School Days

Hi all!
I just wanted to write a quick line or 2 to let you know that school's been going great. I really enjoy it. The kids are all so cute and sweet. Even the one's that can be "challenging" (is that the PC term for it nowadays?) are still cute as buttons! I like this age much better than older kids so far. At least you don't have to wipe older kids butts though! Oh, and one kid today handed me a booger before I could tell what it was. I think I threw up a little bit in my mouth on that one!!

But it's all still good right now. It's really busy. You NEVER get to sit down there. I barely get to run to the bathroom! Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know how I'm doing in case you were wondering!! BTW, all that running around has helped me lose another pound!! That's 6 now (in case any one's counting). Yay power patch!!!

Have a good Wednesday!!

The difference between boys and girls

Ellie has a CD of Disney music from all the Disney princess movies. We listen to it every night while she's falling asleep. This song is from The Little Mermaid and it's the 2nd song on the disc so we hear it all the time. I noticed one night that she was singing all the words. She really likes to sing. Unfortunately, she seems to have my voice which is not the best in the west. The kids were dressing up the other day and Ellie started to sing, so I grabbed the camera and took this video.

OK, I'm a moron. I turned the camera when I took this video and now I don't think there's a way to rotate it. It's kind of annoying to watch like that, but it's too cute not to share (at least to me!). If it bothers you just stop watching. The next one is short and really illustrates the point of my blog's title. Also, I need to put a warning to any childless people or even people with babies and no older kids- the last 30 seconds or so are disturbing. But, it gives an accurate unedited ( I would have just posted some of this, but I couldn't figure out how, duhh) view of life with a 7 year old boy and 4 year old girl.

Logan wanted the 2 of them to dance for me while I video taped them. This is the best illustration I've seen of the basic difference between boys and girls (at least my boy and girl).

Here goes...

Thanks for all your nice comments about my room and your well wishes. They are much appreciated.
Tomorrow's the big day. My first full day of class. Monday and today were orientation, so the parents brought the kids to my room for about 45 minutes while they had a meeting with the director. It was nice to put faces to the names. They're all sooo cute! Only 1 each day cried at all. I think they will do well. None of them seemed too incredibly irritating, at least not yet! I think we're going to have fun. I just want to get through a few days and get in a groove where I know how things are going to go. I've decided to just act like I know what I'm doing until I actually do. The kids won't know the difference.
All the other teachers there have been really nice. I have the teachers in the classroom next door that have been helping me and I'm sure I'll be sticking my head in their door at least a few times in the next few days to get a tip here or there.
I have to go now so I can email the kid's parents before tomorrow! I can't believe it's finally here!!!

What a week!!

Ok, It's been 7 years since I had any kind of "real job". I know motherhood is the hardest job on the planet, yada, yada, yada... Well combining motherhood with another job is even harder. At least it was this week. Talk about never having a moment to sit down! I had to bring Ellie with me to school all week and have her hang out in my room while I was trying to get everything decorated and ready for school next week. She did beautifully considering that she was basically ignored most of the day. Luckily my co-teacher also has a 4 year old daughter and they played together fabulously.

(I'm adding in the before pictures so the after pictures will make more sense.)

This week was non-stop since I was trying to do everything before today. I brought stuff home to work on everyday, not to mention that we had some kind of outing we had to do every afternoon. Tuesday we went to the gym because I knew I wouldn't be able to on Wed. since I had to go have a TB test for work. That evening Erica and I tried out an Adult Hip Hop class at the studio where Ellie and Grace are taking classes (BTW,I'm still sore). Thursday afternoon Ellie had a Dr. apt., then Friday afternoon I had to go back to my doctor so they could look at my arm and make sure I wasn't having a reaction to the TB test! Whew... It was a long week.

I'm really enjoying my job so far. Everyone is so nice and helpful. I actually look forward to going up there everyday. I know it's only been a few days, but at least I'm not dreading it already!

We ended up with just Dragonflies and Fireflies for the name. The room has lots of different bugs in it though. I think it turned out pretty well considering what I started out with (nothing). I have 9 kids in my MWF class and 7 kids in my TTh class. We still have a few openings. I had to call all the parents today to introduce myself before orientation next week. I think it went pretty well. It still sounds weird to hear myself tell someone that I'm going to be their kid's teacher. I'm sure I'll get used to it pretty quickly though.

As you can see I've sprinkled a few pictures of my room that I took right before I left this afternoon. It's come a long way and I'm feeling pretty good about it. I'm sure I'll keep adding to it and will change a few things, but it's great for right now.

Monday and Tuesday are orientation days, then Wednesday's the big day. I'll let you know how it goes, wish me luck!!

My empty room

Here are some pictures of my empty room. By the end of this week (hopefully) it will be a cute "bug" room for my little "Daring Dragonflies" (MWF kids) and "Fantastic Fireflies" (TTh kids). I'm pretty sure about those names.

At our school each class room has a theme and each class (MWF or TTh) has a different name, like Logan was an Angelfish (TTh) and the MWF kids were Rainbow fish. Then we've had Ropers and Wranglers, Doodlebugs and Jitterbugs, All Stars and Super Stars, etc. You get the idea. Ever since I found out I was teaching I started thinking of what my class could be. I finally decided on Butterflies and Dragonflies. When I got up to the school and told the director, I found out another teacher had chosen Butterflies as one of her class names. Bummer. So I switched to fireflies. It still works and really I will have all kinds of bugs in my room.

By the way, those big white tables won't be in there when the kids are there. They're used by the church.

So hopefully by this weekend I can post some pictures of my finished or mostly finished room! The kids don't come until next week! Eeeek!

Also, I just had to add a picture of Logan on his first day of school. We take one every year. Don't we all have those pictures of ourselves on the first day with our new clothes and shoes all nervous about going back to school? Just thinking about it takes me back to those days and boy am I glad I'm not there anymore!!

Have a good week!