I'm having fun at work so far...

It's been interesting so far this year. Most of the kids enrolled in our program were with us last year. The year before. The year before that. The year before that. October 5th marks the beginning of my 5th year with the company.

When we lose a kid from the program, it's almost always because they have moved on to 6th grade and no longer attend school in the same place or because they've moved away from the neighborhood.

We're not quite full, though. We still have one opening on Wednesdays and two on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Fridays are full.

Full means 39 kids, which translates to three staff members. Now if that ratio sounds small to you (when I first started there I was SHOCKED that when numbers drop to 15 every day, only one adult is on duty) bear in mind that we have a huge amount of things for the kids to do. It takes three staff members a full half hour of steady work to bring all our things out of the back room and set them up. We have beanbag chairs and large carpets, five big rolling carts full of supplies, and a huge bin full of balls and jump ropes and frisbees. We have gym hockey, scooter boards, and even a regulation sized but lightweight bowling set.

There are lots of toys provided by the company with education in mind, and many, many more purchased by either Sunshine or by me. I found a Foosball table at Goodwill three years ago. It's a half sized model, which sits on the floor. We're really particular about how things are played with, which means that it's still in good condition. I did bring it home over the summer for Eric to reinforce with some gorilla glue and a few new screws, though.

I bought a quarter size pool table (also from Goodwill) that sees a lot of action.

There's always a craft to do, a game to play, a Lego creation to build. When I see a big bag of Legos at Goodwill, I buy it. It's always (not) such fun to bring them home and wash and dry them before I take them to work, but it's worth the effort. It makes my job a lot easier.

My friend Tami has been more than generous in donating stuff for the program, too. This summer, she gave me a set of books that she wrote to add to our extensive library. Most of the kids love to read, and they're excited that I actually know someone who writes real books.

Thanks to Tami's sons, we have a large collection of Bionicles and Transformers. The boys LOVE that stuff. Every day, about eight of them crowd around the Bionicle container, waiting until everyone has arrived to take the lid off. They play all afternoon, making up games and arguing just like siblings. :)

We have a regular schedule. Homework time/playtime from 2:30 until 3:00. At three, we line 'em all up and do the handwashing thing.

We're mean, we force them to use soap and actually scrub their hands a bit.

3:00 is snack time. They all get to sit around the tables as long as they want, laughing and chatting while they play with, er, eat their food. After snack, we go through the whole handwashing thing again. That way we end up without food on the toys, and hopefully kill some of the germs, too.

Last week, one of the little girls came to me after snack and asked, "Do I still have to wash my hands if I licked my fingers really really good?"

Uh, yeah. That's all the more reason.

When I get a little ahead money wise, I am going to buy this from Steve Spangler Science.

I think it will be a lot of fun to get the whole kit and go around when we sit down for reading time and demonstrate germs with the little blacklight.

Either that or it will scare the hell out of me and I'll run screaming from my job, never to return.

4:00 is reading time. Yeah, we're mean to the kids again and we force them to read or look at books without talking for twenty minutes every afternoon. The staff members bring books, too. We also sit and read. That's right. I get paid to sit down and read the book of my choice while on the job.

After reading and putting books away, we either go outside or to the gym for half an hour to 45 minutes. Everyone gets to run off energy and throw things a bit.

When we come back to the cafeteria, the kids go back to playing while I start cleaning up. Parents start picking kids up about 4-ish usually, so in between all that, we're answering the door and collecting tuition payments, answering questions, telling Mom A that little B did not want to eat a snack this afternoon, so he may be starving when he gets home. Around 5:15, the kids who are still there head back to the gym. I supervise while answering the door and the phone.

It's a busy place, but it's fun.

I am never bored while I'm there and I don't bring my job home and stress over it, either.

Perfect.