Week 4 and things I forgot

Monday

The beginning of yet another week. Not much happend today. Today's activity was baking again and most of the children were kneading the dough, while three of children and me were grinding the wheat to make our own flour. I was surprised that the children were able to grind for long periods of time while you needed quite some strength for it.  Today I had two "oh my gosh this is so cute" moments with the little Russian boy. We were queueing to wash our hands when he grabbed my pinkie and held on to it until it was his turn. He looked up to me while he grabbed my pinkie and it was so extremely cute. Some time later it was rest-time but he didn't want to lay down and he was crawling in between the other children while pretending to be a lion. This of course annoyed the other children. After trying to help him stay put by sitting next to him and stroking his head (which didn't work) I picked him up and sat down on a chair with him on my lap. After a little while he calmed down and he eventually even fell asleep.

Tuesday 

Today wasn't a really interesting day. I spend almost all the time making fish from felt for the parent evening and even stayed longer to make the last 12 that were needed. During my break I had a lovely discussion with one of the subject teachers about using Ipads in school. 

Wednesday 

Today was a very special day since one of the children turned six. We drew pictures for the birthday book, sang songs, ate cake and gave him a presents. During play-time the children were playing as if they were policeman but they were making so much noise. Luckily Beate came with a brilliant idea; let them make parking tickets. It kept them busy and relatively quiet for a while and afterwards we teachers got a lot of parking tickets. When I was going home Anita (one of the assistants) told me that they didn't want me to go back to the Netherlands because I was a real asset to the kindergarten .  Hearing that made me really happy.

Thursday 

Beate asked me if I could take the the attendance from now on so she could focus on the children instead. So that is what I will do. The first part of the morning I cut apples again. The children had Eurythmics again and went straight into painting when they were done. During play-time something really remarkable happend. I suddenly heard a voice I never heard before and when I looked up I saw that it belonged to one of the children. He never had said a word before this and we as teachers were very happy and proud he finally felt safe enough to talk. 

Things I forgot to mention:

• The doctor that helped me in the hospital made a very good joke. After I told her what happened (me bumping my head against the apple tree) she said: yeah, apples and woman just don't go well together.
• The kindergarten had a different system. Instead of asking there age the children are divided into stars, moonbeams and sunbeams . Stars being the youngest.
• The children are very good in imitating. Which can be good when some does something good but when one child starts to act wildly more will follow.
• The children really want to help you with whatever you are doing.
• A couple of children told me that the thought I was a good teacher.
• Some children are 'fighting' to sit next to me during storytime or during lunch.
• Almost every day I see squirrels. Wonderful creatures!

New words:

Benign - not harmful 

Feeling poorly - this phrase is being used instead of feeling ill or being sick

Sheaf - a bundle of objects of one kind

Muslin - lightweight cotton cloth in a plain weave

Bayleaf - an actual tree type and not just a pokemon. The leaves can be used in food for example rice.