Can't Stay Away

I'm heading home again; I'll be working at the centre for four weeks (back in my spot in PR2 of course!).

I honestly didn't think I'd being going back when I left last time. Now that I do, I'm truly sorry that Syd and I had such traumatic experiences of saying goodbye. It would have been much better if we could have said, "Don't worry Syddy, Missy's a wuss - she'll be back as soon as the temp drops below 15 degrees."

I feel bad, also, that I keep coming and going from their lives: I was there, then I left to go to uni. Then I came back for 3 months over Christmas, then I left. Now I'm going back, but only for four weeks before I'll be - you guessed it - leaving again. Although maybe it is a good lesson for them to learn that people may leave but if they miss you enough, they'll be back!

I'm thinking we'll get a big wall map and put photos of all the kids, and their grandparents who live interstate, and me of course, so they can see 'where' we're going when we go. Tjina's been around Australia, and Damon went to England, so a bit of geography in the room would be good theme for a little while, I think.

Driving me crazy right now: Imagine, by Alison Lester. SW had it when he was little and we loved it. I'm writing about it for an essay but I can't remember the words past the first bit.

Imagine if we were deep in the jungle
Where butterflies drift and jaguars prowl
Where parakeets squawk and wild monkeys howl.

Help me out, somebody.

Book Club

Don't you miss book club? I loved book club when I was at school. It was so awesome going through and being like, "I'll have that and that and that. Money please mum."

Hugo gets book club from Nemarluk. No we weren't snooping through his bag, it fell out of his book ok? Anyway, we stole it.

Turns out, you really can say, "I'll have that and that and that." And then you just go, "Money please creche," and voila! a brand new Bear Hunt book. And life cycle collection. And space book. And I Spy. And Magic School Bus.

And yes, a Bear Hunt book just for me!

Cos T and I are so awesome

We're Going On A Bear Hunt!

Princess was all "I wanna go on a bear hunt." I think she just wanted some company on a walk while she pretended to look for bears but really got a personal walk with an adult, but I grabbed T and said "We're going on a bear hunt," and asked a few kids if they wanted to come and we soon had a big group following us on our hunt. Hugo came too, looking very confused at first, since he knows that the Bear Hunt book is "gooone, gooone" from the bookshelves in our room, but getting into it a bit more later.

As an aside, I know MJ doesn't like T and I hanging out together when we're outside, but since we ended up with more than half the kids tagging along with us, I think two teachers were justified and she can just bite me.

So we went

through the long wavy grass, swishy swashy
through the thick oozy mud, squelch squelch
through the deep cold river, splash splash
through the big dark forest, stumble trip
through the swirling whirling snowstorm, woooooh

until we got to the narrow gloomy cave

where we ended up at the corner of the fence where a tree is right in the corner

and they tiptoed tiptoed while I went and hid my
shiny wet nose
big furry ears
big googly eyes

until the BEAR chased them
back through everything
up the stairs
forgot to shut the door
back downstairs, shut the door, back upstairs
into bed, under the covers (ok back to the side of the shed, cowering in fear)

We're not going a bear hunt again!

Until next week cos the kids love us cos
T and I are so freaking awesome!

I'm back!

Went into work for a visit on Tuesday. They all loved me. It was very nice. Even Matthew and Rachelle who moved up from the nursery while I was gone wanted hugs, so that was a nice introduction for them and me.

Hugo is freaking amazing. "One blue plate." Oh my god. Still a cranky little shit when he hasn't had enough food or sleep. Jack is permanently a little shit. Syd is cute as hell and knows her cheeky grin forces adults to smile back, even when she's ignoring instructions.

M, the qualified in our room, annoys me, but not as much as Sh did so I guess it's ok. She does an awful lot of sitting and shouting instead of running and talking and playing and reading and laughing.

We don't have the bear hunt book or the dinosaur one in our room anymore. That's ok. I know them off by heart anyway. Hugo got all confused when I started reciting the bear hunt, telling me, "It's gooone, it's gooone." Hehe.

Three days next week.

I miss you

Dear everyone,

I miss you very much.
I would like my job back at the end of November.
I have no idea how you're going to control Jack til then. I do not profess to be able to do it after that time either.
I have the urge to sit in the kids' section of the library and recite books outloud.
I am sure that I am forgetting my signs.

And also, I miss you.

Love,
Missy.

PS I think it will be an interesting study of kids' memory banks when I do get back. They'll still love me. Right?

Reading

It is interesting the different ways the people (children in particular) choose and respond to books and reading.

Hugo only likes ones with some sort of repitition eg We're Going on a Bear Hunt, We All Went on Safari or pattern, like the counting or alphabet books. Also, inexplicably, the big world altas, maybe as it has lots of pictures, and a lot of them are in oval frames (one of his fav shapes).

One of Jack's fav's (one which I don't like and never read to him) is one about the phases of the moon. I don't think he knows it's about the moon. It has a cat looking up at a moon, and I think he likes it for the cat, with the moon being a bonus.

Em currently likes one of the new ones, Where is the Green Sheep? which I'm sure she has at home. When we get to certain parts, she always tells us the same thing, putting herself into the story.
Em: I climb up that ladder and splash into the water [pointing to the bottom of the page].
Also I'm not sure if she knows it's all about 'sheep'. She can recite almost the whole thing, but I don't know if she knows all the fluffy things are sheep.

Mark, Damon, and Samuel all love the Space and Spaceships books. They will read it to themselves, with great discussions, and also enjoy us reading it them, asking a lot of questions. I had a big discussion with Mark the other day about listening to what the book says, then asking things he still doesn't understand.

They really do know their space stuff.
T tried to argue with one of them, Mark again I think, about which planet had rings, and which was 'the big planet'.
T: The biggest planet is called Saturn.
Mark: No [turning to the right page and obviously repeating from somewhere] Jupiter is the big planet.
T: No Mark [fully believing she was right] Jupiter has rings.
Mark: Jupiter is the big planet. Saturn has rings around it.
Me: Um, yeah he's right.
T: [Actually looking at the book] Oh yeah. You're right Mark.

When it comes to these boys and space, that's a given.