So here it is after some requesting (thank you for your persistence, Susan,) despite my own reluctance to give in the the blog trend, it seems that my beloved typewriter has run out of ribbon and i will not be able to go with the previous plan of mailing out photocopied, typewritten journals to all interested parties - at least not yet.
It is 1:28 PM. I am taking my daily break. The typical day goes like this:
8 AM - wake up, do a morning routine consisting of exercise, yoga and meditation.
9 AM - eat a healthy breakfast and do something of value. I prefer oatmeal with brown sugar and butter (something i picked up from the Scots) as the mornings are shockingly cold here in Oakland and i like to consider checking email or writing letters my activity of value. Before finishing up with the morning routine i check the dishwasher and trash/recycling to see if they need changing/emptying. More often than not they do.
10 AM - descend the stairway into the luminsescent playroom where the children have just picked up for the morning and headed into an adjacent room for snack time. Here i will cover the toy shelves with pastel fabrics and begin to lay out ten little blue cots. I will also arrange seven tiny chairs for story time and make up each little cot complete with spread, sheet, hand-woven quilt and pillow. At the foot of each i will place each child's tiny footie slippers. When this is complete, the former playroom (decked with toys made of natural materials: wood blocks, wool blankets, hand-built playsets) will have been effectively transformed into the nap room with toys concealed behind said pastel sheets. All the while i can hear the sound of children chewing/throwing graham crackers and cheese sticks, complete with fits of screaming, silly outbursts, admonitions from the teacher and occasional split seconds of peace. By the time i have finished this it is...
10:30 AM (playtime)- I grab a cheese stick from the left-over snack tray and go out the side door to the play yard where the munchkins are buzzing about in the sunshine, making mudpies in the sandbox, playing house in the hand-built playhouse, or riding little bikes and trikes about the small enclave that is half-grounded by rubber mats and half green grass with apple trees and a small wooden-box garden with carrots and mums along the back fence. More often then not they will rush me, shriek my name, wrap their arms around my knees and begin pulling my limbs in seperate directions in an attempt to divide me into enough parts to go around. While i am outside the ratio of caretakers to children will be roughly 2 to 10 or 11. I will bounce baby girls on my knees and referee the often unruly disagreements of territorial toddlers. This will continue until about 11:50 when the children go in for story circle.
Story time - the children, after having ritualistically come in to remove their mucky shoes and replaced them with footie slippers all gather around the teacher in the circle of mini chairs that i have previously arranged and go through a uniform series of songs and hand-dances ranging from a three-verse verson of 'twinkle twinkle little star' to 'the itsy-bitsy spider'. I sit in the crowd in a slightly larger mini-chair, showing off my own hand-dancing skills and trying not to get too excited when it comes to the 'WASHED the spider OUT!" part. After singing and having a story read with hands folded and in our laps we move on to...
12:10 (lunch!) - this, again, is amongst my greatest challenges throughout the day. During this period i am seated with three two four young ones, eating simple foods that usually include a meat, a cooked vegetable, raw vegetables, a starch and water. The primary condiments are ketchup and ranch dressing and there is no salt or hot sauce available. While eating my chicken and rice with ranch and ketchup my primary task it to make sure that the children sit up straight, keep their elbows off the table, don't use fingers (although many come from cultures where fingers are the utensil of choice) and only speak when speaking is permitted. This allows me all of about one child's plate of simple foods in between disciplinary moves and serving firsts and seconds to the children. As lunch slowly disintegrates the children take their plates and cups to a designated table and wash up before heading into my beautiful nap room. Once there they pick a book, a stuffed animal and do anything they can to avoid settling in until one of the three of us arrives to go through the nap ritual. This includes (for each and every child) reading the story and then sitting with some kind of physical contact (always dependent on the temperament of the child) ranging from a simple hand on the shoulder to a gentle stroking of the hair while we sing or hum a quiet lullaby until the child finally gives up the fight with consciousness and slips into a fitful slumber with shafts of soft sunlight breathing in through the sheer white curtains and spilling over the pastel fabrics onto the naproom floor. It is from this beautiful silence that i slip away, out the side door around the house to the front as not to disturb the children, re-entering for my mid-day break.
It is 1:28 PM. I am taking my daily break. The typical day goes like this:
8 AM - wake up, do a morning routine consisting of exercise, yoga and meditation.
9 AM - eat a healthy breakfast and do something of value. I prefer oatmeal with brown sugar and butter (something i picked up from the Scots) as the mornings are shockingly cold here in Oakland and i like to consider checking email or writing letters my activity of value. Before finishing up with the morning routine i check the dishwasher and trash/recycling to see if they need changing/emptying. More often than not they do.
10 AM - descend the stairway into the luminsescent playroom where the children have just picked up for the morning and headed into an adjacent room for snack time. Here i will cover the toy shelves with pastel fabrics and begin to lay out ten little blue cots. I will also arrange seven tiny chairs for story time and make up each little cot complete with spread, sheet, hand-woven quilt and pillow. At the foot of each i will place each child's tiny footie slippers. When this is complete, the former playroom (decked with toys made of natural materials: wood blocks, wool blankets, hand-built playsets) will have been effectively transformed into the nap room with toys concealed behind said pastel sheets. All the while i can hear the sound of children chewing/throwing graham crackers and cheese sticks, complete with fits of screaming, silly outbursts, admonitions from the teacher and occasional split seconds of peace. By the time i have finished this it is...
10:30 AM (playtime)- I grab a cheese stick from the left-over snack tray and go out the side door to the play yard where the munchkins are buzzing about in the sunshine, making mudpies in the sandbox, playing house in the hand-built playhouse, or riding little bikes and trikes about the small enclave that is half-grounded by rubber mats and half green grass with apple trees and a small wooden-box garden with carrots and mums along the back fence. More often then not they will rush me, shriek my name, wrap their arms around my knees and begin pulling my limbs in seperate directions in an attempt to divide me into enough parts to go around. While i am outside the ratio of caretakers to children will be roughly 2 to 10 or 11. I will bounce baby girls on my knees and referee the often unruly disagreements of territorial toddlers. This will continue until about 11:50 when the children go in for story circle.
Story time - the children, after having ritualistically come in to remove their mucky shoes and replaced them with footie slippers all gather around the teacher in the circle of mini chairs that i have previously arranged and go through a uniform series of songs and hand-dances ranging from a three-verse verson of 'twinkle twinkle little star' to 'the itsy-bitsy spider'. I sit in the crowd in a slightly larger mini-chair, showing off my own hand-dancing skills and trying not to get too excited when it comes to the 'WASHED the spider OUT!" part. After singing and having a story read with hands folded and in our laps we move on to...
12:10 (lunch!) - this, again, is amongst my greatest challenges throughout the day. During this period i am seated with three two four young ones, eating simple foods that usually include a meat, a cooked vegetable, raw vegetables, a starch and water. The primary condiments are ketchup and ranch dressing and there is no salt or hot sauce available. While eating my chicken and rice with ranch and ketchup my primary task it to make sure that the children sit up straight, keep their elbows off the table, don't use fingers (although many come from cultures where fingers are the utensil of choice) and only speak when speaking is permitted. This allows me all of about one child's plate of simple foods in between disciplinary moves and serving firsts and seconds to the children. As lunch slowly disintegrates the children take their plates and cups to a designated table and wash up before heading into my beautiful nap room. Once there they pick a book, a stuffed animal and do anything they can to avoid settling in until one of the three of us arrives to go through the nap ritual. This includes (for each and every child) reading the story and then sitting with some kind of physical contact (always dependent on the temperament of the child) ranging from a simple hand on the shoulder to a gentle stroking of the hair while we sing or hum a quiet lullaby until the child finally gives up the fight with consciousness and slips into a fitful slumber with shafts of soft sunlight breathing in through the sheer white curtains and spilling over the pastel fabrics onto the naproom floor. It is from this beautiful silence that i slip away, out the side door around the house to the front as not to disturb the children, re-entering for my mid-day break.
posted by derek | 1:32 PM
1 Comments:
THAT entry is WHY I wanted you to begin a blog. You can make a typical morning/afternoon in a preschool into a riveting tale.
I will forward this to all family members not on the designated notification list you sent out. I give it a very sincere, Thanks for sharing! ~Susan
Post a Comment
<< Home