I have a new assistant.

Alyssa is back to work.

That's the best news of the week in my opinion. I've missed having her there.

I have a very sweet assistant who's been with me since March of last year who was anxious to cut her hours a bit. She asked to stop working mornings in September, naming an October 10th date as her 'final' morning shift.
She's a full time college student and needed more time to devote to homework as well as the fact that she drives about a mile further than I do each way. I don't mind the 8 miles to and from, twice a day. Haha... it's why I make the big bucks. (that last was sarcasm, by the way... the people who do the actual work don't make much in the way of hourly wages. My real compensation is the insurance. Good thing, since after it's been taken out of my wages, there isn't much left.)
Due to a crazy hiring process with our company, Lyssa's application took more than a month to go through. I've heard that before. Instead of making the process more streamlined, they've further complicated it until it's truly amazing that anyone still wants to work there by the time they actually get hired. If I were desperate for a job, I certainly wouldn't wait until they managed to process my app.

I have had a series of assistants out there at my school. All of them have been nice people, most of them a lot younger than I am. I have not had one who wasn't good. They have been good with the kids, punctual and reliable. Helpful. I've been fortunate, some of the horror stories I've heard from other site directors has made me appreciative.

But none of my other assistants have been as good with the kids as Lyssa is. She just has the knack. She can see what's going on in a situation, knows when to intervene and what to say. Sometimes a situation escalates quickly, and you sort of have to get a feel for what might happen. It's easier to act than to REact, if that makes sense. Stop it before it really gets started. She's good at it, which makes my job easier.

And the kids have missed her so much. Many assistants have come and gone, and sometimes they express regret over one moving on, but with Lyssa, they have never forgotten her. They ask about her constantly, and have said so many times how much they miss her. She understands them so well and is so approachable for them. The kids who hadn't met her were filled in by the ones who had, and several of them expressed the wish that they'd been in my program when Lyssa was still there.

She wanted to surprise them by returning to work, so I didn't tell them she was home. She started the application process while she was still in North Carolina. At the beginning of the week this week, she was still 'somewhere' in the process.

And Tuesday afternoon, literally 20 minutes before I was ready to leave for work, our manager called and asked if she could come in. She hadn't eaten, there were some other issues going on and she didn't really feel up to it, but she said yes.

It was so much fun to see the looks on their faces. She got a lot of hugs.

The next morning, the morning kids were just as happy to see her. Jennifer was particularly pleased. But she reacted in a funny way. She saw Lyssa and blushed. And then she was so flummoxed she didn't even go talk to her at first. It was very cute.

Of course she's back to her usual bossy self now, telling Lyssa that her dog weighs 450 lbs and arguing over the fact that the game is called Chess, not Chest. "It sounds the same, so it is."

But I'm so pleased to have her back.

If she wanted to pursue a career working with children, she'd be pretty good at it, that's for sure.

Meanwhile, I am lucky to have her there.

OK. Shower and groceries and baking and cleaning on tap this weekend. Laundry. Drawing some pictures. Trying to finish so I can set up my art area in the back bedroom.

Domestic stuff.

During this next week, there is no school. A prospect which pleases me greatly.
I am off work completely on Monday, and work some short hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. Matt and Amy will be here for dinner on Thursday. That means I need to do a lot of cooking between now and then, doesn't it?

Good thing I like it.

They grow so fast...

This morning Jennifer announced to everyone, "I grew four inches this week!!"

Annie* looked at her carefully.
Disagreed.
"No you didn't," she said. "You're still seven."

Jennifer looked affronted. "I'm almost eight!"

Annie said, "No, feet. You're still only seven feet tall."

:)

Lyssa was my assistant this afternoon, and will be with me tomorrow, too. My regular assistant is subbing at another school. Due some changes in scheduling and attendance, I will have way too many kids to legally handle on my own, something we didn't know at the beginning of the week.

I have had a lot of different assistants at my school. I've never had one that wasn't good. I've had a couple that were excellent. My regular assistant right now is one of the excellent ones. Really good with the kids and fun to work with.

But I have never had anyone as good at the job as Lyssa is.
She is just so wonderful with the kids. Tuned in to what they say and how they're doing. She can tell from across the room when it's time to intervene or just wander over to see what's going on with them to divert them because they're heading in the wrong direction with their conversation.

She has a sense of humor (essential), a genuine interest in what the kids have to say and how they're doing, and a wish to make their time with us special. She manages to make every kid feel important.

I wish Alyssa was my assistant every day.

Alden* had a much better day today. He was anticipating some one on one time with his grandma this afternoon, and very excited about her coming to pick him up. He was watching the clock and counting the minutes. It was adorable. And it gave him something to do besides go around and annoy his sister and the other kids. ;)

And with that ('you're still only seven'... hahahaaa) I am heading for bed. Early again. Yay me.

Snew!

What's snew?
Nothin', what's new with you?

Ha. It was chilly here last night. I had that all-the-way-through cold. I'm still dealing with a little bit of Bob's bug, but I was too cold to have it just be that.

I guess I'm a barometer, knowing when the weather will change.

It was SNOWING out at my school this morning. It snowed and snowed and snowed.
Nothing stuck, to the great disappointment of the kids... they were hoping to have a day off from school.

After it warmed up a bit, it rained. And did a whole lot of raining. The grounds are well saturated and muddy, and the school had indoor recess today. It got sunny in the afternoon, but there were still puddles deep enough to lose a small child in.

As we walked to the other hallway to wash hands for snack, several of the kids suggested that we should play outside. "It's sunny!" they said, as if that magically meant no more mud or guck to track in.

And they always act surprised when I say no to being out in the mud. You'd think they'd catch on by now.

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We made some little pop up bunnies. We used a paper cup, a cotton ball, and some white fun foam cut into bunny ears. There is a little hole in the bottom of the cup, and the bunnies pop up when you push the stick up. I got the grass at sprawlmart the other day, and have to confess I bought the plastic grassy stuff because the paper grass was FIVE times the price!! I spent 28 cents on the package I bought.

Supposedly if left in the sun, it will decompose. It also smells like jelly beans, and they were going around making everyone smell it.

The only one I got a photo of was this one, Elaine* made little hats out of pipe cleaners and made her bunnies the lop eared variety.

I love giving them a simple little project and watching them turn it into their own individual creation. They all have great ideas. I wish the older boys wouldn't act like it isn't cool to make the little projects we make. It seems that the younger boys follow their example more often than I'd like and end up not making anything.

I was happy today that so many of the boys joined in, we ended up with about 14 kids working on the project.

I learned a lesson, too. Even though I gave each child a paper plate as their work surface, glue still got on the table. You'd think I'd know by now.

So I will be tossing a shower curtain on the table next week, when I have a crafty week planned. I was talking to my assistant today about needing more time in the day.

We have snack every day, we have gym time every day, we read every day, there is free time built into the schedule, and most days we have some sort of project to do. They love it so much, and I seriously have enough stuff there to stock a small craft store. No reason I can't put out 10 or 20 kinds and let them just go for it.

But the afternoons just fly by and we never have enough time to do everything.
I always leave with a lot of stuff for me to clean up/put away in the mornings, takes too long in the evening after the kids go home.

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Lyssa enjoyed her first week at work, learned a bit, got to know some of the kids she'll be working with, and had a good time, I think. Of course I don't know if it's her 'thing' the way it is mine, but I think it's a terrific first job for her.

I wish I'd been working with kids all along, but I think the timing was probably good for me.

I sure do love it now.

Kids are funny

No, really. It's true.

Today, Lyssa was helping a little girl with her homework. The child had a long list of vocabulary words she was supposed to use in a sentence.

One of the words was 'Junior'.

And the child thought about it for a minute, then wrote,

'There was a famous black man named Martin Luther King Junior.'
Good enough.

Then, she continued.
'He's still be alive today if someone hadn't shot him.'

Lyssa doesn't have the practice I do at keeping a straight face, she laughed.

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Last time Lyssa was out at my school as a volunteer, she challenged all my kids to draw a little every day. One of the ones who was really inspired by her was Liam.* He took it very seriously, and has been practicing daily. Even my untrained eye can see improvement in his drawings. He's been borrowing my drawing books, spending time at the art table every afternoon, and wanted me to make sure Lyssa knows that he is doing what she said.

Eric pointed out that you just never know what you say or do that can inspire a kid, and that he knows that people who care about the kids they work with are making a huge difference in their lives and probably their futures, too.

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I had Alden* and Ariana* a couple days this week. They are both so funny and high maintenance in different ways. Every assistant I've had wants to take them home. :)

Brian* came in with glasses on Tuesday morning. Alden and Ariana both wear glasses, and both of them expressed surprise to see Brian wearing them. Alden was straightforward... "Why you wearing glasses, Brian?"

And Brian started to blush and stammer, and I said, "Alden, why do YOU wear glasses?"

He looked mystified.

I said, "You wear them so you can see more clearly, right?"

He agreed. Then, Ariana walked in and expressed the same curiosity.
"Brian! How come you have glasses on?"

And I jumped in again.
"Why do YOU wear them, Ariana?"

And she dimpled and blushed and pointed at me like an old granny and said, "Oh you!!"

Which made me laugh.

But the novelty of Brian's glasses has worn off already. Except for him. He got the bendy kind and is bending the hell out of them for anyone who asks.

Except 'indestructible' comes out 'undestroyable'.
Blogger doesn't think that's a word.
But you saw it here, so evidently it IS!