Oct 16, 2024 | School Days |
I recently was the substitute teacher for the K3 class at school.
That is all the energy I have to discuss it.
The first fifteen minutes went fine. I love little people! The children arrived and I learned their names while they hung up their backpacks. Several children had considerable confusion over whether the lunchbox they pulled from their backpack was indeed theirs. A few friends, who were supposed to be playing at the table, came over to inspect each new arrival and declared that the lunchbox might actually be theirs instead of the rightful owners.
By 8:10, Jude had a very messy accident. By 8:11, I was ready to call it a day. Everyone crowded around to see and comment. He didn’t have a change of clothes in his backpack, so he was sent to the office to await his mother and new clothes. The office called the mother of the wrong Jude, so he was there for nearly an hour. I carted the other seven children to chapel. We arrived late so the entire school watched us do the walk of tardy shame to the front row. I wish that was the only shame I experienced in chapel that day. We were a group of sinners and heathens in the house of the Lord. Ken was licking and eating his shoe like a sandwich. Ansley was throwing the bulletins in the air, pushing Ken, and slapping me whenever I told her to stop. Landry spotted her mom and was hollering to go sit with her. There was a lot of “He looked at me! I don’t want her breaving on my shoulder! I DON’T YIKE IT HERE.” Five of the seven never stopped moving, talking, and disrupting the service for 45 minutes. We shouldn’t have been in there. It was way over their heads. Only Ruth and JJ were quiet. I forgot those two angel babies were with us until one of them won an award. I was mortified that I couldn’t control the kids better. I thought every other teacher must be looking at me and wondering why I didn’t have the hooligans in a row. I was doing the best I could. I’ve been in childcare my entire life, but that was too many toddlers for one person.
After chapel, we returned to the classroom where we sang a real banger that went, “Green, green, likes to clean! Green, green, likes to clean! Green, green, likes to clean! God made beautiful colors!” I tried teaching a lesson on Moses and a lesson on the letter F so we’d have some semblance of education, and it went only slightly better than chapel. Everyone needed to occupy the same four inches in front of my feet. Eventually, I gave up. Most of the day was playing which is all 3 year olds need anyway.
Even though I got overwhelmed, I did enjoy some parts. Nellie was in awe that I knew how to spell her name. Just flabbergasted with my knowledge. I played with dolls and the pretend kitchen. I bought endless groceries at the pretend Aldi without spending a dime.
Naptime conversation:
Child- “Can I take my shoes off?”
Me- “Yes, you may.”
Another child- “Can I take my socks off?”
Me- “Yes, you may.”
Another child- “Can I keep my shoes on?”
Me- “You can leave your shoes on or take them off.”
Another child- “Can I leave my socks on?”
Me- “Guys! You can all take your shoes off or you can leave them on. You can take your shoes off and leave your socks on. Or you can take off your shoes and your socks. I don’t care. I need you to pick one and lie down.”
Another child- “Can I take my socks off and leave my shoes on?”
Another child- “Can I take my shoes off?”
The office called me a few days ago to ask if I could sub again. I didn’t even ask what class needed the help. I said no immediately. I am still recovering.
May 26, 2024 | School Days |
Another school year has come to an end.
Sarah’s carpool karaoke is still going strong. The two mornings I drove AB to school, I still sang her the same two songs I’ve been singing since she began school. I constantly worried she’d ask me to stop singing, but we’re still going strong. Every day when I picked her up, I asked what the scoop was inside the school. There was very rarely a dramatic scoop, but I still asked. Every Thursday, we drove across the street to Sonic for a small cherry limeade and medium tots. We are a people who found our rhythm and stuck to it.
This year, we chauffered a school friend to another friend’s home every Tuesday afternoon. That friend didn’t often have any inside information from her grade, but I always asked. She laughed at my jokes, which was more appreciation than my offspring often gave me.
On home school days, Annabelle spent as much time as she could doing school on the picnic table. Sometimes on winter days, we’d make a fire and do school on the living room floor. I taught more math than I ever care to do again. I read aloud in the afternoons like Mom did for me. Thanks to a patient tutor, she turned her spelling struggles around. I still suffer from badd spelin sklz and sadly picked up nothing during our weekly sessions.
My Sesame Pie got the A Honor Roll for the third year in a row. By extension, I also got A Honor Roll for the third year in a row. She was voted as Most Likely to Become President. That’s great news for me because I can be her First Lady. Christopher is a party pooper and says he won’t run for president which means AB was my only ticket to Washington. Her teacher gave her the Kindness Award and her classmates gave her the Caring Heart Award which means more than the honor roll.
I don’t know that we’re homeschool for life people, but I wouldn’t trade these days at home with her for anything. (Actually, I might trade some of them. But overall, big fan.)
Dec 1, 2023 | Currently, School Days, What's going on |
Student of the month “for demonstrating honorable character.”
The L’s celebrated a birthday. They were less than thrilled. It seems they are not party animals.
This year’s 4th grade science fair experiment was about German candle carousels and thermal energy. 
Sesame will look out the window for an entire plane ride. The last few flights she chose
to take pictures out the window instead of watching a show or doing any of her several activities.
Houston for Thanksgiving. Lots and lots of card games around that table. 
It took months too long, but Fall finally showed up.
I found all three colored leaves in the backyard then took myself leaf-peeping.
Oct 27, 2023 | School Days, What's going on |
+ I’ve been subbing like crazy this school year.
Generally, I cap my subbing at 2nd grade, but the 3rd and 4th grade teacher caught me in a moment of weakness and I couldn’t say no. My “moment of weakness” on this particular day was we were meeting for the first time. I wanted to make a good impression and stay on her good side for the year, so I said yes then regretted it for the next three weeks. I like the little kids who ask questions like ”Do elephants eat bugs?” and read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. I don’t like to dabble in the bigger kid world where I never know what kind of questions I’ll be asked. As I suspected, I should have asked what I’d be teaching before agreeing. When she texted me the information, she casually slipped in that I’d be teaching about the Trinity. There are entire church conferences and debates among great religious leaders about the workings of the Trinity and I, OF ALL PEOPLE, get tasked with teaching it. I suspect Karen purposely made her appointment three hours away on Trinity teaching day to avoid teaching it herself. I showed Christopher the chart I needed to fill out with the kids and said, “I have literally never seen this diagram before in my entire life.” He pulled up his sleeve and said, “I have a tattoo of it.” He does indeed and it’s in Latin to boot. I asked that he sub for the sub at Bible time but he didn’t take me up on it.
I’ve also subbed for 2nd and 1st grades several times. Three years ago when I subbed for the first time I brought a list of jokes to lighten the mood. There hasn’t been a time I’ve subbed since when I haven’t brought jokes. I’m on my third year teaching some of the kids and they’ll tell the new children what to expect when Miss Sarah with her pencil earrings comes rolling in. My reputation precedes me. One mom stopped me in the hallway and said, “Sadie was so excited you were teaching because she loves to come home with jokes to tell all week long.” I don’t know that I’ve ever been more proud of my legacy. Honestly, it’s almost gotten out of hand. They want to hear jokes all day and not do any of the work. Yesterday the teacher had joke time in the schedule. I might include this picture in my Christmas card.
+ Annabelle and Christopher went to a church retreat for 3rd-6th graders last month. I was not included as she wasn’t interested in both her parents attending as chaperones. Rude. I buy all her meals, take her to every single event and what do I get? Told that she doesn’t want me to snuggle on the bunk with her in front of her church friends. It was the first time in almost 10 years that I’d been home alone for the weekend. I seesawed between certainty that the bus would have a firey crash or she’d drown in the ocean, and wishing they’d be gone longer so I could get more done. I finished painting the living room without having to worry about anyone stepping in my paint bucket. I ordered Chinese food and watched Virgin River without Christopher’s commentary. The living room was a truly peaceful oasis to relax in with my dumplings after a long day of hard work.
The guard cats kept a close eye on the place at night. No shenanigans were going down on their watch. They were ready to take names and kick butts all weekend.
+ I helped with a medieval feast in Annabelle’s class last week. Gus’ mom said all the food she was bringing would be themed and I knew had to keep up with her. I had never met her, but I had to keep up with her! I almost bought tiny castle-shaped bundt pans and made 16 castle cakes surrounded by a chocolate mousse moat. I wasn’t signed up for a cheese dish, but I was going to use my crown cookie cutter to make cheese crowns. I was spiraling fast and needed to reel it in. I settled for the chocolate mousse and no castle cakes. Our feast book said lords and ladies ate pudding. They may not have eaten pudding made with Hershey’s cocoa and half and half, but I was in the general vicinity of authenticity. I did bring gold champagne flutes that really added to the ambiance. Gus’ mom made a fire-breathing dragon out of vegetables and beef jerky, as well as a medieval boat from a loaf of bread and thin pretzel sticks for oars. That’s the kind of party dedication I admire.
Aug 29, 2023 | School Days |
I do not like the night before school starts. It’s as depressing to me as the night before a birthday. WHY DOES EVERYONE HAVE TO GROW UP. But here we are, already in fourth grade. Tomorrow she’ll be graduating college and Christopher will be moving us girls into our shared dorm.
I always get teary at school drop off and I always will. Thankfully she’s still home with me three days a week so I can hug attack her whenever I want. She doesn’t love a good hug attack but oh well. Such is life under my roof!
The requested first day of school snack.
Have my Ms. Frizzle pencil earrings and I already subbed so I could wave at AB during the day? Quite possibly. Who’s to say.
May 29, 2023 | School Days, Sesame |
Another school year has come and gone with lightening speed. Personally, I hate the August-May schedule. Give me September-June any day of the week! I know it all equals out to the same amount of school days, but it feels so weird to my internal clock that school wraps up in the spring and she’ll start again at the beginning of August when the summer is still going strong. We should be living our best summer lives all through August instead of doing math and latin by August 15th.
Sesame loves the two days a week she goes to school. With the hybrid program, she gets things like World Day and the science fair she doesn’t get if she was doing only homeschool. Like her mother, she’s someone to whom everyone confides their worries and biggest life issues so she found out about things I would have shielded her from a little longer, but she got to practice empathy. She got the Most Caring award for “having such a kind heart and for always making others for cared about.” Part of me wonders if she got it because one time a boy got very frustrated and said he was going to punch someone so she offered herself as tribute. “If he punched me, he wouldn’t hurt any of my friends.” That’s when we had a talk about kindness and boundaries.
The three days of homeschool were mostly fun too. One day we watched a very inaccurate but entertaining musical about Lewis and Clark while playing with perler beads. I wouldn’t have picked everything in the curriculum that the school picked, but it’s easy to adjust and add in my own materials as we went. I added in more grammar, art, reading, extra math practice as needed (not as fun) and presidential studies. I need to circle back to presidents. Earlier this week she told us that she doesn’t like to eat sesame seeds because Sesame is her nickname and she doesn’t want to ”eat herself up.” Her friend Reese doesn’t like to eat Reese’s cups for the same reason. She wondered if President Obama doesn’t eat broccoli because that’s his first name. Broccoli Obama.
Last year, Annabelle got the A/B honor roll. She did well with grades this year except for three tests so I really didn’t think she’d get it this year. The teacher giving the awards said the names of all the A/B recipients and didn’t mention her so I thought that was that. Then she said Annabelle’s name for A honor roll. You could have knocked me over with an eyelash. I added my name to the award because I also worked hard for those grades.
