counting the days...

so today . . .  i've smacked myself in the head more than once.  it's just been that kind of day...

my class is falling apart.  i don't know what is going on.  maybe it is spring fever, although, when you live in the land of perpetual sunshine, spring never really disappears.  i mean, we haven't made the kids wear their coats outside more than four or five times all winter.  and even when we do, after five minutes, the fence is covered with tiny little coats that have been shed amid cries of, "but i'm HOT!!!!"

unless, of course, it is "raining."  just let a southern california kid feel a drop of moisture fall from the sky onto their skin, and they will carry on like they are going to die!! 

but i digress...

my class is falling apart.  it has been a wild and wooly year.  which is part of the reason why i haven't blogged too much about school this year.  my year has mostly consisted of trying to gain and maintain some kind of control with a group of kids that seem to be oblivious to the fact that i am actually in the classroom and in charge...  i don't like to yell, but i confess that i have had to raise my voice more than once or twice, JUST TO BE HEARD!!  i have a bell that has worked well with previous classes, but this class has not responded in the desired way to the bell, so the bell has been relegated to the closet...

at any given moment, there are probably two girls arguing, a little boy doing ninja moves, one child hitting or pinching someone (or preparing to hit or pinch someone,)  a girl crying, "he hurt my feelings!" two children throwing toys that are not meant to be thrown, one child grabbing the ONE white trapezoid shaped lego from another child, who is yelling, "I HAD IT FIRST!!!" and then grabbing it back, while the other child yells, "HE TOOK MY LEGO FROM ME!!!!"   there will be at least two children fighting over the same book, maybe three, and one child taking forever in the bathroom... and you know what that means...  two children will be pulling the bin of wooden beads back and forth, both trying to get it closer to them, until the whole thing falls on the floor and beads go everywhere...

to be fair, there will be a couple of little girls and maybe a little boy who will be doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing... until they get hit with a flying toy or become the victim of the hitter/pincher or ninja boy.  and then, all bets are off...

outside play time is more of the same, only to the tenth power!  it is a constant battle to keep kids happy and safe amid out of control bike riders, boys who insist on playing power rangers and star wars, and girls who form exclusive groups or guard the slide so no one but their friends can use it.  if it weren't for the warm sunshine, recess would be a nightmare...

today i was standing on the edge of the playground, soaking up the sunshine, when chloe came running up to me.  "they won't let me play with them!" she said.  "who?" i asked.  "lucy and nigel.  they won't let me play with them!" she repeated.  "why not?" i asked.  "they just said i can't!!" she wailed.

there are times when i send kids back into the battle with instructions instead of solving the problem for them.  i want to teach them to deal with their issues on their own.  but sometimes, with some children, they just need a little help.  this was one of those situations.  "alright," i said, "come on.  let's go see if we can work it out."  we walked over to where the kids were playing.  "chloe said you guys wouldn't let her play with you." 

i do this a lot.  i just state what is happening and wait to see what they will say.  it makes them think.  which is what they did.  i was suddenly met with blank stares.  that's the look i get when they don't want to tell me what is going on. 

i picked the child who was most afraid of getting into trouble.  "nigel," i said, "what happened?  why won't you let chloe play with you?"  he looked at me with his big eyes and said, "because, there is already a sister, and chloe wants to be a sister."  "can't there be two sisters?" i asked.  "no," he said, "we already have a sister!"  the wide-eyed "am i going to get in trouble" look was now gone, replaced with a look of "duh!  how can you even ask such a dumb question?!?!" look.  "but you guys are just pretending.  lucy isn't really your sister either.  since you are pretending, can't you just pretend that there are two sisters?" i asked.


this is a tricky situation for a four year old.  he knows what he wants.  he knows what i want.  he knows that he doesn't want what i want.  but i'm the teacher.  i have the power to banish him to time out for the rest of his life (or at least the rest of recess, which feels like the rest of his life to him,) and so the wheels are turning... he is trying to decide what the right thing is to say that will keep him out of time out, but also let him play the way he wants to.  finally he gave in.  "ok," he reluctantly said, "she can be a sister."

yes!  victory!!  and i didn't even have to mention time out!  i turned to tell chloe that she can now play the game she was dying to play with the kids she was desperate to play with... and she was gone.

SHE WAS GONE!!  there i was, using my teacher powers to get her into the game, above the protests of the children who didn't want to expand the game. and she was gone.

i looked around and spotted her across the playground riding a scooter, amid the insanely crazy bike riders.  "CHLOE!" i yelled, "I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO PLAY WITH NIGEL AND LUCY!"  another blank stare.  "WHAT???" she said.  "I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO PLAY WITH NIGEL AND LUCY!  THEY SAID YOU CAN PLAY.  YOU CAN BE A SISTER!"  i'm thinking she will be thrilled!  i am thinking she will drop that scooter and hustle across that playground so she can "be a sister."  but she doesn't.  "BUT I'M RIDING THE SCOOTER!" she yells.  and then she takes off on the scooter in the opposite direction...
  
this is what i am talking about.  the drama.  the attention span of an ant. and did i mention the drama??

my kids are slowly killing me this year.  but the truth is, it is april.  we only have nine weeks of school left.  if i haven't gotten them whipped into shape by now, the sad truth is, it isn't going to happen.  i've tried my best, but some years are just like that.  individually, i like them all.  but together??

together, they may drive me to drink...

;)

a christmas pageant... with a twist

so today . . . i am more than a little concerned about what is going to happen with our christmas pageant at school this year...

yes, it is that time again--time to make decisions about what we are going to do for our christmas program. the first year i worked at my current school, i didn't really have a good idea about what was expected. i figured i would teach my kindergarteners a christmas song, and when it was our turn we would sing. their parents would get to see them up in front of everyone, snap a few pictures, and everyone would go home happy.

i was so naive.

in the middle of october, teachers started talking about the christmas program. i ignored it. christmas was still two months away, and how long could it take to teach my kids a song? so we continued working on fall projects and didn't think too much about the christmas program.

at the beginning of november, i started hearing christmas songs wafting down the hallway during music time. i seemed to be the only one who was not yet practicing a christmas song. i decided maybe i should at least choose something, just in case it turned out to be harder than i thought. so i found a nice little song (called happy birthday, Jesus) that had lovely words and a mellow sound, and started teaching it to the kids.

they were less than thrilled. "do we have to sing that song again?" they started whining... in mid-november... "yes," i said. "we have to learn this song so that we can sing for our parents for christmas." but i knew i was in trouble if they were already tired of it with still a month to go before the performance.

and then right before thanksgiving, one of the teachers asked me if i had sent home a letter yet about the costumes for the program. costumes? they needed costumes?? yes, she went on to explain, the parents would provide the costumes, or money to purchase the costumes if i preferred. they were used to it. i just had to send a letter home. and it was best to do it now, she said, before they got busy with christmas stuff.

we hadn't even had our thanksgiving feast yet. we were still busy making pilgrim costumes...

and my song didn't really need costuming. it wasn't about sheep and shepherds or little drummer boys or stars and angels. it was just a nice little song about christmas being all about Jesus. you know, because it is His birthday!!!

ok, so, apparently i needed costumes. i listened to the song again, and decided i would just have the kids dress in party clothes--whatever they already had in their little closets that looked nice would be fine. and it wouldn't cost anybody anything. so i wrote the note to the parents, knowing they would be relieved, and went back to thinking about thanksgiving.

until the next day...

until the next day when the first parent came into my classroom and said, "what do you mean they don't need a costume for the christmas program! it's the CHRISTMAS PROGRAM!! they need costumes!!!!" i tried to explain that costumes were not going to enhance our performance. in fact, costumes would probably distract from the message of our very meaningful song. i assured them that it was going to be fine. our performance would be wonderful. they didn't need to worry about it.

i'm sure they worried about it.

two weeks before the christmas program, the same teacher who asked me about costumes (she really was trying to help me--i was so clueless,) told me that we were going to start practicing on the stage in the gym. every day, we would practice. and not just our class--all the classes. so, it appeared that for two weeks, we were going to spend the better part of our morning sitting on the floor of the gym watching the other classes practice their songs until it was finally our turn. because since the kindergarteners are the oldest, they are always last... and maybe i should mention here that the actual program was not going to take place in the gym--it was going to be in the sanctuary--so i was not sure how helpful all this gym practicing was going to be anyway. not to mention the fact that we weren't getting anything else done! and i was supposed to start reading groups in december...

the next day we tromped up to the gym with everyone else, and that's when i realized that i was in big t.r.o.u.b.l.e. the other classes had hand motions. they had dance routines. their songs were lively and fun. those kids didn't know all the words to their songs, but boy could they move! AND apparently they were also going to have costumes!

my class was going to stand there in their party clothes and sing a song. no motions. no dancing. no costumes.

i was pretty sure that i would be out of a job after the christmas program...

and then the next year, our director decided that instead of just singing a song, the three older classes should put on a christmas pageant. she had seen one done somewhere else and thought it would be a good idea if we did one.

i was pretty sure it wasn't a good idea. but since i'm not in charge of the world, i was suddenly in charge of the christmas pageant.

ok, well technically i wasn't in charge of the pageant, but i had plenty to do. i rewrote the script, because whoever had written the original script had clearly not had four and five year olds as actors. the school bought costumes for the people parts, but the teachers were assigned the task of making the animal costumes, since oriental trading company didn't sell animal costumes. since i was still the new guy, i sort of stood back and watched as the other teachers tried to figure out what to do. finally i couldn't take it any more! "i'll make all the sheep costumes," i said, "if you guys can do the others." they quickly agreed, since there was a pattern for the other animals, but not for the sheep. so i grabbed my bundle of fleecy fabric and headed home...

during the day, we practiced the program--we practiced the speaking parts, and we practiced where to stand and when to move, and we practiced the song. and we didn't make any progress on reading groups... and then at night the teachers stitched our little fingers off (well, not me. i used a sewing machine. but as i later found out, none of the other teachers could use a sewing machine, so the other costumes were stitched by hand, or GLUED together!) we didn't get a lot of work done at school, but it looked like the pageant was coming together.

and it did. it took a lot of work that first year, and all of us were ready to jump off a bridge and cancel christmas, but the kids looked cute, and their parents took pictures, and everyone went home happy--especially the teachers, because the pageant was DONE!!

unfortunately, we did such a good job, and the kids looked SO cute, and the parents took SO many pictures, and everyone was SO happy, that we were expected to do the pageant again the next year... and the next year... and the next year...

but this year is going to be a little bit different. this year our kids are younger--they are about six months younger than what we usually have--which will make a difference in the pageant. we don't have enough kids who can handle speaking parts, so this year i will narrate the story while the kids (in their costumes, of course) will act it out. and then we will sing a lively song at the end. with hand motions :-)

this year, we decided to wait until after thanksgiving to start working on our song. which meant that today was the day! so during music time, i started describing to the kids what we were going to do, and why we were going to be singing the same song over and over and over again until we knew it really well. they seemed to be listening, so i went on to describe how we would act out the story and how we would wear costumes. and then aiden raised his hand, and excitedly said, "can i be spiderman?"

spiderman? in the christmas pageant?? i can see it now...

and then sadie said, "i want to be rapunzel!"

spiderman and rapunzel in bethlehem... it's only a matter of time before the angry birds try to get in on the act too!

jury box or jump house?

so today . . . i was surrounded by super heroes and princesses. tiny ones... yes, it's halloween again.

halloween is not my favorite holiday for many, many reasons, but one of the main ones is tiny children coming to school in costume. i know, i know, i sound like the halloween scrooge, but tiny children in costumes result in cranky teacher miss julie. partly because tiny children in costumes tend to be very rambunctious (not necessarily a good thing when there are a gazillion of them in a classroom--at least it sure seems like a gazillion,) and partly because it means it is harvest festival day...

harvest festival day is second only to sports day on my list of most miserable school days, with picture day running a close third... but those are blogs for another day. today was harvest festival day...

here's how it works. first, most of the children come to school in costumes--costumes with numerous parts to them. there are tiaras and swords and helmets and magic wands and pompoms and cowboy hats. none of these things are easy or comfortable for the children to wear, but they are part of the costume. and so, while they want to wear them, all that stuff just gets in their way. but they want to wear it! so they wear it for a while. and then about the time we get outside and get involved in the activities, they decide they don't want to wear it anymore. and guess what happens then???

and then there are the activities. usually there are five or six different stations, and we have a schedule. each class spends about 20 minutes at each station. which would be fine, except the picture taking station only takes about five minutes, and the kids would stay at the jumper station all morning! and while the face painting station only takes a few minutes for each child, it can easily take 20 minutes to paint the faces of a whole class. which means getting your face painted for 3 minutes and sitting and waiting for everyone else for the next 17 minutes. if we are lucky. because it is halloween! and they are in costume!! no one is going to sit for 17 minutes, waiting patiently for their friends to get their faces painted. and so it is a constant juggling act between hurrying to get done at some stations before our time is up, and keeping a class full of four and five year olds occupied at other stations with nothing to do... let's just say, we sang every song i could think of... some of them twice...

and this year we had the added bonus of fishing--for real, live goldfish. the kids loved it! i am not so sure their parents are going to love it. because assuming that the fish lives until the end of the school day, those parents are going to have to make a stop on the way home to get a fish bowl, fish food, and colored rocks (because you cannot have a fish bowl without colored rocks! and who knows how long it will take them to choose the perfect color!!) on a day when they need to get right home and get ready for trick or treating. and then, before they get home, that fish will have a name. and then, tomorrow morning, the fish will be dead...

call me a pessimist, but it's the truth.

sleeping beauty's plastic jewels kept coming apart. the sequins on the cheerleader's dress were blinding everyone in the sunshine. spiderman didn't want to go to the bathroom, because he would have to take his costume off for a few minutes. spider girl (who even knew there was such a thing! but there she was in all her pink, tulle glory,) informed me she was not spider girl! she was afraid of spiders, so she was the black widow--even though there wasn't a spot of black on her costume, and she had no idea what a widow was. and when i tried to tell her that a black widow was a kind of spider (because i'd left my brain in bed this morning,) she started to cry. normally i am immune to crying, but she was working her way up to a full blown melt down, and it was harvest festival day, so i did the only thing i could do--i agreed with her erroneous 4 1/2 year old thinking. fine. you want to be the black widow, which is not a spider? fine. just stop crying...

i'm so ashamed...

and then there was the child who didn't wear a costume, telling the cheerleader in the sparkly dress "your costume is ugly!" as the cheerleader's dad came into the classroom to tell his darling daughter "have a nice day..." and the cute little girl who i thought was dressed as a cowgirl, only to find out (after i had complimented her on her costume,) that she wasn't wearing a costume. and the boy in my class who is consumed by angry birds mania, but wouldn't wear the bird costume for the picture, because it was blue. because, as everyone knows, the cool bird is the red one!

and then, again, there was spiderman... spiderman is my wild child this year. we try to keep one of our eyes on him all the time, because he is fast, he is impulsive, and we never know what he is going to do next. but today, in his spiderman suit, he was much calmer. i don't know if it is because the suit was somewhat restrictive when he tried to move (meaning almost too small,) or if it came with special spidey powers, but i am thinking of asking his mom if he can wear the suit every day...

i thought i might miss the harvest festival this year. i am scheduled for jury duty this week, so you know, there was a possibility... i don't think i have ever wished that my number would get called for jury duty before, but this year, a nice quiet day in the waiting room at the courthouse, reading my book sounded like a lovely alternative to the somewhat chaotic (and this year, HOT) harvest festival. i even did my jury orientation online over the weekend so that if i was called, i could sleep in just a bit on the first day. but today was not my first day. and tomorrow won't be either. so now i am back to hoping that they don't call my number for jury duty...

...unless they could do it on picture day ;-)

the siren song of the ipad...

so today . . . i was sitting at my desk, minding my own business, when ethan came over and said, "what's that?" he was pointing to my ipad. i said, "it's my computer." he looked at me and said, "that's not a computer! what is it?"

oh, apple people, somehow your world-wide domination of the tablet computer market has totally missed ONE four year old...

i've been having computer issues. i now have an old netbook (whose fan is going to go out any day now, which i am sure is going to result in it's self-destruction, a la mission impossible,) a newer laptop (which can burn dvds and has a nice big screen and is so pristine that i don't want to transfer all my messy files to it,) and an ipad. i know, its ridiculous. i would love to just use one device, but i can't seem to get everything organized and transferred. so my netbook is currently holding almost all my digital files hostage, while the newer laptop just sits there because it is too big to carry around. and then there is the ipad...

i sort of love the ipad, even though there are things it can't do. it doesn't have a memory card slot. it doesn't have a usb port. and you can't play anything that requires flash player on it. to me, those are three BIG issues. and yet, i have an ipad, and i sort of love it.

i looked at other tablets made by other companies. they had memory card slots. they had usb ports. and they would play flash player. and yet what did i get? an ipad.

i think apple is evil. really. where do worms live? in apples. what did the evil witch give to snow white? an apple. what did adam and eve eat that was the beginning of all our problems?!?!?!?! the apple.

do you see my point?

and really, if you think about apple devices, they are evil too. they are arrogant. they are flashy. they don't play nicely with others--it is either all apple or no apple. they don't just want your money, they want your soul...

and somehow they get it. even now, i am continually frustrated by some of the shortcomings of my ipad--i can't view everything on the internet that i want to see. i can't transfer digital files easily onto it or off of it. it won't let me manipulate my photos. i can't even sync my iphone to it!!!! realistically, i should be putting it in a garage sale and buying a xoom or a galaxy!

and yet, i sort of love it.

there is no logical reason for this. well, unless you look at the apps. the free apps. oh. my. goodness. i was a little embarrassed when i went in to the apple store to get some help, and they saw how many games i had. did you know there are four different angry birds games? that i know of?? i don't even know how to play all those games! and yet, i check the app store every few days to see what else i can download for free.

i think i might need a support group...

i didn't want to love my apple devices. it's that rebel in me--everybody else thinks they are great, so i will not! but i did. they continue to torment me with their unfamiliar (to me) operating system. they lure me away from the things i should be doing (like sleeping) with their unlimited apps. they remind me of all that they are capable of doing, if only i will purchase a data plan. they are sleek, and cool, and they make me feel tech-savvy (which is quite a trick considering that i have no clue how to make them do anything they don't want to do...)

the first day i took the ipad to school, every child in the class came to my desk at some point and said, "oh, you have an ipad!" they were impressed. would they have been equally impressed with a xoom or a galaxy? i don't think so. they kept trying to touch the screen. this is a problem. it is a problem that i never had to worry about with my laptop. my kids can't seem to keep their hands off the stuff on my desk, and my computer is no exception. but if they touched the laptop, not much would happen. with the ipad's touchscreen though, STUFF HAPPENS! which of course makes them want to touch it again! and again...

and how do they even know what an ipad is. they are tiny children! they can't even read yet!!! one little boy said, "i'm getting an ipad for christmas." now i know that could just be wishful thinking, but sadly, i don't think it is out of the realm of possibility. a five year old with an ipad.

apple wins.

and yet, ethan could not be convinced that my ipad was a computer. finally, i pulled my netbook out. i had both computers at school today, because if i need to print something, i need a computer with a usb port! which, as i may have mentioned, THE IPAD DOESN'T HAVE!!! so i pulled the netbook out, set it on my desk as ethan was saying, "yeah, yeah, yeah..." and opened it up. "now that's a computer," he said.

so maybe apple doesn't have everyone's soul. maybe just because i have fallen prey to their siren song doesn't mean everyone will. maybe others will be stronger and able to resist the sleekness, the cool factor, the illuminated apple icon...

then again, maybe not.

just ask my mom :-)

a rainy day blog...

so today . . . it rained.

i know it rained, because when i pulled out of the 7-11 parking lot this morning, my tires skidded on the wet pavement.

you know that song, "it never rains in california..." well, it is almost true. almost. but not today. today it rained.

rain was in the forecast for tomorrow, but not for today. so when i looked out the kitchen window this morning and noticed that the ground was wet, i thought, "oh wow, it must be getting cooler. the water from the sprinkler hasn't evaporated yet..."

(this is how i know i am turning into a california person. an oregon person wouldn't even notice that the ground was wet! oregon's ground is wet most of the time in the fall! but rain doesn't even enter the mind of a california person--we immediately think "sprinklers!")

i finished gathering up my stuff and went out to the car. i opened the garage door and noticed the driveway was wet too. and getting wetter by the second. and then i saw it. rain.

to be clear, it was california rain--there was water in the air, but it was still safe to wear suede boots. i didn't know how long it was going to stay that way though, so we took the preventative measure of putting electrical tape on those two small cracks that have developed in the roof of my car. thankfully rollie was working from home today and could help me, because since we moved, i'm not sure i could find the electrical tape. i know it is in the garage (which is rollie's territory,) and so i know it has a specific place (like all of rollie's stuff.) i just don't know where that specific place is...

it took a little time to complete the rainproofing of my roof. thankfully i had the time. i have learned that if i set my alarm a little bit earlier and only hit the snooze button once, i have time to make a quick stop at 7-11 and still make it to work on time...

yes, i said on time!! i haven't been late to work once this year! of course, i've only worked seven days, but i think i have turned over a new leaf. apparently being docked 15 minutes of pay isn't enough to get me out of bed earlier, but the promise of a gigantic diet lemon cokesi is! of course, i wish i could survive the day without that infusion of a fizzy, caffeinated drink, but i've been so tired since i went back to work that i've NEEDED it. of course, maybe if i slept a few more minutes in the morning instead of going to 7-11, i wouldn't need it...

but i digress.

i walked in and out of 7-11 without the aid of an umbrella (you see, i am still an oregon person at heart,) but again, to be fair, i did get the parking space right in front of the door. my brain was still not really registering the fact that it was RAINING! how could it be raining?!?! just yesterday i was wearing tank tops and flip flops. i had acquiesced to the cooler temperatures today by donning boots and a sweater, but still... and then my tires squealed out of the 7-11 parking lot...

i was not going terribly fast. however, there were cars approaching me, and they were going terribly fast. so when i hit the gas and felt my tires spin but did not feel my car move, i knew it must be raining. i should have registered "rain" when i had to turn on my lights or use my windshield wipers, but it was early and i was sort of on autopilot (remember, i only hit the snooze button once!) my tires finally gained traction and propelled me toward the first of four stop lights that have become my arch nemeses...

i hate those four stop lights. really. if i could rat them out for their inconsistent and inconsiderate behavior and send them off to traffic light jail, i would. they are never green. never. i always have to wait. and sometimes i have to wait through two or even three rotations at the left turn light. this morning i had time to tweet and post to facebook about my squealing tires before i finally got through that light! (i'm pretty sure it isn't breaking the law to tweet while you are just sitting still at a stupid red left turn light. i think tweeting while sitting at a red light might be the only thing between certain motorists--who shall remain nameless--and road rage...)

i got to school with my diet lemon cokesi (which is no small task, considering that the cup is so big it won't fit in any of my cup holders, so i have to put it in the passenger seat and prop it up with my handbag. which i hate to do, because my handbag is cloth and i'm always afraid that when i turn a corner, my soda will spill on it. or worse yet, completely tip over and spill everywhere! that happened once. it was awful. so to try to prevent that, i put my right hand on the cup to steady it when i go around corners. which wouldn't be a big deal, except my car has a manual transmission which requires me to use that same right hand to shift. it's a good thing i am coordinated...) i knew it was going to be a long day. tonight was open house and i wasn't quite ready. it was also art day. art day on the same day as open house!! what was i thinking?!?!? AND since it was raining, we were going to be stuck in the classroom for recess, which meant energetic kids with nowhere to expend that energy...

i slurped my diet lemon cokesi and hoped for the best...

we got through the morning without any major catastrophes. and then this afternoon i went into the classroom next door to help a teacher who had a screaming, crying three year old who would. not. stop. so i was talking quietly to the child and patting him on the back and just generally trying to get him to calm down and be quiet. because sometimes crying is contagious--especially if you are three and were just awakened from a nap that was not quite long enough! he got a little quieter, but he wouldn't stop crying! and i needed to go back to my own class to finish getting ready for open house! but since i had come in to help, i didn't feel like i could just leave without accomplishing my goal of turning a wailing three year old into a smiling one... so i started talking to the other three year olds sitting at his table having their snack. we were talking about what they were eating, when one precious dumpling looked right at me and said, "i eat boogers!"

okaaayyy... not really information that i wanted to know, but it got the attention of the screaming child, who momentarily stopped screaming to see what was going to happen next...

here's what happened next. "did you see the rain this morning?" i asked.

yep, i deflected and redirected. and it worked. this time. because to a southern california three year old, rain is a BIG deal! he might remember the afternoon it rained last spring, but odds are he doesn't really remember it raining before today. oh, he's heard people talk about it, like they talk about snow and colored leaves falling in october and wide open spaces, but he has had very little, if any, experience with it.

and so, we talked about rain. and the crying child stopped. and the booger-eating child ate his crackers instead. and i managed to escape back to the relative calm of my own classroom...

...just in time for a birthday party. a birthday party in a classroom full of kids who have been inside all day because of the rain. i looked at the clock, breathed a sigh of relief, left my class in the capable hands of others, and headed out into the rain...

...only to be pleasantly surprised by dry ground and sunshine.

yep, it never rains in california... at least not for long :-)

a day in the life...

so today . . . i went back to work.

it started off pretty good. i didn't have too much trouble waking up--i only hit the snooze button once! I had everything ready to go, so i was up and out the door in about half an hour. but before i could even get out of our neighborhood, i had to turn around. i had my computer bag, my books, and my lunch... but i forgot to grab something for my breakfast. i would have loved to just swing by 7-11 and snag a brownie, but i am trying to eat better now that i am getting back to work. so i turned around, went back home, and found a hard boiled egg and a cheese stick in the refrigerator and headed back out, confident that now i wouldn't starve...

it took me longer than i anticipated to get to work. even though i still live just a mile and a half away, now i have to go through four stop lights instead of two... and one of those is a left turn... and i am driving on much busier streets, which means more cars sitting at those lights, which means there is a risk that i won't get through on the first green. and then there was construction (although, it was going the opposite way i was going, but still...)

i got to school and went to clock in, but i couldn't find my time card. which was really unfortunate, because for the first time in a long time, i wasn't late. in fact, i was about 7 minutes early, and i wanted it documented!! but my time card was not at the bottom of the rack where it usually is.

my time card position is a bit of an issue for me. i have worked at this particular school for 8 years, but my time card is always at the bottom! other people have been hired since me, but my time card is still always at the bottom. my time card never seems to be able to work it's way up the ladder, because i don't work in the summer. occasionally during the school year, it will manage to go up one or two spaces, only to lose that coveted ground in july when i don't show up for work for two months. then in september, there i am, back at the bottom. this seems so unfair, but i have finally resigned myself to the situation and have tried to embrace it with the thought that at least it is always quick and easy for me to find my time card. which is especially important on those days when i am playing "beat the clock." but since my card wasn't there in it's usual spot at the bottom, i just thought maybe they had forgotten i was coming back today. after all, i am three weeks late starting school, and we have someone new working in the office, so maybe she forgot...

as it turns out, she didn't forget. she promoted me! because there i was, in time card slot #3! yes, i am now #3!!! i cannot even tell you how awesome this is... and i know, you are all sitting there thinking, "this girl needs to get a life! who cares what slot their time card resides in?!?" well, clearly i do! AND not only was my time card now in slot #3, but i clocked in EARLY.

and no, the world didn't end at 7:56 this morning.

my day was off to a pretty good start. then i walked into my classroom...

let me just say here, that i had an awesome substitute while i was gone. really. there are only a couple of people that i would have felt comfortable leaving with my brand new class for the first three weeks of school, and i got one of them. but she hadn't been in the classroom since friday afternoon, and i think gremlins had gotten in...

the tables were moved. there were work papers everywhere. i am pretty sure that on friday afternoon, those work papers were organized, but by this morning, let's just say they were somewhat more randomly arranged. i started trying to make sense of it all and find the things i needed to get through the day. but i also had a room full of preschoolers that hadn't had play time in my room yet, so they were somewhat exuberant in their explorations and needed some supervision.

i continued to move furniture and plow through papers. and then i realized it was time for music...

i love music. i hate leading music time at school. ms. martha and i have finally figured out a schedule that makes us both hate it just a little bit less, but that schedule has me doing music on mondays. and today was monday. which meant i was going to be leading music today. ok, i thought, this won't be so bad. i haven't led music all summer. maybe it will even be fun to do some of the songs i like. so i put a cd in the player and got started. but all of these children are new to our classes. they don't know our songs yet. and as much as i hate leading music, try leading a bunch of kids who don't know the songs yet, while one of them continually runs around swinging his arms, hitting as many kids as he can. yes, my day was going downhill fast...

--the new table arrangement for the pre-k kids was not working out.
--the bathroom light was burned out, and the janitor doesn't come in on mondays.
--we had wheat thins for snack. (i love wheat thins. four and five year olds do not.)

and then it was time for language class. this is one of my schedule changes this year. the kindergarteners go to the same language class as the pre-k kids, which means that on monday, wednesday, and friday i have a 45 minute planning time. YIPPEE!!! i sure needed it today! i spent 15 minutes at the copy machine, 20 minutes moving tables in and out of the room (because something HAD to be done with those pre-k kids,) and ten more minutes looking for the top of my desk under all those papers. but at least i was alone in my room, and it was quiet. briefly.

actually, it was quiet longer than i expected. because usually the kids come back from their language classes at 11:15. but today they didn't come back. and i didn't go looking for them! i just said, "thank you Jesus," and kept shuffling papers. and then suddenly, there they were, all lined up in the hallway and ready to go outside.

some things had apparently changed in the last three weeks...

it was cloudy today, which made for a nice time outside. until i saw a little girl take a nosedive over the front of her scooter and plant her face on the sidewalk. she cried. and bled. and bled and bled and bled. thankfully none of her teeth fell out, but i couldn't tell that immediately because of all the blood! i don't do well when kids are bleeding from their heads. i was the first teacher to reach her, but i quickly handed her off to ms. jessica (my friend who bumped me up to time card slot #3.) ms. jessica is fearless and can handle anything! she saved my bacon more than once today. because later in the day, our toilet (in the bathroom with no light) clogged and overflowed. i don't do well with bathroom incidents either. (i know what you are thinking--why do i teach in a preschool when i can't handle blood and bathroom issues. my answer is, usually i teach kindergarten where we have very few of those issues. but add four year olds to the mix and things are quite different...)

the day did have a few bright spots.
--my lunch time was changed to 12:00-1:00. not only did i get a whole hour (instead of my usual half hour,) but i got it during the kid's lunch time! which means i didn't have to serve lunch. or try to convince them to eat their veggies. or put them down for their naps. ms. jessica got to do all of that :)
--i didn't call anyone by the wrong name. of course, sometimes i avoided using a name if i wasn't sure... but the point is, i didn't call anyone by the wrong name!!
--i got the homework out on time and only had to ask one parent to wait for it. and that only happened because they were early.
--i found the top of my desk. it took me until 5:15, but i found it.
--i have a class full of cute kids. they aren't going to be easy, but they are going to be fun. i think.

and let's not forget that no matter what happened today, or what happens tomorrow, my time card is in slot #3!

i am now just two slots away from being #1...

hehehe...

randomness

so today . . . has been quite a day...

9:30 a.m.

it started at school when we were doing calendar time. the kids were sitting on the rug, and we were talking about going from april to may. the cutout that said "april" had raindrops on it, and the cutout that said "may" had daisies on it. so i decided it was time to teach my students a joke, a real joke. you know, the kind where the punchline is actually related to the rest of it!

first we talked about the saying "april showers bring may flowers." and then i said, "so, if april showers bring may flowers, what do mayflowers bring?" i knew they would probably not guess the correct answer, but their responses were so serious! i guess they thought we were doing science, because their answers ranged from more flowers to sunshine to bees. i finally said, "ok, but this is going to be a joke. so the answer is going to be funny." they were clearly lost. (i was just glad no one said "poop," because they seem to find that hilarious!) so i finally just told them the answer. and they just looked at me blankly. then i explained why it was funny. they still didn't laugh. i said, "it's a joke!" but apparently when you are six, it is not...

however, apparently when you are six, a lot of other stuff is--like "if you mix pink and red you get orange." and then, just in case i didn't "get" it, "that's a joke!" yes, they may not have understood the joke i tried to teach them, but they understood the part where you clarify at the end by saying, "it's a joke!" i'll bet i heard that phrase 85 times today--and it ALWAYS followed some random, nonsensical group of sentences. always.

10:45 a.m.

later in the morning, i had a few free minutes, so i decided to check my email. of course, my computer would not connect to the internet... but never fear! my iphone4 was near!! so i hit the email button, and it promptly informed me that my username or password were incorrect...

... oh yeah... probably because yesterday when i was trying to log in to hotmail on my new computer (which doesn't know any of my passwords yet!) i was desperate to get my email, so i reset my password. which meant now i couldn't access it on either my old netbook or my phone, unless i knew the new password. which, of course, i didn't. because when i was resetting the password, i told the new computer to remember it, not realizing that now my other electronics would be locked out...

ok, no problem. i would just wait until i got home to check my email. i need to get used to using the new computer anyway. (for some reason when i get new electronic equipment, it takes me a while to actually USE it. i get so impatient waiting for it to get here, and then when it finally arrives, i don't want to use it, for fear of messing it up.)

11:45 a.m.

there were birthday cupcakes in the kitchen. i knew this, because it was nicholas's birthday, and his mom told me she had brought two trays of cupcakes (that's 24 for those of you who never buy cupcakes.) we usually have our birthday parties in the afternoon after naptime, but i was thinking about what i was going to have for lunch, and wondering if maybe i should have a salad since birthday cupcakes were on the agenda. but you never know what the birthday cupcakes are going to be like. sometimes parents buy white cupcakes with white frosting, thinking it won't be quite so bad for the kids. i think, at least chocolate cupcakes have cocoa in them. which comes from a bean. which makes it a vegetable. but clearly many people do not share my view...

i decided that while i was on my break, i should check out the cupcake situation. so i went into the kitchen to see if we were going to have delicious chocolate cupcakes or icky white ones, only to find out that we might not have any cupcakes at all...

...because there had been a communication mix up, and the birthday cupcakes had already been mostly eaten by the classmates of nicholas's younger sister! there were only nine cupcakes left, and we have 14-16 children in the afternoon! thankfully the remaining cupcakes were chocolate, but there weren't enough! as we sorted out the incident, it quickly became clear that we needed more cupcakes. so during lunch, ms. amy went to the store... and she brought back RED VELVET CUPCAKES!!

(can i just say, i was pretty sure the kids were going to be eating the chocolate cupcakes, because i was pretty sure i was going to be eating a red velvet one!)

5:45 p.m.

after dinner i went to walmart to "pick up a few things." you know how that goes. mostly i needed toilet paper and small milk bones, but walmart was out of small milk bones. we need small milk bones at our house, because our dogs have trained me that if i am leaving to go anywhere, they get a milk bone...

it started out as sort of comfort food when they were left home alone--whoever was the last one out of the house would give them each a milk bone. but it seemed as though i was almost always the last one out of the house (i'm sure this has nothing to do with the fact that i am almost always running late!) so usually i was the one handing out the treat. and now things have evolved... now, rollie and diandra can both be home, but if i head toward the garage door, i will find at least one pup standing there, wagging their tail, looking up at me with big bright eyes, just hoping for a treat.

i cannot resist. i'm sure that is why they do it!

and so, we go through a lot of milk bones. but today i had to settle for liver snaps. the dogs will probably be thrilled!

6:30 p.m.

i got this text: "are you ever coming home?" i got this text from diandra just as i was pulling into the driveway, so i didn't bother to respond. i had told her i wouldn't be coming straight home from work today, but she had forgotten. we talked for a few minutes and then i changed my clothes--into my flannel pajama pants...

my flannel pajama pants are a leftover from a christmas present 5 or 6 years ago. they are navy blue with dogs wearing santa hats all over them. and they are a men's size large. i wear them at home sometimes because they are soooo comfortable, but only my family gets the dubious "pleasure" of seeing them. they are perfect for an evening of sitting on the couch and working on computer stuff. which is what i was doing when diandra said she didn't feel so good, but she thought a soda might help...

well, that's just great, but we didn't have any soda, because i still am trying to drink less of it by not keeping it in the house! she thought maybe we could go to 7-11, but in case you didn't know it, 7-11 does not have drive thru window, and i had just put on my flannel pajama pants! i thought that maybe if i ignored her, she would forget about it. but she didn't.

"so, when are we going," she said.

"i don't want to go," i replied. " i don't want to put on pants." she just looked at me.

"how about this," i said, "you can go in, and i'll drive the getaway car."

"are you suggesting we rob the 7-11," she asked?

"no," i said, "i don't think i drive well enough--we would get caught."

we went to 7-11. i waited in the car while diandra went in. she came out and got back into the car, and i was going to show her how i could drive a getaway car (you know, just in case she ever needed me to,) but i was thwarted by traffic--i couldn't even get out of the parking lot!

i suddenly realized that i didn't feel all that great either. i said, "i have a headache. it's all the pressure of driving the getaway car."

diandra said, "you're going 30 miles an hour!!"

"hey!" i said, "i am not! i'm going 38!" and then my precious darling daughter, the one who i was driving around with $4.29 gas in my tank said, "you're the worst getaway car driver ever."

i thought maybe she was still fixated on my speed. "well," i said, "we could put the top down--then it would feel like we were going faster! and anyway, i can't be the worst getaway car driver ever, because i've never been caught!"

"NO ONE IS CHASING US!!!" she said. technically true, but still...

8:00 p.m.

when we got home, i finally got settled in with my computer. it was time to check my email. i went to hotmail... and it asked me for my password... the password i just changed yesterday... that i can't remember... (yeah, i guess i didn't tell the new computer to remember it either.) so i look at my options, and the first one offers to email me my password.

who writes these things!?!?! how am i going to get an email with my password in it, when i can't check my email, because i don't know my password!!! i am ranting about this to diandra, when she says, "don't you have another email address?"

oh. i didn't think of that...

but it doesn't matter anyway, because my other electronics don't know it, so i need to reset it anyway. i click the "reset password" button, answer the security question (which thankfully i CAN remember the answer to,) and proceed to try to think of yet another password...

and btw, if i can reset the password by answering the security question, why can't they just tell me the password if i answer the security question correctly?? what's the difference?!?!?

11:51 p.m.

my headache is worse. i still don't have a house (oh, you don't even want to know what is happening there--although, as i am sure i will eventually blog it, you will eventually find out...) it is going to be HOT tomorrow. and the next day. and i still have seven weeks of school left. and i still can't get into my email...

but the good news is, if any of you need a getaway car driver, i might be available. i might even put the top down...

i'm still a long way from triple digits!

so today . . . i suffered the consequences of not telling my school kids how old i am.

i used to tell them how old i was. every year on my birthday i would ask each one how old they thought i was, and then we would see who was the closest. the guesses always ranged from 16 to 25, with a couple of 42s mixed in. i would make a list of their answers, and then tell them how old i was, and we would laugh at all their guesses...

and then i hit a certain number and decided maybe they didn't need to know that i was now old enough to be their grandma--even if just barely. so i stopped telling them. if they asked my age, i would just say, "how old do you think i am?" and although there were a few close calls, they never guessed right.

but this year has been a little different. for some reason, this particular group of kids is obsessed with my age. they have asked me repeatedly, tried to trick me into telling them, and accused me of not being able to remember. it has been a lot of fun.

and then today, while i was serving their snack, a little boy looked at me and said, "why are you so old?"

ok, this was a different approach. i could see i needed a different sort of answer. so i said, "because i'm not dead yet."

that silenced him... but only for a minute.

"you mean you die when you get old?!?!" he said. uh oh. since small children tend to think anyone who can drive is old, now i was worried that he was going to be worried about everyone in his life dying. i had to fix it. "well," i said, "our bodies work really hard all the time. so when we get really, really, REALLY old, our bodies just get worn out, and then we die." "oh," he said. and then, "so how old are you?!"

and there it was...

i answered as i now always do, with, "it's a secret." and that is their cue to begin guessing. the first few times this happens, they guess 16, 20, maybe even 27. eventually they start talking about how old their parents are, and let me just tell you, some of their parents are OLD. when i first started teaching, it seemed as though the parents of my four and five year olds were mostly 27, 28, 32... but now i am hearing numbers like 37, 38, 45! even though the kids are still four and five!

but today, those kids were bringing their "a" game. "are you 100?" "NO! i am NOT 100!!" i said. "i'm not that old!" "well then how old are you?" they just were not giving up. "85? 90?" i just laughed and shook my head. and then, "105???"

105? really? i mean, even for five year olds, 105?!?!?!

clearly clairol and i need some alone time...

little boys, bathrooms, and "what are they thinking?!?!"

so today . . . i realized i have had to put the toilet seat down more times in the last four months, than in all the rest of my life. no joke.

i am in a classroom full of boys this year. most of my classes over the years have been boy heavy, but this year the ratio is 10-4. this is also the first year i have been in a classroom with a bathroom in it. so many times, instead of using the grown-up bathroom down the hall, i will just quickly use the one in my room. when i went in there today, and lowered the toilet seat, AGAIN, i realized that this is something i have never really had to do before...

i know that in some households, the toilet seat is the focus of an ongoing battle. boys (and yes, sometimes even men) don't seem to understand the problem that a toilet seat left in the up position creates for the females in their household. that is probably because they have never gone into a bathroom at night and fallen into the open pit that is created when the seat is left up...

this has never happened to me at home. my husband is very considerate of the girls in the house, and he always returns the toilet seat to it's proper position. (i know, i am pretty lucky in the husband department.) but the little boys in my classroom have not been taught to do this. and i suppose an argument could be made that with a ratio of 10-4, the odds argue that the next person to go into the bathroom will be a boy anyway, so why put the toilet seat down?!?

i'll tell you why. because the teacher, who happens to be a girl, might go into the bathroom, in a hurry, in the semi-darkness, and have a near-death experience. that's why.

i know i should have turned on the light. i know this. but i was trying to sneak in quickly to use the facilities while the kids were lining up to go outside. the bathroom is a tiny room. i know where the toilet is located. i am perfectly capable of getting into the correct position without looking at what i am doing. and did i mention i was in a hurry?!? usually my assistant has the class lined up and ready to go in only a few minutes, so i didn't have a lot of time to waste on seemingly unimportant things like turning on the light...

and did i mention the fact that the toilet in our bathroom is child-sized? even when the seat is properly lowered, it is a loooong drop. my only consolation is that the fan in that bathroom is so loud that the kids didn't hear me yelp.

and do i even need to mention that next week we will be having a discussion about bathroom etiquette? again?!? because for some reason my little boys are not getting it. maybe it is because i only have a daughter--this whole boys using the bathroom thing is a little alien to me. i do not share their joy when two or three of them manage to sneak into the bathroom and all use the toilet at the same time! (if their communal use of the facilities wasn't accompanied by gales of laughter, they might still be getting away with it.) clearly they don't understand the concept of privacy. clearly i am not communicating in a meaningful way about this issue. clearly my bathroom is more like a locker room for 4 and 5 year old "guys."

and i am the mom. i am the one saying, "put the toilet seat down. only one at a time in the bathroom. remember to wash your hands. with soap! and don't dry them on your clothes--use a paper towel." because while the girls seem to intuitively know that the paper towels are for drying their hands (or maybe they just don't want to get their clothes wet,) the boys can't seem to be bothered--they are in too much of a hurry to get back to whatever they had to leave when the teacher (that would be me) said it was their turn to use the bathroom. and so they quickly wave their hands under the water, and then use their conveniently located clothing to dry them. and if two or three of them can manage to get in there together, well i guess they think we will all get done sooner and that means a few extra minutes of outside playtime.

and they are right. three little boys in the bathroom at once is time efficient. leaving the toilet seat up saves them a second or two. and if you can dry your barely wet hands on your clothing as you are walking out of the bathroom, you are way ahead of the game! playground, here we come...

i am beginning to think that this may be a losing battle...

twitter: social network or CIA spy tool...

so today . . . the first words spoken in my classroom were "i love lady gaga!"

and no, i am not the one who said them!

these words came out of the mouth of a cute little 4 year old girl. i wasn't quite sure how to respond. i am somewhat horrified by lady gaga, along with several other current pop stars. and yet there are certain current songs that make my head bob--even though the words are terrible! i don't purposefully choose to listen to these songs, but they are out there... just waiting to grab my head and make it bob. i hear them at the mall, at fast food restaurants, on t.v... and when i hear them, my head overrules my brain, and bobs.

i am not proud of this.

so as i was wrapping my brain around a four year old who even knows who lady gaga is, i tweeted. because that is what i do if i have an interesting thought. (if you follow my tweets, you will notice that there are days when i don't have even one interesting thought. my interesting thoughts seem to follow the "feast or famine" pattern...)

in less than five minutes i got a notification on my phone that my twitter account was now being followed by "lady gaga watch." less than five minutes. that is all it took for lady gaga watch to find me. and follow me...

now i am just a little bit unnerved. while i am not a conspiracy theorist, i do think big brother knows a whole lot more about me than i would like. i chafed at giving the state of california my thumbprint--i'm not a criminal--but finally succumbed when they refused to issue me a driver's license if i didn't. i don't join groups on facebook--even the guilt-inducing ones like "if you love your mom, click like,"-because that gives them access to my information. (i can't imagine what good it does for someone to know which games i play or how long i am on fb every day, but still, i don't want them to know... and for the record, i do love my mom--i just don't think i need to join a group to prove it.) i have so many different passwords that i have to keep a list--which should also be password protected, but isn't. yet. (i've got to get on that...) i try to minimize using words like gun, kill, and b*mb, because i am pretty sure homeland security could find me even faster than lady gaga watch (yes, some days it is awfully hard to blog without using those words, but i do my best...)

so being followed by "lady gaga watch" was not something i was comfortable with. because i am not a fan. and maybe they know that and were going to be watching me for signs of lady gaga mocking (although i have to say, she makes it awfully easy...) i immediately went to twitter to block this new follower. i don't need followers that badly.

although, i only have 13 followers. and i am pretty sure that at least half of them are some sort of marketing engines. or new people who will follow anyone. but it's ok. fewer followers means less backlash when i tweet something explosive--like "i need to walk my dogs," or "i think a brownie is calling to me." so usually i ignore my followers--anyone who wants to read my tweets is welcome to read them. but when i see the word "watch" in the name, then i start thinking maybe they aren't reading my tweets for entertainment--maybe they are reading them to make sure i only say nice things about lady gaga. maybe they are going to report me to someone if i say something uncomplimentary. maybe i should be worried...

...because while i did block "lady gaga watch" from my twitter account, maybe they won't like being blocked. maybe that will make them suspicious, and they will just start following me under an assumed name, like "i love puppies" or "chocolate is a food group." how would i know? how do i know who any of these people are? maybe they are all watching me... and keeping track of what i say... and reporting it to someone... somewhere...

maybe i am a conspiracy theorist after all...

:)

just TRY and follow this one...

so today . . . was kenneth's last day in my classroom. thank goodness!

now before you light up your torches and prepare to run me out of town, let me just say that i like kenneth. but having him in my class for the last two weeks has created something of an issue...

kenneth was one of my pre-k students last year. while most of the students have moved onto their new classrooms for this coming school year, kenneth's new school doesn't begin until tomorrow. so he has been in my class for our first two weeks of kindergarten....

i also got a couple of new students this year. their names are luke and kevin. these are children who started out in public school, but when their parents realized they were going to be in a class with 28 other kindergarteners and one teacher, they went looking for a better child/teacher ratio...

today we read a story called "we are all alike, we are all different." it talks about how we all have similarities and differences. but my class was looking around like, "well, some of us are boys and some of us are girls, but that is where the differences end." because most of my students are asian. they have dark, smooth hair and dark eyes. i, of course, can tell them apart, but to the untrained eye, some of them do look similar...

i have taught for several years. a lot of students have come through my classrooms. it is always nerve-wracking when i see a previous student at jack-in-the-box or the mall. because they run up to me and call me by name, and their parents smile and look at me expectantly, and i just stand there smiling, saying something like, "hi! wow, look how big you have grown! what grade are you in now?" do you notice that the child's name never falls from my lips? that's because my brain is like a sieve when it comes to those names. once they are out of my class, their name goes too, because i have a whole new set of names to learn...

(don't worry, i am going to tie all of this together in a minute. keep reading.)

last year i had a megan and a michelle--two girls whose names both began with the letter m. although one was chinese and one was vietnamese, they both had medium length straight dark hair, they were both slim, and about the same height. i mixed their names up ALL YEAR. i was constantly calling them by the wrong name. they kept correcting me. i started getting it right some of the time. but i would look at one of them, the "m" would form on my lips, and i would blurt out the wrong name. they would just roll their eyes.

kenneth was in that same class. for some reason my brain refused to let me call him by his correct name. my brain thought he should be called kevin. so i did. and he corrected me. about mid-way through the year, he decided to go by ken (i think because it was shorter to write on all his papers.) you might think this would help me, but it didn't. i just couldn't call him ken. every time i started to say it, my mind would say i should be addressing a tall, slender, blonde-eyed, plastic man with flat feet--yes, barbie's boyfriend! thankfully, unlike poor megan and michelle, i did finally call kenneth by his correct name. most of the time.

but wait, i'm not done... sometimes a child just looks like someone else to me. this year i have a kaitlyn, who i am sure must really be a megan. she looks like a megan. except i also have a megan, who just confuses me, because i know i don't have two megans in my class. and since i want to call kaitlyn 'megan,' i just look at megan blankly...

and now i also have a kevin, which is what i used to call kenneth. so now i am back to calling kenneth 'kevin.' and of course i am also calling kevin 'kenneth.'

now do you understand why i am glad today was kenneth's last day? i am hoping that once he is out of the picture, i can at least get kevin's name right. although...

...this morning the kids were sitting on the rug as we prepared for story time. one little boy was squirrelly. he was wiggling and talking, and was turned around backwards. i kept saying, "brian, turn around. brian, listen to my words." he seemed to be ignorning me. i hate that. so i looked right at him and said, "brian, i am waiting for you to be ready to hear the story." by then, i was leaning toward him as he was repositioning himself. finally i looked into his eyes and said, "brian, are you ready for the story now?"

and he looked at me and said, "my name's not brian."

yep, it was kevin. that boy sure looks like a brian.

a hectic day ends with a sweet boy . . .

so today . . . i haven't had time to think of a blog. school was hectic, because ms. martha is on vacation. this means that a certain little boy from her room spent the day with me. which is fine, except it drastically raises the energy quotient in my classroom--and yet, my energy stays the same!

after school i went straight to our church. today was the national day of prayer and our church had a special event set up which i didn't want to miss. but i am on three different medications right now that all say "may cause drowsiness." i think i'm doing pretty well to remain upright and conscious, considering . . . but i admit that sitting quietly in the darkened sanctuary of our church, i dozed off. twice. sitting up.

then it was on to chuck e. cheese, because our school was hosting a fundraiser there tonight.

i was doing a lot of driving back and forth over the same roads, but sometimes the best part of my day is driving around with the top down on my car. today was shaping up to be one of those days. then i was sitting at a red light waiting to turn left, i saw rollie coming through the interection toward me. he was on his way to the church to teach a class tonight. we saw each other and waved as our cars passed.

that was the only time i saw him today :(

when i got to chuck e. cheese, there were only a few people there. i love chuck e. cheese under normal circumstances, but i especially like fundraiser night! it is just so much fun to see all the school kids in a different environment. they can talk and laugh and run around with abandon--and i am not responsible for any of them! kids who normally pick at each other will ride the rides together and help each other out. it is amazing.

i was working the room as i was leaving, when i saw elvis for the first time. he was standing at a game machine with a cup full of tokens while his dad (whose hands were full of tickets) was watching. his little face lit up when he saw me (another reason i love chuck e. cheese night,) and he proceeded to tell me what he had been doing. i told him i was going home, and he said, "wait a minute!" he turned to his dad, grabbed about half of his tickets and with the biggest smile on his face said, "here, these are for you!"

awwww, how sweet is that! of course, i declined. he insisted. and i declined two more times before i finally convinced him that he should keep them.

but with that attitude, he will make someone a good husband someday . . .

kids are more aware than you might think . . .

so today . . . at dinner i was telling rollie and diandra about a blog i had read that made me laugh. it was written by a young woman who was raised in a household with very involved parents. very involved. and it made me laugh, because i could see a little bit of myself in her parents . . .

when diandra was growing up, we pretty much had to approve anything she was going to see or do or have. she missed more than one birthday party because of the planned activities. i wouldn't let her have barbies, or even play with them, until she was in the first grade. and even then i thought it was too early, but there were circumstances . . . and clothes shopping was no picnic either, because my ten year old was not going to dress like she was 16!

today at school one of my kindergarteners was talking about the movie 2012. she saw it over the weekend. 2012! it is about the end of the world, and california falls into the ocean! and in case you don't know, we live in california!! i'm too scared to go see it, but there i was, listening to a six year old tell me all about it.

i think sometimes parents are not aware of how much their small children are soaking up from the things they are exposed to. i think they think their children are too young to understand, and so what they see or hear doesn't matter. but it does. i see this most often when i hear my kids absentmindedly singing to themselves--some of they lyrics they sing are shocking!

one day i heard a little boy singing, "i wear sneakers, i wear tshirts . . . " over and over and over again. that was the only line he sang, but he sang it all morning. when it finally sank into my brain, i realized that it sounded like the warped lyrics of a taylor swift song. her lyrics are not obscene or objectionable, but after listening to her music (which i admit i like,) i think her target audience is probably young women--which this little boy obviously was not. so i said to him, "where did you learn that song?" and he replied, "in my dad's car." his dad's car?!?! i know his dad, and this does not seem like it would be his music of choice. but clearly this little boy had heard it often enough to get the melody right, and the lyrics were close enough that i recognized it. so now i picture him and his dad boppin' out to taylor swift songs on the way to school. and i admit it--i laugh. it is a pretty funny picture . . .

diandra says that she is glad we were careful about what was allowed into her developing brain. yeah, she says that NOW. i am pretty sure she didn't always appreciate it when she was growing up. but it warms my heart, as her mom, to hear her tell her teens that they need to be careful what movies they watch or what music they listen to, because all the stuff going into their heads has an effect on who they are and how they think about things. and even though her standards are a bit broader than the ones imposed on her when she was 15, she has been known to get up and walk out of a movie or refuse to watch a dvd if she thought the content was not going to be good.

i like that. it makes me proud that i was a somewhat restrictive parent. kids are sponges, and as the adults in their lives, we need to pay attention to what we are allowing them to soak up . . .

. . . even if it means saying no.