Go Play in the Library

Last year about this time, the parent organization in our school had a Trunk or Treat night in the parking lot. 

Great. 

Fun for the kids, much safer than trick or treat, and it fosters a sense of community in the school.

The only problem was, we didn't know it was going to happen.

So about 5:15 or so, an enraged program parent came to our door to pick up her daughter. 

I went to let her in, and she was furious. The person running the event had told her she could not drive into the parking lot to pick up her child from day care.

This was not communicated in a warm and friendly manner. Things were not improved by the fact that this particular parent was... prickly. She was nothing but nice to me and to my various assistants over the two years her child was with us, but she also put up with zero bullshit. I liked her.

Anyway, she was pissed as hell and made some phone calls afterward. 

This resulted in two things: an apology to my program from the PTA president (a very nice person who just forgot we were there and didn't make a traffic plan... totally not her fault and not malicious)  and a plan (made by me) for the next time. 

I communicated this plan to the school secretary, who is, if you didn't know or haven't spent a lot of time in schools, THE person who knows everything and everybody and is juggling a million tasks serenely on top of an absolute mountain of chaos. I'd lose my sanity inside half an hour.

Well, she let me know last week that my 'next time plan' is looming in the next couple weeks. It's almost Halloween. 

We are going to relocate program to the other side of the building in the library, something we do occasionally to accommodate school events. This will put pick up in a different parking lot from the event and everyone will be safe and hopefully cheerful. 

We are, after all, a guest in the school. A paying guest, but still a guest. I've worked really hard to develop a good reputation with the school staff at that location. 

Partly because that's what I do in every school I work in (I take pride in my work) and partly because it's just part of my job. 

It's not hard to go in and be nice. Everyone there has been welcoming, friendly, helpful and supportive. They're all decent people and they've had great things to say about the program. 
 
Also, it pleases me to be SO MUCH BETTER than the YMCA. The Y provided a child care program (of sorts) before my company took over, but not a very good one and the series of directors in and out of there weren't great at their jobs. If they showed up at all. There was more than one occasion that they did not show up and there were kids in the cafeteria without official day care supervision until they could be picked up.

Haha, just showing up makes me look better than they did. Pretty low bar. 

Oh. As usual, I have drifted around a little in my ADHD rowboat. I don't have both oars in the water. Guess that's why I'm going in a circle.

The programming has to look different, as we can't bring our carpets, our carts, big bunches of supplies and/or games.

I have several things we have not had out so far this school year, though.
Two bins full of dollhouse stuff, a large bin with 480 red not-solo cups, a marble run. 
I'll bring a game or two and at least one puzzle.

We can bring art supplies (blank paper, coloring sheets, markers) and we'll also do the spider craft I've been putting off. It's great, you cut a pipe cleaner into four pieces, slide all four through the middle of a pony bead and bend the legs accordingly. Each tip has to be bent to make a soft end, and I usually add a little string through the middle so they can suspend them from a backpack or zipper.

The kids are allowed to read the books that are on the top of the library shelves, but not to pull books from the organized shelves themselves. They usually grab a few books and sit on the sofa and read them to each other. 

Our usual routine is to get to program, have our snacks, go outside or to the gym. That's usually over by 3:45 or 4. If we go to the gym, I will try to keep them there until 4 for sure. If we do the outdoors/gym thing until 4, that leaves us an hour and a half or so to hang out in the library. 

Kids start getting picked up around 3:30, except for one of my kinders, she's always gone by 2:45. I can't imagine paying for day care for less than an hour a day. It's not cheap.

It's my goal for us to stay OUT of the library until Andre and his brother are picked up.
Andre doesn't do well with big changes in routine and is having some issues anyway.

I haven't written about it yet, but Friday was quite an interesting afternoon.
::sigh:::

There's no school this coming week on Thursday or Friday, but I'm going to be at the school on Thursday to do some organizing/purging. I have too much stuff out there and it will make life easier for me.

Also haven't written about my latest in hot and cold running assistants. I have two, one who started last year and one who has missed five shifts in the three weeks she's been with me. Three of them were last-minute, too.

She has some special needs and a job coach.
My regular assistant also has a job coach. 

It's been interesting.
Eventually you'll be reading about them a bit here.

Meanwhile, it's 11:15, I planned to be in bed by 11, I am tired and feeling like I'm 164, which is 100 years older than I actually am. More or less.

Gee, I wonder why.