Yeah yeah I know I promised a more succinct follow up to the last post but things got all caught up in life, as things are wont to do. So a brief glance into how things are going:
School is good. Wonderful, even. I am enjoying the planning, the teaching, the newness of it, the settling down of the school year as the kids get used to me, to our routines, to the songs we sing every day. I like the fact that I see my 4 yr olds 3X/week but I also like the fact I only have to muster the energy for the 2 yr olds once per week. The 3 yr olds have a hard time of it because although they are there 2x/week, it is all loaded in the front of the week, as it were, so there seems like there is always too great a break between Wednesday and the following Monday. I have some kinks of work out in terms of what types of crafts the kids enjoy, which kids hate doing any sort of craft and which child would rather sit and do painting all the time rather than playing with friends. I am slowly remembering the parent names and am excited about the little things about teaching that I had forgotten about somehow. Like bulletin boards!
Elena spoke her first phase on Friday. She has been saying a few words, mostly "This?" and "That!" But on Friday, she somehow pieced it together to say "What's THIS?!" When I think back on how large Julia's vocabulary was at the same age, I wonder what it is that makes them so different and can reach no difnitive answer except that if I had two children alike in every way, I probably wouldnt like that either.
Julia is trucking along pretty well. She is a quintessinential 3 yr old; her vocabulary is exploding, her play is becoming more sophisticated, her tastes are more individual, her tantrums can be reasoned out, mostly. It is nice to be out of the terrible "twos", at least for a month or so.
Both girls are currently in the care of my sister when I am working because unless I get a job on the two days I dont teach, I dont actually bring any income home. Which, you know, is a nice commodity these days. Although with the way things are going, perhaps, I am better off sucking up putting them in daycare anyway, just so they have reliable and consistent care every day. I dont mind paying more money for someone to care for my babies. I want the best for them and if I have to pay more to get it, well so be it. In the long run, a couple bucks that I saved wouldnt make up for the Bits and Bites breakfast (yeah, can you imagine?) that my children are having. SO, bottom line, basically, I have to beg them back into daycare. We left a bit abruptly and I dont know that they will have us back but I pray that they will. Julia has talked about her friends and teachers almost every day since she left, which, given the difficulty she had adjusting to the daycare in the first place, speaks volumes to me.
PLUS! Putting the kids in full time in November will free up two days a week to devote to participate in NaNoWriMo for the third year. Yeah I know, insanity. But in a good way, right?
9:27 p.m. - 2005-10-10