Busy Day
Busy Day
Part of me just wants to say ” It was a horrendously busy day and I have nothing else to add!” But, you know I wont do that. What I am going to do it lump our pictures all together instead of scattered through out the blog . It is easier to group load and I am a wee bit tired and still have to cook Monkey Bread Muffins for snack.
At 820 this morning four ladies from Northside came in . They were here to assess and observe some of our kiddos going into kindergarten. We do have three rooms so it wasnt too awfully crowded but the ratio by the end of the morning was 1 adult to every two children. Around 9 am a JBU student arrived with the permission of the parent to observe a child for a paper she is writing for school . She is an early childhood education major at JBU and was very sweet. She did ask me what reading level I teach on and I almost laughed out loud. I dont ” teach” letters more or less reading. I have print and use writing all the time in the classroom. Our rooms are filled with environmental print but I dont ” teach ” it. It just happens naturally in the course of our day. I hope our environment inspired her to learn more about this style of teaching and she will carry it to classroom of her own one day. I think there is one thing for certain about our classroom. You either love it.. and get it. Or you think it is insane and dont understand why in the world there are not worksheets and flashcards everywhere.
For small group we read the book ” it Looked Like Spilt Milk.” After reading we took white paint and made our own cloud pictures.
In circle time we read a book. I think it has to be one of my favorite books. Its called ” Puddles ” by jonathon London. It starts out :
All night the slash
of rain and the flash
of lightening , and the
KABOOM
of Thunder rallting
the house and all
the windows. We cuddle
between the fright
and glee and want it to
STOP
and never stop.
Do you remember that feeling as a child looking out the window as a storm rolled in and with each thunder you got excited but scared too ? I do. I dont remember many days lately that I am able just to sit and watch the rain. I miss that.
We also played a game called DRIP DRIP DROP . It is a lot like duck duck goose . Each child had a rain drop and as they walked around the circle they would say DRIP DRIP DRIP until they came to a child they wanted to drop on and they would drop their paper rain drop in their friends lap. The friend would tell us what number he got and we would all clap our hands on our thighs the correct number of times. The kids loved it.
After circle time we had an unscheduled USDA meal inspection. They come twice a year to make sure we are feeding correct meal patterns and amounts. It is usually fairly routine. It seemed hectic today because we had already had so many visitors ! It was so crazy that when we put the second groups food out it looked like we were short. I was trying to figure out how to make substitutions ( You cant just whip up another boiled egg .) I decided cheese, that was it ! On the two plates that were missing an egg I would put cheese. As we got the plates to the table I realized I had fixed two plates too many. Stick a fork in me, I am done. Yowzers. What a day.
I would like to share a really cool part of our day though ! One of the observers said she loved our place. She said ” I even told one of the other girls I would love for my little girl to go here. ” I always get worked up when Northside people are coming . Something in me feels like they are always considered the ” real ” preschool and we are a stepping stone or a daycare. Just this week another family home provider had a child sign up and the mom said ” but next year he will go to Northside.” Why ? I dont have that happen often ( once and the mom regrets it to this day ) but still there is that stigma attached that makes me as a home preschool provider feel like I have to prove something or that I dont measure up. There is nothing that any of them have done to make me feel that way it is just a burden that I carry. Days like today when I can tell the ladies love our place and even want their kids to come here, reaffirm that we are ok. We are doing a good job and people that spend time here can feel the difference . Ahh….
Makes all the chaos of the day seem ok.