared me I said she is the one and my husband agreed and we signed our son up for one day a week of preschool at Delaware Cooperative Preschool with Miss Anna-Marie.
Well, I never really 'left' the preschool.  Miss Anna-Marie was very patient with me and my uneasiness of leaving my first born son - eventually Miss Anna-Marie and I became dear friends and she asked the board if I could teach, and then it happened!  I was back in the classroom again but this time I was a mother with a whole new perspective on EVERYTHING.
First year I taught Toddler time a few days a week, then I was blessed and got to teach beside Miss Anna-Marie, a Montessori trained preschool teacher who is gifted beyond words.  So I stayed at Delaware Cooperative Preschool as a teacher and later as an administrator until my husband and I decided to get that piece of B.S.  (Again, take that where you may)  I was in a new state and guess what?  They don't transfer credits very well - so I had to take a bunch more classes and student teach.  This time, due to money and time I did NOT double major but concentrated on the things I am good at: reading and early childhood.  I graduated September 1st, 2010 and walked in the ceremony in June of 2010.  Finally accomplishing a goal I had set out to do 16 years before.
Which is what leads me to this blog - it's for you.  I have friends and family who come to me for things I assume everyone knows and then come to find out, it's kinda special stuff I know and often times I hear, 'how did you know that?' So here is a blog from Miss TJ - I will add what I know and have learned -giving credit to God, Gonzaga, my husband, my children, Miss Anna-Marie, and all the other awesome people & places that have helped me raise my awesome kids and teach some of yours.