Nope, it's only Monday, but I sure wish it were Friday! I get Friday off work on account of the 4th of July (even though Friday is the 3rd...but they still decided to close the center on Friday, and I'm not complaining!)
Today was nuts! We took the kids to an alpaca farm. It was a bit of a pain, because it took about 40 minutes to drive there and I heard lots of "are we almost there?" and "what time is it?" on the way, and then we only stayed about an hour (because really, what more can you do at an alpaca farm besides look at them, acknowledge their cuteness, and try to pet them, all of which can really be done in about 20 minutes? After that all the kids start wandering around and freaking out about the poop that's all over the ground.) But it was pretty fun all in all. I even got to pet a baby alpaca that had just been born yesterday! I was amazed at how soft they were. After the alpaca farm, we had lunch at a park, only the bathrooms were closed to we didn't get to wash our hands (I know, GROSS, but we did have hand sanitizer) and I had a few kids looking like they were going to wet their pants by the end of the trip. Luckily, none of them did and we made it back to the center early!
Besides that, I felt like I was constantly having to tell some of the kids to stop arguing with me. It was kind of an all-day thing, where by the end of the day I ended up saying, "I am NOT going to argue with you. Just do what I said!" It's difficult dealing with these kinds of things with kids who aren't my own, and who (I'm sure) are allowed to argue and disobey their parents at home. It wears me out.
There were good parts of the day too. One thing is that I think I finally made a connection today with this one 1st grade boy, who is new, seems to lag behind a little developmentally, and is kind of a trouble-maker. He gets in trouble mostly because he just doesn't listen. A lot of times he doesn't respond when you call his name or ask him to do something, and I noticed that he rarely would make eye contact with me when I talked with him. Today he was my "buddy" at the alpaca farm, because one of the teachers decided to pair up some of the more difficult kids with teachers so we could keep an eye on them. By the end of the day, he actually came up to me and asked me questions, and I noticed that he looked me right in the eyes the whole time. I hope that he continues to be willing to communicate with me.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Summer is Here!
Summer is finally here (and it is so stinking HOT today!) With summer comes an end to college classes and the beginning of working with K-6th graders full-time. I am so glad! By the end of spring term, I was struggling to keep the motivation to study and get to bed at a reasonable hour. I procrastinated and I crammed like crazy those last few weeks. Part of the reason was the weather (who wants to study when it's sunny and warm outside?), and the other part was that I had friends from other schools who were already done and wanting to visit. Despite those reasons, I somehow managed to get everything done (on time!) and did well on my finals...and now it's over!
Now I am back at the Child Development Center where I worked for a couple years before I started school last fall. It's been super busy and crazy, but lots of fun so far. My friend and co-worker, Chelsea, and I came up with the idea of having "themed weeks" as part of the program, which has been both good and bad. Good, because it has been easier to plan some fun crafts and activities that are centered around a theme, and I think it's been fun. Bad, because the other staff members have not taken any initiative to help and plan things themselves, so bascically Chelsea and I are expected to plan and carry out all of the crafts and activities. This week is "Jungle/Safari Week" and I had the kids do a sponge-painting jungle craft on Monday (that turned out so cute!) and today they made snakes out of construction paper and use balloons to paint them. :)
Another thing that we do at my work is to go on a field trip nearly every day, which I love because it breaks up the day and keeps the kids busy. Every Tuesday and Thursday we go swimming at a public pool and every Friday we go to a park. Mondays and Wednesdays we go to various different places. This Monday we went ice skating, which was fun for everyone except the 6-year old who fell and chipped his front tooth completely in half (although he went to the dentist the same day and they fixed it, and now he has a cool story to tell, so I'm not so sure it was such of a bad thing.) Today we went roller skating, and luckily no one fell and chipped or broke anything (but we did have one little girl get sick a few times, in a few places. Poor girl.)
Anyway, so that's my update. (My step-sister, Bethany, has been asking me to continue blogging, and since I have more time this summer and because Bethany makes up roughly 33% of the people who read this, I figured I might as well write another post.) I'll try to write again soon, so I hope you are excited at the prospect of reading another long, uninteresting, and rambling post about my life again soon! :)
Now I am back at the Child Development Center where I worked for a couple years before I started school last fall. It's been super busy and crazy, but lots of fun so far. My friend and co-worker, Chelsea, and I came up with the idea of having "themed weeks" as part of the program, which has been both good and bad. Good, because it has been easier to plan some fun crafts and activities that are centered around a theme, and I think it's been fun. Bad, because the other staff members have not taken any initiative to help and plan things themselves, so bascically Chelsea and I are expected to plan and carry out all of the crafts and activities. This week is "Jungle/Safari Week" and I had the kids do a sponge-painting jungle craft on Monday (that turned out so cute!) and today they made snakes out of construction paper and use balloons to paint them. :)
Another thing that we do at my work is to go on a field trip nearly every day, which I love because it breaks up the day and keeps the kids busy. Every Tuesday and Thursday we go swimming at a public pool and every Friday we go to a park. Mondays and Wednesdays we go to various different places. This Monday we went ice skating, which was fun for everyone except the 6-year old who fell and chipped his front tooth completely in half (although he went to the dentist the same day and they fixed it, and now he has a cool story to tell, so I'm not so sure it was such of a bad thing.) Today we went roller skating, and luckily no one fell and chipped or broke anything (but we did have one little girl get sick a few times, in a few places. Poor girl.)
Anyway, so that's my update. (My step-sister, Bethany, has been asking me to continue blogging, and since I have more time this summer and because Bethany makes up roughly 33% of the people who read this, I figured I might as well write another post.) I'll try to write again soon, so I hope you are excited at the prospect of reading another long, uninteresting, and rambling post about my life again soon! :)
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