lazy days

This week Ms. Bennet has been on vacation so I’ve had all the little ones to myself!  It’s been quite pleasant – but uneventful.  We have been slowly working on wrapping our Father’s Day gifts and taking them home.  I have also been working part time so far this week due to the low summer enrollment.  It’s actually been quite a nice break.  I love my job – but it’s been really nice having been so slow and my hours being cut back.  I have more time to just sit back and take in the joys of early summer!

Observing my kids now it’s hard to believe how much they’ve grown and matured over the course of the year!  I’m so proud of how far they’ve come!  They can organize games by themselves without it ending in chaos.  They can resolve conflicts without having me walk them through the process.  They are more independent in all aspects – and I know they are ready to leave the nest and go to Kindergarten.  And I will miss them – and always love them – and I hope they feel the same about me.  This year flew by – and with the few children I still have with me…I only have a few short weeks left with them.  I cherish every moment I have left – good or bad.

oh daddy!

We’ve been working on our Father’s Day gifts all week – and so far they’re turning out great!  We are making our dads pencil holders.  We’re making them out of baby food jars (the taller ones).  This week we spent time covering the baby food jars with tissue paper squares.  We used watered down glue for this.  Then once they were covered I sprayed some clear sealant stuff (I don’t remember the name for it now) on each jar.  This alone made the jars look really nice – almost like mosaic stained glass!

The children got to pick the color scheme of their jar.  The tissue paper wad divided into two containers.  Container one contained red, orange, and yellow squares and container two held blue, green, and yellow squares.  I figured by doing this when the tissue paper die bled the colors would be in the same general spectrum and would still look nice instead of turning into a brownish color (which usually happens when too many colors mix together) – fyi:  we don’t get the no bleed tissue paper at work.

The next step in our pencil holders is for me – hot gluing round washers on the outside.  It gives the jars a neat polka dot effect and uses a hardware item most dads can relate to!  It almost gives them a retro feel – but the children liked the idea (I showed them an example and asked if they wanted the washers) so I bought some and next week  I will glue them on each child’s jar!  After that all we have to do is wrap them and take them home!  With a week left – there shouldn’t be a problem!

staying focused

I’m already pondering Mother’s Day.  Yes, I know – this early!  I actually woke up in a slight panic this morning because I have no plans on what my children will make for Mother’s Day – silly, isn’t it?  My goal this year was to be prepared in advance for all the holidays and big events in our school year – and so far so good.  But looming in the not so distant future is Mother’s Day.  I like to make something that the mother’s can keep for years to come – and if I can use a hand print that’s always a plus.  I’ve done pot holders, tiles, and jean pockets (with magnets on the back) all with hand prints in the past.  Nice keepsakes.  I have no idea for this year.

And if worrying about Mother’s Day wasn’t bad enough – it just brings up thoughts of Father’s Day – which is always way harder for me!  Especially considering that all my children don’t have a father present in their lives.  So, for now I’m going to put these things on the back burner until I manage to deal with more pressing issues – such as getting my progress reports out to the parents.  I would ideally like to put them all out on Monday – but looks like this time I will just have to send them home as I get them done.

I really don’t like writing comments on each child’s progress report – they all start to sound the same after awhile.  It’s even harder with those few children who are way behind the others.  I know the parents must be at home thinking, “Why is that teacher not doing her job?!” and then they go and complain to Ms. Lezze-Faire and she gets on me about worksheets again.  It’s a vicious cycle.  Let’s not take into consideration that the child doesn’t show up to school most of the time and when they do it’s practically lunch.  It will still somehow be my fault.  Or at least that’s how I feel.  But we’ll see how it goes.  Right now, I need to refocus on working on those progress reports.