The Best Laid Plans...

Yesterday afternoon I received a call from my friend. We're expecting a blizzard here Sunday, or at least a winter storm (I expect it will get kicked up to a blizzard once it starts) and her husband was scheduled to fly out to a conference on Sunday. But because of the impending bad weather, his flight got changed to Saturday at 9 am. She had hair and nail appointments set up for today for a party tonight and it was too late for her to cancel the appointments without a penalty. So she asked me if I could watch her daughters for a while so she could keep her afternoon appointment.

I said yes because I figured S would have more fun playing with her friend instead of running wild at the hockey rink. Oh yes, J has a hockey game on Valentine's Day. And we have games on Easter and Mother's Day AGAIN this year. Yeah, we had them then last year too. S was very excited when I told her about the play date and kept saying this morning she was going to help "babysit" her friend (who is only a year younger than her). Ah, the best laid plans...

I had to run out to the store for a few minutes. I was gone maybe 15 minutes and I came back home to find that S was running a fever and her head hurt. C had given her some Advil and I was able to talk her into bed because she was shivering. Next thing I knew she was asleep. Yup, she is definitely sick because the only time she takes naps is when she's not feeling well. This was at noon.

I immediately let my friend know what was going on. C had to take J to hockey at the same time I was supposed to be watching the kids so I couldn't leave S with him - she was too sick to take to the rink (and she was asleep at the time). And I was worried about taking her to her friend's house because the last thing I want to do is get my friend's kids sick when her husband is going to be out of town for the week. Our backup plan was for her to leave her youngest, who was napping, with me and S at her house while she took her oldest with her to her appointment. But thankfully she was able to get another neighbour to watch her kids.

This doesn't change the fact that I feel really bad about not being able to help her out. I know we can't control when our kids get sick. And I hope my friend isn't too mad at me - she has kids of her own and knows they get sick without warning. But I don't like letting people down when I agree to do something. I let her know I will make it up to her by coming and watching her kids one day later this week when S is better. And I'll make her some more hats because who doesn't like hats? :-)

Anyway, that's my exciting Valentine's Day - at home with a sick 5 year old while the other half of the family is out at the hockey rink. At least she's stopped shivering so yay for Advil. And there are cupcakes for the kids for later and a chocolate cream pie for me and C. I'm looking forward to it. But then maybe I shouldn't make any plans for eating it with the way my plans have been going today. Happy Valentine's Day!

Going back to Kindergarten

Today S had a Valentine's Day party in kindergarten. I was asked to bring juice boxes for the kids, which was easy enough to do. I went into the classroom today to help with the party. It was kind of strange being back in a kindergarten classroom again after so long.

Long ago, I used to teach kindergarten. My first few years were spent teaching in a private kindergarten and then I moved to teaching in the public school for a few years. For the most part, I enjoyed teaching and working with the kids. What caused the most headaches for me was the administration. They often made a teacher's job much harder than it already is. Anyone who sticks it out teaching for more than a few years deserves a medal. Actually, teachers who make it through their first year of teaching deserve a medal too. And my medal I mean a really huge pay raise because teachers don't get paid anywhere near enough for the jobs they do.

Anyway, it was fun being back in a kindergarten classroom today. S's class has a good size classroom, with a tiered book/reading corner, a block area (because blocks!), a dramatic play area which is currently a restaurant, an art area, a computer area, as well as a big open area for circle time. Yup, they still do circle time. I think there will always be a circle time in kindergarten.

When I arrived the teacher was reading the kids a story about love because it is the day before Valentine's Day. Then the kids moved to their special seats to wait their turn for handing out their Valentines. I helped kids read names because names can be tricky when you have the handwriting of a 5 or 6 year old. Of course every child that needed help would come up to me and wave the card around while asking me whose name was on it. I guess they wanted to test my vision today!

I have a lot of respect for S's teacher. Her class is made up of 5 girls and 12 boys, and most of those boys are your typical active 5 and 6 year old boys. But she has great control over the class without being bossy or too strict. She kept saying how wound up the kids were but honestly, they were the calmest group of kindergartners I've ever seen at a Valentine's party. Anytime they started getting too out of control she would redirect them to something else that would help them to refocus and be calm again. Although she did admit to me that yesterday she threatened to take away their party because the whole class was being wild. I can't blame her for that - when I was teaching I would often use that tactic myself.

So I helped the kids pass out the Valentines and helped them pass out the treats they brought in (all peanut free, of course). More importantly, I got to see how S is in her class and how she acts with her classmates (she's less whiny at school). I also got to spend some time with her classmates, getting to know them. It was nice to be able to put faces and personalities with the names she talks about at home, especially CG, who she says is her boyfriend. Yup, that started on the first day of school. Apparently my daughter is the queen bee of the classroom - the teacher said that all the kids argue over who gets to sit next to her. I must teach her with great popularity comes great responsibility.

All in all it was fun to be back in, helping out a fellow teacher. I did let S's teacher know that if she needs an extra set of hands I'm around during the day and wouldn't mind coming in to help. She was very pleased to hear that, so I may be spending more time in kindergarten in the future. Who knew after all this time I'd possibly be going back to kindergarten? :-)