Tommy's school does this really strange thing that I still can't wrap my brain around. Once every two weeks all the teachers in the grade have a meeting and turn their classes over to completely untrained parent volunteers for two hours. I'd rather that untrained volunteer be ME than some random person who's even less competent than I am! So I arranged for babysitting and stepped up. I did a practice run with one other parent 2 weeks ago, and the teacher was in and out that week checking up on us. The class was still 20 kids at that time, so we were glad to share the job.
Now that the class is 14 kids (did I tell you that took effect this week?) the other mother and I decided to start taking turns. My mom arrived yesterday morning for a weekend visit, so I canceled the babysitter and happily turned Charlie over to her. She got him to nap and he didn't cry when I left and I saved $30, so grandmas are way better than paid babysitters.
I arrived at 1 pm, just as they were coming in from recess. They have rest time then, so it was a good opportunity for me to go over the lesson plans and ask Ms. F. things like "how do I call the office if there's an emergency " and "where are the bandaids?" Or at least it would have been a good time for that if I hadn't had to take A., the little boy in the class with the most ADD/behavioral/developmental issues, to the nurse's office because he'd had his third accident of the day and was out of dry clothes.
Walking to the nurse's office with him was a little taste of what managing him for the afternoon was going to be like. He's a sweet little boy, but has definite ISSUES. It was absolutely impossible for him to walk quietly and in a straight line without messing with stuff. It's a good thing I spend all day with a 2-year-old because it takes the same kind of repetitive vigilance to keep him under control, but my 2-year-old can remember instructions longer than this little guy. When we got back to class it was time to say goodbye to Ms. F. and the kids were all done resting.
We did a little math lesson then. We played a math game in a circle. A really smart little boy named C. was bored with it and not too shy to complain, but the rest of the kids enjoyed it. I had the super smart but quietest girl "teach" me how to play the game and that really helped her warm up to me. I'd noticed that she gave Ms. F. a desperate little hug when she left, so I thought she might be nervous of me.
Then I taught them how to write a "7" using a little rhyme and some gross motor practice. Most of them already knew how to write a "7" so it was more of a formality than REAL teaching. Then they went to their tables to work on a "7" worksheet and the corresponding page of their number booklet. I wandered from table to table helping those who needed help, reminding them to write their names on the top, reigning in the steep slopes of their sevens. I also spend a fair bit of time managing A.'s many, many trips to the pencil sharpener, attempts to test the sharpness of his pencils on his classmates' arms, and reminding him to keep working.
Then it was "self selection" time. This is the free-play part of the day when most of the trouble happens, but it actually didn't go too badly. Most of the kids know how to play nicely together without getting out of control. A. surprised me by really focusing on using watercolors to decorate some paper to make a paper airplane. It didn't occur to me to control their paper use, so I have a feeling we wasted a LOT of paper. Lots of the boys spent their time making paper airplanes and it took me a while to decide that maybe I should say they are not allowed to actually fly their planes. Tommy and another little boy played with blocks and I probably protected their block creation a bit more than a non-parental teacher would. There aren't many girls in the class, and they did quiet things at the tables and in the play kitchen.
I don't really like the chaos of self selection, so I admit that I had them clean up a bit early. The clean up was actually more chaotic than the play time, so I was glad I started early. We eventually got everything put away - the trash was full of used paper (oops!) - and they went back to the carpet area. I did another math game that involved animal sounds, and they all really enjoyed this one. Tommy said it was his favorite part of the day. They didn't all get a turn, so when the bell rang for recess I promised them we'd finish the game after they came back inside.
A. and another little boy had lost recess privilege the previous day, so they had to walk out with me as I took the class to the playground and then come back inside. This was the hardest part of my day. I just didn't know what to do with them. I volunteered to teach the class, not to dole out discipline. I ended up having them wash down the tables for me, but it was way more fun for them and way more work for me than it should have been. The other little boy was quite helpful and seemed to benefit from a bit of one-on-one time, but A. had about had it for the day. I was happy when the bell rang.
When the three of us got out to the line-up area, there were only 12 of the 13 kids there. I remembered that one girl was absent, so there weren't supposed to be 14, but I knew there should be 13. A little boy named D. was nowhere to be found. I kept all the kids with me on the blacktop and tried to figure out what to do. I sent Tommy and his friend C. down to the field to see if he was there. He wasn't. I sent a little boy to check the outside bathrooms. He wasn't there either. By this time some of the kids were getting upset and all the other classes had gone inside. I decided to take the class back inside and call the office. As we were walking up to the classroom door, the school nurse walked up with D. I was so relieved! He'd scraped his hand and one of the duty teachers took him to the nurse but none of his classmates had seen it and no teachers thought to tell me about it.
Whew. Forty minutes left!
We gathered on the carpet and finished our math animal sound game. Then I read them a book about apples and pumpkins and talked about how stories in books move from the first page sequentially through to the last page. They had a small activity to do where they cut out four pre-printed pages, put them in order, stapled them together into a book and colored the pictures. The little book was about making apple and peanut butter sandwiches, and when they finished I passed out a snack of those sandwiches. One little boy didn't like peanut butter, so I scraped all the peanut butter off his apple slices for him. It took me a long time to get to him though, because I was simultaneously managing A. (who was really ready for the day to end), checking finished books, stapling finished books, and passing out apple sandwiches. Kindergarten teachers do that sort of thing all the time, but I'm not the best multi-tasker in the world.
The next thing I knew, it was 3:30 and Ms. F. was back and they were cleaning up and gathering their backpacks. Done! It was fun but EXHAUSTING. I'm glad the other mother and I are taking turns so I have 4 weeks to rest before trying this again.
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