You When Life Gives You Twenty-Seven 5 Year Olds

So I have completed just over two full weeks of teaching, and I am happy to say that I love it. This is by far the most rewarding job I have ever had. If you would have asked me after my first day, the answer was much different. But the exhaustion and frustration was mostly feeling unprepared on my part. Each day we are all getting a little more familiar and a little more comfortable together. I am also learning to give them time, repetition is necessary and makes my life that much easier!

Raising the flag

The entire school lines up for the flag ceremony, national anthem & prayers

This morning outside by the flag, one of my girls, Grace, was walking up and saw me from across the way. Her face lit up and she ran full speed over to me and threw her arms around me! I'm convinced more and more that I just like OTHER people's kids : ) Because let me tell you, running around after these wild ones is unbelievably exhausting! There have been several days, okay let's be real, MOST days I feel like I am literally going to collapse in class! Whether from heat, exhaustion, or dehydration or all three. There are a few of my kids that are extraordinarily uncontrollable but somehow they're all so adorable I can't help but love the little monsters!!

Tuesdays they wear neon green uniforms for Sports Hour, always moving a million miles an hour!

Being that they are only about 5 years old (depending on who you ask!) a lot of my day is spent helping them with very basic tasks.. we start outside at 730am for the flag ceremony, attempting to keep them in two straight lines of boys and girls without pushing, pulling, poking, or hitting each other. By 8am we move the lines upstairs and get their shoes & socks off, into two lines seated for milk time, stand up and file them into the co-ed bathroom for toilet time, back into lines to grab their cups for water time, then we finally make it into the classroom.

Ten Little Numbers Song!

My morning routine consists of The Hello Song, Days of the Week Song, Today's Weather; then we try to get through a few yoga poses and once they get tooo out of control I usually jump into song time. Then we get into some basic conversational lessons, phonics, and math, but before too long we're ready for another toilet time! Then there's usually time for another song or two before we get into workbooks, then some team games, another toilet time and then on to our art project (which is usually coloring—the first time I gave them scissors it was kind of terrifying, so we'll have to work on that!) and lastly there is story time! By 11am we are singing The Goodbye Song, we are all drenched in sweat and its time to line up again and head outside to the cafeteria! For lunch they only get all of about 15 minutes so my two Thai teachers and I are furiously shoveling food into the poor kids faces before lining up again for water time then over to brush their teeth. Back up in the classroom the kids get to take a nap while Teacher Mari has to write in their comment books for their parents about how they did in our lesson, by this time I'm exhausted, starving, and would give anything to get a sleeping mat and pillow next to my kids!!!!

Nap Time Please!

Tuesdays we have a Sports Hour where we get to be outside with the gym teacher running around, doing obstacle courses, riding bikes, and playing catch! This is obviously the best day of the week and I look forward to it already!!

Pin & Jin

Nundee & Namfa

WinWin & Gimmie

 Its amazing how the moments of frustration and exhaustion can all be so worth it when I start to realize the relationships I am building and the impact I am having on these tiny little persons. They are so impressionable and so eager for attention and praise, and when you give it to them they give it back ten fold.