When I started working as a kindergarten aide, I placed bets to see how long it would take me to get sick. Gotta love those little tykes, they come up to ask a question and then sneeze or cough right in my face. Ugh!
I think the average days missed for sickness is 4 among our five-year-olds this year. The teacher, herself, missed an accumulative week before the Christmas holidays. I sailed right through with nary a sniffle.
I feel pretty proud that it’s taken so long—I waited until mid January before coming down with a cold. Problem is that I can’t seem to shake it. My head is a liquid bucket of congestion, I can’t breathe, my ears are plugged and my voice sounds like I’ve been a smoker since the age of five (and I’ve never smoked at all).
Between the Tylenol Cold (am and pm), Amoxicillin, prescription nasal spray, Mucinex D, Cold Calm, Immune Defense, cough drops, throat lozenges, Listerine and vitamins—as well as the Lysol spray and Oust, I’ve ingested and used enough drugs and products to stock a small pharmacy this past month. Sheesh! I’ve also helped eat a bushel of fresh oranges and lay out in the sun.
Embarrassing moment—I went to church Sunday and realized I hadn’t brought any throat lozenges for that annoying little tickle that sometimes appears in my throat. I started using Mentos and got so choked up it almost took a half hour for me to stop coughing. Someone finally gave me two cough drops and it took both of them to finally calm the cough.
With only one day of work missed and two visits to the doctor, I think I’m finally on the mend—again. I thought the same thing two weeks ago. This time I think I have the weather on my side. The sun is out and it’s warmed up a bit. We even bought a couple of tomato plants at Costco in anticipation of spring and I can already taste those home-grown tomatoes.
Showing posts with label kindergarten. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kindergarten. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Kindergarten Teacher's Aid
Well, only a few months after the weekly paper that I was managing editor of bit the dust, I am happily working as an aid for a kindergarten class. It’s actually a job that I’ve wanted—rather I should say it’s a job that I thought I’d be good at and have considered for the past ten years. I didn’t apply until recently, and voila! I got the job.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had a five-year-old and having 13 at once is a handful. They’re full of energy and just starting to learn about their place in the world. As an artist, it’s interesting that about half the class (boys) don’t like to color. It’s like the hardest thing they’ve ever done.
Some are too busy looking at their neighbor’s page to color their own and would prefer I do it for them—ah, but I won’t. Others are artists in the rough and painstakingly color each project to perfection and are quite impressive for kindergarteners.
The teacher let them use colored pencils today and a few of the kids used a lot of pencil by pushing hard and scribbling over and over. At that rate they’ll only be able to use each pencil on two or three pictures before they’re turned to nubs. I was kept busy at the pencil sharpener.
It’s a lot of fun, and with one kind word, one moment of offered help, they repay in smiles and hugs. If only the rest of the world were so easily charmed. I hope that I’ll be allowed to continue as the kindergarten teacher’s aid for years to come. Now, if only I can get all of my other ‘hats’ in line and accomplished because I still have several novels that I expect to get published hopefully sometime soon, and I’m also working on an art show for later this month. Busy, busy, busy—just like a classroom of kindergarteners only without half the energy.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had a five-year-old and having 13 at once is a handful. They’re full of energy and just starting to learn about their place in the world. As an artist, it’s interesting that about half the class (boys) don’t like to color. It’s like the hardest thing they’ve ever done.
Some are too busy looking at their neighbor’s page to color their own and would prefer I do it for them—ah, but I won’t. Others are artists in the rough and painstakingly color each project to perfection and are quite impressive for kindergarteners.
The teacher let them use colored pencils today and a few of the kids used a lot of pencil by pushing hard and scribbling over and over. At that rate they’ll only be able to use each pencil on two or three pictures before they’re turned to nubs. I was kept busy at the pencil sharpener.
It’s a lot of fun, and with one kind word, one moment of offered help, they repay in smiles and hugs. If only the rest of the world were so easily charmed. I hope that I’ll be allowed to continue as the kindergarten teacher’s aid for years to come. Now, if only I can get all of my other ‘hats’ in line and accomplished because I still have several novels that I expect to get published hopefully sometime soon, and I’m also working on an art show for later this month. Busy, busy, busy—just like a classroom of kindergarteners only without half the energy.
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