Teacher Appreciation

I've always had respect for teachers, but now I appreciate them all the more. Yesterday, as Bella and I were doing our homeschool work for Math, we hit a snag. The concepts might seem easy to me, but for her they just weren't clicking. We lined up the chairs in the kitchen to make a train. We were working on the terms: "First, Last, in Between, First, Second, Third, etc." Now, if I would ask her which was first, last, between... she had it right. Unfortunately, switching terms on her seemed to mess her up. We would add more chairs and when I'd ask where the third one was, she would forget that this term asked her to count the cars in the train and would immediately go for the last one. In addition, when we had a very long train the numbered terms would get lost in the "between" section.
After working for quite awhile in the kitchen, I started to wonder how exactly I could help her to understand that the terms were different and thus she needed to be alert in order to figure out what I was asking of her. Finally, as I was making my bed and thinking about how to get the concepts across, she wandered into the room. I told her to lay all my pillows out on the ground and she began jumping from pillow to pillow. Soon, it clicked and she suddenly had it. Then, when we were picking up Cecelia from school I had her work on the steps. I made her explain to me her process and soon she had a handle on it.
I have to admit, homeschooling is rewarding, but sometimes I am puzzled as to how to get a concept across. Sometimes going over and over the same concept doesn't seem to help, so I have to switch it up and change the venue.
It makes me wonder how many teachers find themselves against that same wall. How many stand there in front of their class and think: "they are not getting this! What to do now!" Possibly with so many children, the hope is to get it across to most and then they have to move on. I am certain that if Bella had been in a classroom situation yesterday, she would have been overlooked. She guessed the proper answer several times without realizing it. She didn't get the process and when the train was expanded beyond 3 or 4, she would get confused. It would have been easy to overlook her inability to grasp the concept. I suppose this is one blessing to trying out this homeschooling thing. I can see when she gets it and make sure that she truly understands everything before moving on.
God Bless those Teachers!