Ellen (Sunday school teacher): See the grey hair and the wrinkles?
Darrah, age 5: You have wrinkles on your face!
Ellen: Yes, I do. I’m a grandma.
Darrah looks at me: You don’t have wrinkles. How old are you?
Me: How old do you think I am?
Darrah: Ummmmmm 15.
Me: Close enough.

It’s at least better than when that kid told me I’m older than Santa.

I thought I would be teaching middle school math. I hadn’t yet stepped foot in a classroom.

Today, I am a kindergarten teacher. I have 19 kids. Today was my second day of school.

The first day was rough.

I don’t think there is any other word I could really use to describe it.

You see, people tried to warn me. They tried to tell me that kids would misbehave. Others said the first week was the best because the kids were too scared to misbehave.

Well, the others… they were wrong.

My 19 kindergarteners have no problem telling me No. Telling me what they want and do not want to do. They can’t keep their hands to themselves and if they can push and shove, they are happy.

With that said, I love them. Every single one of them.

They are full of potential.

While they can’t seem to walk in a straight line or raise their hand without calling out, I know they will learn.

As I watch them play with blocks and draw and build and play, I can see it in their eyes.

I can teach these kids. I can grow them.

Room 16 is our little city and these kindergarten citizens will grow into it.

It’s hard, and it’s tiring and I go home every night with a sigh.

But it’s only day 2.

I can do this. Watch me.

But you know what? Their behaviour and choices  say everything about them … It has nothing to do with me, its not personal … they don’t know me, or who I am or what I’m about, or my relationships that I am so proud of …

I went to an amazing seminar today (that I will write about over time as all the bits and pieces sink in) and I thought … here are some amazing educators who are doing amazing things, and the key speaker is talking about the relationships that we have with children … And that if at the very least, we have good relationships then we have made a difference in the children’s lives …

If I do nothing else, I have awesome relationships with my kids … some stronger and longer than others, but 44 relationships based upon humour, love, respect and awe.  I’m proud of that.

So yeah, I have so much to reflect upon and write … I will have to continue this conversation later.

(c) Friday Tuesday

We’ve decided that we are going to take over the laundry duties indefinitely. We can do it during the day and we can do it with the help of the children ~ plus the laundry room is more convenient for us as it is near our room. It is easier for us to do it than the kitchen.

So I thought to own it, we might make a new sign for the door … I created the framework and then children helped me Google an image for the door … I found some lovely images of laundry baskets and such, but did the children like them?

No.

They liked the image of a baby bending over into a front loading washing machine. We now have a baby’s bum shot for our sign. Every time they look at it, they piss themselves laughing. What can I say? It is funny. AND it makes the laundry duties a little bit more cheery!

It’s their sign, they own it, and we own the task.

Yay us!

I also made a sign using two of the children as models ~ I thought we should have a “proper” sign and all … I chose two who were helping me with all this, and had them pose folding some laundry … contrived yes, but damn it I don’t care!

(c) Friday Tuesday

I used sweet Thai chilli sauce rather than minced chilli and I passed all the ingredients around the table for them to sniff and taste as they went. I did all the chopping and such and stirring and I had used to use some boiled water from the instant magic hot water tap. The children pulled all the coriander leaves from the stalks and put them into the pot. They also helped with crushing the noodle cakes for the soup.

The whole service smelt of lemon grass and kaffir lime and fresh coriander it was totally awesome. The children seemed to really like the offerings and we basically spent an hour playing around with soup … about 3/4 of the children liked the soup! I am glad I made a big pot. Some children had 3 and 4 bowls. We have decided that we can add this to our menu.

The next soup we make will be pumpkin with crusty bread. Seriously, who says you have to have crackers and fruit for afternoon tea?

This leads me to my own fire story. I was camping out with my parents in their RV one summer and SOMEONE (not me) had left a lighter out on the picnic table. I wondered, “Hmmm, what happens if I light this towel on fire?” I of course found out rather quickly as the towel went up in flames. Now, I remember throwing the towel into the woods to hide it once the fire was out. My parents claim that I threw it, lit, under the gas tank of the RV thus almost killing everyone in the entire campground. Geez, they are SO melodramatic.

Here is a pic of Porter’s “experiment…”

Tala turned FIVE! She is such a beautiful, feminine girl…full of life and a zany sense of humor. She says all kind of crazy things that keep me on my toes.

She was so happy to be the center of attention today. We made it a special time for her and every few hours she had something to do or something to open. She said mom, “This is the best birthday I have ever had!” That is with no party, and now friends outside of our family….She just simply loved being with family. Loved the day. Loved being the focus. She twirled and giggled and was thrilled to receive a faux lipstick made out of plastic.

We made a pink cake with strawberries…it had to be pink! She was so sweet. Dishing out I love you’s to everyone…isn’t it such an example of how when we feel special we say wonderful things to each other…we want to bless and love on others, too!

Thank you God for our beautiful daughter. She is a gift and a joy. Thank you for her life, the love she gives out and the beautiful future you have for her.

That said, I just couldn’t bring myself to dress my kid who likes to rock out and spike his hair and paint his nails black in a cowboy outfit. So after much thought I decided to dress him as an old sheriff! Think Seth Bullock from Deadwood:

It’s great to finally figure out they are pathetic pieces of shit of friends. Excuse my french, but I am a little pissed off at the moment. I am having such a hard time trying to wrap my brain around why 24 year olds, let alone one is a mother would make fun of a five year old? You don’t go see me talk shit about this person, and hows her son has a flat head due to her being a lazy  mother and much would rather smoke pot all day, then actually interact with her own child. Oh wait, I just did. Sorry, I just had to get that out, because its been eating at me inside…

I think I finally had enough of this person, to call her a friend anymore. I draw the line when the person makes fun of my five year old. Karma is a bitch, and I can’t wait until her little world falls apart.

Funnier still is now in work the place is mentioned now and then and it is so so so hard not to make a face. Jeez. Peoples’ perceptions can be so unlike your own. FOr instance, “Jersey Shore”. I actually know someone who is renting a place in Sea Isle SOLELY because they are rumored to be filming there. Dear God, what utter dreck and trash they call television. But that is, I guess our reality. Watching other peoples’ train wrecks. Sad.

And yet we do, so we feel better about our own little messes. Or, in the case of my young friend, because we think classlessness is somehow cool, that complete and utter lack of respect for oneself makes them brave or something. Fuck that, it just makes them look pathetic, when it’s such a sideshow.

Cool, today, here’s my list:

picking up trash on the sidewalk, even if it’s not yours and you have to carry it for a while till you find a trashcan

holding a door

waiting for an answer to your “how are you?” before you go off into your own tangent

hand-written love letters

That’s it for now. TTFN, as Tigger would say… (and the wonderful thing about Tiggers IS… he’s the only one!)

I really do love discount stores or dollar stores or two dollar shops or whatever you call them! I love them … and they are where you can get the most amazing things for your class room. I know so many services who purchase all their supplies through the large supply companies … you know the ones … and do you know what that means? It means that invariably, many early education services look the same and that their creativity come from the product rather than the process.

I am on holidays for a week and thought I would detail my car … like give it a thorough going over (because it is really filthy dusty and just horrible!). I have the detergent and the bucket and the big impressive sponge, but I have lost my chamois to my parents home so I had to buy a new one. So instead of going to the big chain department store, I thought I would go to the discount store and see if they had what I wanted … and as I was looking (half-heartedly as you can see by all the photos I took) I found lots of other things!

It started me thinking … so much of what I saw is what I have bought for work, or would like to buy for work! So it got me excitedly thinking about how I could express my ideas to the wider public and then I remembered that I had my handy mobile phone with in-built camera … man I love my phone.

So let us begin!

Now, here we have crayons … small ones and chunky ones and twisty ones … they were from $1 to $3.50 each set … so much cheaper than the name brand OR the crayons you buy in bulk … you know those box sets that cost like $100+? What’s the point? You seriously dont need that many, they dont often have the colour selection, and these do just fine. These are what I buy for my kids at work and they are perfect for the job!

And markers/pens/textas  and coloured pencils … look at all of them!?! Again they cost from about $2-$4 a set and honestly … those name brand ones are lovely and again you can buy them in bulk for what $100+ a pack … the kids lose the lids and they dry out … or they bash the hell out of the tips … so why not just buy the cheaper option? They draw the same!

And look little rulers!  You can buy wooden or plastic rulers and look they also have geometry sets and calculators … see … so much goodness! I have rulers in my writing area next to my drawing area. My literacy/writing table has rulers, alphabet tracey stencil things (which weren’t there for me to photograph) …

This is all I’m going to post for now … I’ve had half a bottle of Strongbow and I’m totally whoozy cause I’m an easy drunk … or is that cheap drunk? I’m quiet possibly bloth … I wrote bloth! See what I mean? I really should stop now! I will continue this post tomorrow … I am afterall on holidays!

Time now to go and watch my movies!

I was doing some searching a long time ago and came across a home decor website. This site suggested that you use shredded magazine pages to create a feature wall in a toilet. I don’t remember the name of the site or I would give it the credit it deserves. The author had decorated their bathroom wall by pasting on these small strips of magazine pages.

I used this idea in the classroom. I shredded magazine pages and then used them with two year olds to make collages! We found that blue glue sticks were the best because the children could see where their glue was before they tried to stick on the strips.

In my current job, we used coloured paper to make rainbow collages ~ the children explored colour and pattern using these fine strips of paper.

I have since introduced my current group of children to the magazine pages. I was careful to choose images that had interesting patterns and colours. They loved it. I will continue to explore this with them and see what it is they can create!

This activity is brilliant because its cheap, its easy, its readily accessible, allows children to be creative and explore colour, pattern, and shape in their own way. It allows them to classify as well as experiment with weaving or ripping or collage  …  the possibilitie are endless.

Because I have been working on these portfolios for about a month now … the kids are used to me setting up shop at a table and working on their books.  Because I have been trying to involve them in their own learning and documenting, they know they are more than welcome to sit with me at the table.

Now, sometimes they help ~ they find books for me from the pile. They ask to look at their own books, and they look at each other’s.

It was on Thursday I think … and my table was completely taken over by these little people with their books. They were all three years old or just turned four. They would look through their books and point out themselves and their friends. They would nudge the person next to them and say “Hey, that’s me!” or “Hey, that’s my friend!” “Hey, do you remember when we did that?” “Do you remember So-and-so? He was so cheeky to me!!”

That was one of those “love” moments … where things click for you and obviously for the children. This is reflection … we expect ourselves to do reflections or “evaluations” but what about the kids? Shouldn’t they take some “responsibility” for their own learning? They want to.

I was talking with a colleague over some drinks and she was telling me how she had observed this scene in her own centre. A child was trying to reach up to his portfolio high on a shelf out of reach. He couldn’t reach it on his own. A staff person told him to leave it alone and come away. My colleague asked this staff person what was happening. She replied that this child was trying to get his portfolio down, and she told him to leave it. My colleague asked her “Why? He should be able to look at if he wants to…” Well, my colleague helped this child by getting his portfolio down from the shelf, and handed it to him and suggested that he go and sit down with the staff person and read it to her.

How many centres out there use portfolios and don’t allow children to even see them? Why don’t people involve children in their own portfolios? Portfolios are not secret dossiers (as my mother called them) I know that I have read some things on the net about how people have involved children in the collection of items for their portfolios, but I think that they were geared more towards the older children in school rather than the younger ones.

Well I strongly believe that the younger ones are more than capable of a great many things, I just wish that others would believe in them the way I do. The three year olds have had more of my input in their life than the four and five year olds in my care … and in some of those children, I see more potential … I mean that sounds horrible … It’s just that I can have more of an impact upon their development within the context of child care/education … I see more of my influence in them, than the others. I hope that makes sense without being overly derogatory of their learning and development!

The differences I see are:

• I see more of their sense of humour, I laugh more with them … which is fantastic … there is nothing more personal and wonderful than sharing a joke that only you as a group get!
• They are so keen to share their learning with me … they want photos of their work taken and put into their book. They want to take the photos themselves even!
• They want to help and take responsibility for the room and cleaning and packing away and setting up … forever asking if they can come to the office to photocopy, or have a “teacher’s pen” to do “work”…
• They want to be with us as well as with their friends … we are their friends … their teacher/friends.

With the other children, they would rather be with their mates. They do come running up to me, and I get cuddles and love, and they come to me when they are hurt and need assistance or validation, they show me what they have done and sometimes talk to me about it … but I just find that the little ones are so much more articulate than the older ones …They are just different. I am really eager to see what these younger ones will challenge me with … I certainly feel I’ll be a better teacher and person for having known them and worked with them.

Thanks guys!!!

I did some gardening at work last week. It was raining, but I thought damnit, when am I going to get this done? I had my trusty student teacher with me so we set to work. The kids came and went as their interest dictated, but it was really great to see. We potted them all up. Two of the pots are too tippy, so I have removed them to the staff room area for the time being. We have to wait for the cuttings to take root, and then when they’re settled, I can maybe bring them back. Or I could leave them for the staff room!

The kids really wanted to get into the dirty and dig and do their own gardening. Since I don’t have any plants to really sacrifice and I’d rather they didn’t dig wtih giant glazed pots, I’m going to give them the plastic pots and we can go and find some green cuttings for them to experiment with in the sandpit. Now that its not raining, it is a possibility! I think they would enjoy it and it would give them a chance to 1) continue feeding their interest and 2) help them practice their skills until we plant again! (I have to get more plants and potting soil!)

I have been working on a corner of the outdoor area and I have done some clever things with bamboo reed fencing! We lined the fence with the fencing and it creates a sense of space. I have two cane chairs from IKEA that will go in that space, and I am working on creating a canopy. My colleague and I might be able to create some soft cushions for the children to sit on as well. All in good time!

I also reworked the block area and the home corner area outside. I was finding that the home corner was just getting trashed and the staff weren’t adequately supervising it. The drawers were coming out from the small chest of drawers and they using it to block off the space from other children. The smaller children were climbing inside some of the furniture as well and most importantly, they weren’t really engaging with it at all. So it has gone into the store room and the low bench has come out of the store room. We have put everything into baskets. Why keep blocks on shelves? Who says you have to do that? Why not go to Big W or Kmart or Target or Coles and buy cane laundry baskets? Put your home corner dress ups in there? Put your wooden unit blocks in there? Put your dolls in there? Put whatever you want in there!? It works. It’s easy to carry (they have really thick handles) and they are strong!

The home corner cooking provisions have gone into a picnic basket. Our kids are always having picnics anyway. This way, we don’t have to bother with tidying up and making sure everything looks lovely on a shelf for a short period of time and then stressing when someone puts something out of place … and the children are more than capable of putting items into their corresponding basket. They know the picnic basket (with the lids) is where the plates and pretend food goes.  Baskets are really the way to go in my belief!

Puss-cat has just come over to present her gorgeous tail and bum for a pat. She’s all gorgeous and warm from the sun. She’s contemplating her chair … ah yes, up on the chair we go. I have two chairs on the balcony. One is mine … and you guessed it, the other’s is hers.

The student and I also attacked the art area. What started out as one thought: swapping a shelf for a collage-style trolley became a whole different beast altogether! Inside my collage trolley we have natural artefacts. Now, I don’t think I can take credit for this idea … no, I can’t! Or I don’t think I can … Honestly it has been 7 months and I am not sure if someone had put the natural items (pine cones, large seed pods, gourds etc) on the trolley and then I just fine tuned it and added to it, or if it were my idea … So until I get clarification from my teaching journal at work and consulting with my colleague, I’m not claiming it. I did however definitely make it more attractive! I will claim that for sure!

So the pre-school area ( where we have all those small fine items and science and “school” based learning (because you know how much that speaks to parents!) is where we have moved the nature trolley. Really, I am not a fan of collage-trolleys, but I have discovered a whole other use for them at this centre. We actually have two trolleys, but this one is wooden and an older style. The other one is “modern” and it is made from wood-like particle board with melamine (I’m sure that is what it is called).

In the art studio area (I speak English and don’t see the point in using the Italian word for it just to be trendy). We have moved that shelf … we were going to put it against the window … but it just didn’t look right … So my student and I at about the same time said we should try and put it backed up against another shelving unit used as a sort of room divider! She thought of it before me, but only by like 5 seconds if that! Great minds! So we moved it and it looks so much better! It means that we can put some stacking chests against them and it ties it all together! Looking good! Looking excellent!

By moving a few more tables and items, it ended up creating a HUGE empty space in the middle of the art studio area. We no longer have a traditional easel. We were using a very old metal and Perspex one. It broke (the Perspex had obviously been very weathered!). So we have been using large paper on a table and you know what, it has worked. But because we have a large table (two tables put together, with 5-6 chairs around it as it is against a wall so that the provisions can be pushed up against the wall and give the children space, and access to materials (I’ll have to post a diagram to give you an idea at some point!).

We went into storage and got a table out as well … I had purchased some vinyl from Bunnings to cover the tables now was the perfect time to get it out! We were a bit desperate for a table cloth, so we used a very unattractive bit of fabric we found lying around with a beautiful … not even sure what it is … it looks tribal ~ not African but maybe Indonesian? Dunno ~ could be batik … so we angled that over the table so the corners have the manky table cloth showing through, but you mostly see the tribal geometric one which looks HOT! That is our new painting table. Who needs an easel? Not having an easel means we have that space to do so much more with it! They can do clay or play-dough or they can do collage or box sculpture … not just painting. You really have to consider multi-use furniture when you have such limited space for so many children.

I am really pleased with what we have done … it looks fabulous and I am really looking forward to using the space next week! There is so much we can do with it!

I can’t believe I have written two and a half pages already! Pretty good effort and probably has something to do with the fact that I just couldn’t find the energy to write when I got home during the week!

© Friday Tuesday

In the mean time I’ll figure out time management and hopefully the doctors will find out whats wrong with mom and shell be alright, it being her liver, im cautiously optimisic.

Bless the genius who thought of using Kool-Aid to “scent” the play-doh, because not only did I get points for making the play-doh but it was SCENTED!  Rebecca was absolutely over the moon with this and spent THREE hours yesterday playing with our play-doh.  We only made three colors. (It was supposed to be four, but who knew the “berry” kool-aid in the BLUE packaging would color my play-doh pink?)  But, it didn’t matter.  She was thrilled.  Rebecca really likes to use her hands and just function a little in her own world.  (That’s another post someday.)  But, it was neat to see her busy at work and showing off her creations.  I’ll post pictures sometime today!

The Play-Doh Recipe:

Per Color:

2 cups of flour
1/2 cup of salt
1 tablespoon of oil
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
1 package of kool-aid
Stir well into a large sauce pan.  Add to this:
2 cups of very hot water
Food Coloring if you choose
Stir over med./low heat until it loses it’s stickiness and forms a large ball.

Then go have fun with your little ones!  I give you permission to put off the dishes, ignore the laundry, and let the dust settle!

this quiz and find out. Apparently, I’m worth 25 of the little boogers.

http://www.howmanyfiveyearoldscouldyoutakeinafight.com/

I think I know this child, in fact I know many children that fit this comic.

I’m laughing hysterically, and it feels good to laugh. 

Mrs. V

You can find more funnies here.

First, this is really disgusting. It’s obviously not true and and it’s just the kind of slime McCain was crying foul over in the South Carolina primary in 2000, when Karl Rove engineered a whisper campaign that McCain’s Bangladeshi daughter was an illegitimate result of an affair with a black woman.

These tactics were disgusting then, and that McCain is using them now shows him to be a man utterly desperate to avoid talking about real issues.

It’s not like this is a credible story, primarily for one reason: If it were true, Alan Keyes would have won the 2003 Senate race, and you can bet your life Hillary would have been all over this earlier this year. Obama would have been finished before he ever got to the Senate, much less the nomination.

Folks, this is called critical thinking. When some breaking piece of information is released by a campaign that contains information that would be certain to destroy a candidacy, it better be a brand new event, or it’s almost certainly a lie or a distortion.

Well, sure enough, it was a lie. As revealed by the New York Times, who researched the story:

It is a misstatement of the bill’s purpose, therefore, to maintain, as the McCain campaign advertisement does, that Mr. Obama favored conventional sex education as a policy for 5-year-olds. Under the Illinois proposal, “medically accurate” education about more complicated topics, including intercourse, contraception and homosexuality, would have been reserved for older students in higher grades.

And by the way, Obama wasn’t the only supporter of this bill. So was the Illinois PTA.

The purpose of the bill was to get accurate information to kids about their own bodies. The only part which was aimed at very young children was in teaching them about the difference between appropriate and inappropriate touching.

Ask yourself: Wouldn’t you want your kindergartner to know that it’s not Ok when the nice neighbor touches them in a “private place?” Seriously. Do you want your young children to have no idea that’s something they need to tell an adult about?

Speaking as a parent, If you answered No to that question, you shouldn’t be allowed to have children.

EDIT: I have received a comment on this topic that I deleted because it was deliberately misleading. Included in the comment was the link: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3386492 I am appending this link to the story. It is unrelated directly to this story but is a fair statement of Obama’s position on sex ed.

For the record: This blog will allow any comment. You can disagree all you want. You can call the candidates any names you want. You can call ME any names you want. But you cannot deliberately lie or mislead. That’s the line in the sand. Cross it and get moderated.

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ob es nun an meinen kämpferischen fähigkeiten oder an meinen moralischen wertvorstellungen liegt, darüber wollen wir uns mal keine gedanken machen. es führt zu mindest zu sieben mehr kids, als NotInPortland. eat this, legolas.

update: ach man wordpress, du gehst mir schon teilweise echt auf den zeiger. ich weiss nicht, wie andere hoster so unterwegs sind, aber ob das dein übertriebener sicherheitswahn ist oder ihr einfach überfordert seid. aber dass nicht einmal ein html code zu embedden ist, dass finde ich nicht gut, gar nicht gut.