So, the school year is off to a good start. This is our third week, but our first FULL week. It was nice to kinda ease into it (3 day week first, then a 4 day week before this one), but this week sure has felt long.
For some reason I'm finding the early mornings easier than they were last year. I'm not really sure why that is. I'm still going to bed late like I usually do. I actually get up earlier because it takes me longer to get there now than it did before I moved. I still don't LIKE the early mornings, but I don't hate them quite as much as I use to.
And honestly, the first hour of the day is so nice...Kat and I arrive at 7. We turn the coffee pot on. We go set up our classrooms. And then for the next 40 minutes or so we sit at a table and have coffee while the children play. It's very easy and relaxing, and sometimes she brings me these yummy Korean cookies for breakfast. :)
School starts at 8am. The children trickle in slowly over the next half hour. We shake their hands and say good morning, but a few of them hug me, too. :)
We have a really good group this year. A few are a bit of a handful, but what else can you expect in a room with 23 children who range from 2 1/2 to 6 years old? Overall it's a great group. Seeing the progress that so many of them have made since starting in the room last year is really cool. Seeing them grow and mature and develope their personalities.
One little guy is so stinking cute with his newly developed manners. (Please, thank you, I'm sorry, excuse me, etc). They literally just kinda showed up overnight. Today I sat at his table at lunch and he said "I like your shirt." and I said "Thank you, I like yours too." and he looks down and smiles and pats his shirt and says "Well, thank you!" He asks me to cut his sandwich into "sailboats" (triangles) because it's easier for him to eat that way. The first day I asked him if he wanted it cut, he said "Well, that's a GREAT idea!" I wish I could tell you exactly how he said it...just picture a 3 year old little boy acting really happy and you've probably got it. :)
There's another girl who always wants to help me with everything. She always wants a job to do. She empties the recycling bin. She loads and unloads the dishwasher. She pulls weeds in the garden. The first day I asked her to do trash, she didn't want to, but when she realized that other children LIKE taking the trash out, now she wants to do it all the time. She gives me more hugs in one day than I can keep track of, and I love it.
I could keep going with the stories, but I won't for now. I will end by saying that I think the kind of work I do has to be one of the most rewarding jobs. Even when I have rough days, all it takes is one of those adorable faces smiling at me and I feel better. If I'm gone for a day (or sometimes just coming back from a weekend) everyone tells me they missed me. I just love it. I may go home worn out at the end of the day, but I also go home feeling loved, and I don't know a whole lot of other jobs that leave you feeling that way at the end of the day.
:)
