TGIF.

It was a rough week. I am so glad that it was a short week. I'm glad that it's finally over. Well, not completely over, but at least the work week is over. I love my job, and I think that as long as I can still say that I love my job at the end of the day, then it's going to be okay. :) Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate long weekends just as much as the next person, but for me that means that "my kids" have not been to school for that much longer and then when they do come in it will be that much more crazier. And it was crazy. I still have a few criers in my class since they all didn't start on the first day of school and some of them this was only their second week of school. Oh, and I have another one starting on Monday. One of the VERY few downfalls of my job is that all the kids do NOT start on the "first day of [official] school." So, it's harder to get on a set schedule when we are constantly [in-consistently] having a new child join my class. It means that I have to start all over again [especially since it's still so near the beginning of the school year!] in teaching them the basics of my classroom. And I have to admit, at times, it does get frustrating when you have to teach the same thing over and over again. I know that for this age, you are suppose to have repetition...over and over and over and over again and again and again. But it's hard when you are trying to help the children adjust to being away from the parents for the first time and trying to get along with people you have never seen before. And when I finally think that we are starting to get there...another child joins and I have to start at square one again. Oh okay, enough venting.

I am so proud of "my kids" Although we do have children joining our class [at what seems like] every other day, there are a few of them that are finally getting it! I have 2 that started with me during the summer, and it's so rewarding to see that they are trying to encourage and help the newer ones learn the class schedule and rules. I have awesome parents. It is always my fear that I might clash with a parent, but this year, I really like my parents and I love how they make it so easy to talk with them. One thing that I do appreciate about living here in Hawai'i is that everyone treats you like family here...and that is how the parents are. I have to remember to keep it professional, but it's so hard when parents encourage their child to give their "Aunty" [me] honi, kisses. And that is a normal thing that it took a LONG time for me to get used to. But I really do love how its so "ohana" like here. And I really like how parents don't only see me as a teacher, but an "aunty" to their keiki.

Yesterday the dustless colored chalk and chalkboard poster board arrived on my doorstop from Amazon and I was super excited to update more of my chalkboards in my class! By the time I was done getting everything I needed to get done during nap time today [a time that I really do value to get "teacher stuff" done!], I only had 20 minutes left to do whatever I wanted. So I decided to chalkboard art my door. The front and the back.

Since the chalkboard poster board on the front of my door was buckling, I decided to buy a new one that was made to be a chalkboard. I think what happened was since I bought a foam poster board and then painted the chalkboard pain on it, the moisture of the paint caused the bucking of the poster board. And so, this one that I got was the same size and is already a chalkboard, so it's flat, and so I switched the buckled one with the flat and I did a fast welcome sign for it.

And then for my door, I used the same font and just wrote and weekend greeting on it. Did I mention how much I love my chalkbaord door?! :) Except for the door knob. It gets sooo sticky and it won't turn and it get REAL hard to open! The thing is that I can't used m other door because the AC is above it and it leaks like no tomorrow and so there is like a constant waterfall coming out of the AC creating a river in front of my door. And it can get dangerous because the kids would try to run in the classroom and slip and fall because the bottom of their feet/shoes are wet. It use to be my front door, but I switched my room around when a pregnant mom (she was nearly 8 months along!) almost slipped and fell and I could NOT have that. That and children falling, I didn't care what anyone was going to say and I switched my classroom around so the back door is not the front door. The only problem was the door knob! I solved that by taping the doorknob...but then that got really frustrating when I kept having to do it because it would come undone and then we would be stuck in the classroom because it's so had to open! So, right before I left for home today, my friend and I....

...took the doorknob off! It was such and old-fashioned doorknob that it was a lot tricky to get off, but we got it off and I couldn't be more happier with my door now! :)

But  am so glad that we have two days of no school to recharge. :)

Here's to the weekend! Whoot! Whoot! :)

Happy birthday to my DollGirl.

It's so hard for me to believe that my "little" DollGirl is now 4 years old. Can it really be 4 years ago that this girl was just a helpless little babe?! Now, she is an extremely active, talk-a-tive, creative, funny, silly, big-hearted, amazing, beautiful big girl! I am so glad that I am a part of her life. I am so glad that I have this amazing honor to be her "Aunty." And I am so proud to call her MY DollGirl

This year her mom, my sister, decided to throw her a party filled with things that she enjoys doing...paper airplane making and decorating (hm...I wonder where she got THAT from!), random craft making, tattoos, stickers, painting, and of course jumping and just running, running, running! I wish that I thought to take more pictures...but I didn't keep my phone with me and I was busy helping with the different craft areas. Mainly, the airplane making area...that was a lot of fun.

I was able to grab a few pictures...

I liked this bead station...my sister bought a lot of different kind of beads for the kids to make their own thing with. I made DollGirl a bracelet with a blue whale and her name. :)

This station was just random craft material that they can make whatever they wanted to. I wish I thought to take pictures of the things that the children made because they really did use their imagination here and it was pretty cool!

 

My sister, being the organized person that she is!, decided to make signs everywhere there was a "station".

I'm not sure what this sign is for...but I liked it...I like the shiny gold on the white...and look at that fancy-smanchy font! :) "Have courage and be kind." Good words to live by. :)

 

 This was another of my favorite station! I absolutely adore stickers...and these were super fun sticker sheets...the kids sure had fun with them. :)

A blurry picture of the mama! My sister really knows how to make her daughter feel special! :) She really knows how to plan an event! :) Good thing...:) (Did you know that she is an AMAZING event coordinator professionally?! :))

My sister decided to let DollGirl open her presents when (most) everyone was gone...and we had a fun time watching her get excited over all her presents. She gets excited over the littlest things...and I love how she appreciates EVERYTHING...

Whenever you ask her what she wants to be when she grows up, she says that she wants to be "like papa"...and her papa works with "lots and lots of tools"...so I got her her own tool set! I couldn't find what I wanted here on the island, so I decided to order it online...and I swear it said that it was a CHILD'S tool set...when it arrived, I was tempted to keep it for myself! This stuff is the "real deal"!! And my DollGirl loved it. :)

And I couldn't just get her the tools...she needed her own tool belt to! :) Even though the tool set came with a tool bag, I wanted her to have her own tool belt as well. And yes, it's also the "real deal" belt! I'm so glad that it fit her...I have to admit that I was a little bit worried for a bit that it was going to be too big. But it fit perfectly with room to grow! Now she has her own tools and her own tool belt to work with "papa"! :)

I also got her that paper airplane necklace she is wearing right now. Like I mentioned earlier DollGirl likes making and playing with paper airplanes...and whoa...is it a coincidence that I do to?! :) But yeah, that's one of "our" thing...to make airplanes to fly them for hours (at least it seems like hours!)...so I got her that paper airplane necklace and gave it to her before her party started. She seemed to like it...oh yeah, she also seemed to like the 115 glow bracelets that I got her as well. :) (Yep, she is already holding one, and she did share with her friends who were still there.:)

I love this girl. She is a beautiful girl...beautiful inside and out...and I hope and pray that she never looses her sense of adventure. I hope and pray that she never looses the caring heart that she has. And I hope and pray that she will continue to grow to love life and know that no matter what I will always love her so much, a lot, forever...for always.

Happy birthday, my DollGirl. I love you. I love you. I love you.

Jitters.

Yes, I have the jitters. I always have "first day jitters" no matter how many years I have been teaching, I always get nervous on the first day of school. And to make matters worse, we have not one day that we consider first day, but we have TWO "first day's" because since we do part time at our school, my Monday/Wednesday/Friday class is different from my Tuesday/Thursday class. I do have one child who is full time and comes every day...and he was with me during the summer so that makes it somewhat easier...but other than that, I have the jitters for sure! I know that I am a good teacher, its just that initial meeting of the parents and their keiki that makes me nervous because for the most part these kids have never been in a childcare environment and the parents could be first timers and it makes them more nervous...which makes me nervous, but I can't really show it. But I know that everything will be good. :)

But I did finish my classroom! I still have places that I was not able to organize, but my class is ready for first day!

I had put the cots out to make sure that there was enough space for napping without the children being too close to each other. That is very important to me! I want the children to sleep, not play with each other...but there is my classroom! I am not sure that I am feeling black paper any longer though! I know that either during Christmas or just next year I am going with white bulletin paper. But it does look nice and I am happy with it. :)

I did down size my window garden though. I have 5 pineapples, an avocado tree and a Jade succulent plant with a few nests up for display. I love the pineapple plants! I love the smell of pineapple and the kids love it to! :)

When I got home, I got the notification that one of my postcards made it to its destination and so I was able to send another one out.

In all caps this young lady hinted that she loved turtles so I decided to send her a Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle. I hope that she likes it! :) This postcard was sent to New Jersey...so another fellow USA postcrosser. :)

Here is a picture at what my desk looks like right now...

Yep, I am busy trying to do lesson planning for this month and writing down and typing up everything that I need to do before the first day of school tomorrow! So that is what I am going to do right now. :)

Pray for me and the little kids that walk through my door tomorrow!

Working hard.

This week is Teacher Work Week. It's the week that we get as teachers to fix our classroom and start on our lesson plans for this coming up year. A week? I wish that we could have more than a week, but I am very appreciative for this week. But I do have to say that I feel like I put in more hours on this week for this job than I do on a normal preschool work day. Oh well, that could just be me and how particular I want my room. :)

The first thing that I wanted to do was get all the painting that I needed to get done. And I did a lot of painting! The first thing that I wanted to do was this "easy" job of repainting this toy shelf for the kids. I also plan on putting the fish tanks on this...and don't get me wrong, I am all up for the primary colors, but this...this was something that needed to change. 

I started off with painting the outside black and then then inside the cubbies a sea foam color. I love that color combination! I really love the ending product!

I think that it matches my room sooo much better and I get match it better in the future. The red was just too bright! Because of the humidity it took a long time for this baby to dry! I did a lot of painting this year. I chalkboard painted my door with a trim of this same sea foam color. And I also made four chalk board's to hang around my room.

I hate when my classroom is a mess and I have to admit I was going into anxiety mode during this process! It took forever to take down the bulletin paper because I didn't just want to rip it down and throw it away, it was still good paper and so I wanted to save it all and cut it into smaller pieces to recycle it for artwork.

I decided to use black as the main color for the bulletin boards and it made me sooo frustrated because the boarders that I wanted were out of stock at all the teacher stores here on the island (a down side to living a small island...) but I made due and used chevron strips and polka dots that I had used last year in a different pattern.

Once I had all my bulletin paper up with the boarders I felt like I could now start on the other things that I wanted to do...the details and accents. And most importantly setting up the classroom management part of the room. It frustrates me if there is no order or the management is off in my class.

Oh but first...look at my black mollies and (one guppy) their babies! Aren't the babies SOOOO cute! I love my fish. :)

I love laminating EVERYTHING! I wish that our school had a bigger laminater, but that's okay, because for now I can use my personal one. It gets what I need done, done. :)

Order. See, I like order...:)

Their cubby tags are super cute! I love the accept pieces that I chose for this year...I love the "cutesy" things with adorable faces!

Although, I do like this part of the year where I can redo my room and get back with organizing everything and implement new things...it very time consuming trying to get everything done for the first day of school...and I have to say that at the end of the day I am extremely exhausted...

When I got home I was excited to get a postcard in the mail. :)

The postcard was from 17 year old Katerina and she is from Czech Republic. It had a very sweet message on back about how she knows someone here in Hawai'i and she had met him at a camp where she gave her life to God. That was awesome to hear! On my postcrossing profile, I had mentioned that I love God and I was glad that she was comfortable enough to let me know about that amazing decision that she made.

I also think that stamps that she used are super adoreable and cute...bunnies! You can't go wrong with bunnies! :)

Well, I hope that I'll be able to finish what I need to get done for my classroom by Monday! I'm sure I will, I mean, it does look a lot better than it did in the beginning of the week! :)

School Valentine's "Day"

Today was the day that we celebrated Valentine's Day at the preschool. I did something little for yesterdays keiki's but today we did a little more...since Valentine's Day is on Sunday, we just celebrated today for the kids. We don't have school on Monday, and so by the time it was Tuesday it would be way passed Valentine's Day...so that's why.

This whole week we talked about what it means to "Love"...your parents, your friends, your pets, your world...and just how to show it and not only did I help them make Valentine's for each other...we did plenty of Valentine's Craft work...which turned out pretty cute! I got some of my ideas from the ever wonderful pinterest...and then tweeked them to be more appropriate for my age group, and other projects I just had in my repertoire of craft/art work.

I also had the children make a print of their hand so that we can make a "valentine" for their parents. Overall, even though it was a SUPER long week...it was also a week filled with fun for the keikis. Wait, what am I saying...EVERY DAY is a fun day with my keikis! :)

Two of my favorite crafts that I did with the keikis were the "Bee Mine" and the "Love monsters!" They turned out SOOO cute! All their craft work turned out super cute! But these two where my favorite!

 

Here is my little Love Monster that I made...but I think my kids did a WAY better job than I did!



 
  
  

 Oh my goodness! I wish that I could post them all, they are just all so darn cute! The kids picked their own color out...I showed them mine...but I let them glue everything and they decided where to put their own pieces...and I loved how they turned out! Oh my goodness, my keikis are my lil Love Monsters! So full of love...and such cute little monsters! :)

 

 

  

Their bee's also turned out super cute as well! I was getting tired of all the pinks, whites, reds, and purple colors that we were using so I asked them which bug they wanted to do for something like "Love Bug"...and they all wanted to do a bee...and so a bee we made! :) And I think they turned out so amazingly cute! My kids LOVE LOVE doing arts and crafts! I usually just leave a table with all kine of different art materials that they can use however they want to use it...appropriately (unfortunately, they are not allowed to draw on the walls, floors, etc.). I usually cover the whole table with scratch paper or newspaper that they can do free art with...but I also have several guided art projects that we do A DAY...they LOVE creating...and I am all up for it! I also love how my class LOVES to sing. I wonder where they got that from! :)

Today we only had time to do one guided craft work because I filled the day with a lot of games and of course we HAD to have our Valentines Marching Parade! :) The craft was a cute one that the kids made for their parents...

 

I had forgotten to take a pictures of the kids work...and they had taken them all home for their parents, so I was left with this one. The one that I made for my lil DollGirl. I adore that saying..."I love you to the moon and back!" It just makes my heart so happy. :)

My sister had read the book "Guess How Much I Love you" by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram where it says that phrase. Now my lil DollGirl likes to do this thing where she calls you to come closer and she whispers in your ear, "I love you to the ocean, to the sand, to the tree"...just random things that she sees at the moment...and you have to say one back to her too. I love it so much and I hope that she never stops that. Even though sometimes, it's questionable..."Aunty, I love you to the door, to the light, to the rubbish can!" Really?! Rubbish can!? Oh well, she loves me. :)

The Valentine that I had the kids help me make for their parents was this:



I like doing handprint keepsakes for the parents and I would laminate it. I know that I am a sentimental person...and so I can just imagine that whenever I have my own child that I would have a keepsake of how tiny my little ones hand was so long ago.

The poem that I placed on it goes like this:



It was a simple project for them and I hope that they liked it. I know that I did. :)

And last but not least, my TA (who is THE BEST Teacher's Assistant EVER!) and I couldn't let the children leave without a little Valentine from us...so we gave them this:

 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the book "Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees! It has such a lesson to learn and it's just a fun book that has rhythm and rhyme...and it's just a good book to read over and over again and again! And I love sweatheart candies...so I had to give them just a little of that...and their own little valentine card.

It was a good day today. Long...extremely hyper-active, and non-stopped paced...but a very good day indeed. :)

"We can all DANCE when we find MUSIC that we love."

 -Giles Andreae

Happy Birthday, Kuya Neal!

Today is my amazing brother-in-law's birthday! On Wednesday, I had talked to Amanda about what we were going to do for him...and this is what we decided. Since him and my sister are always SO giving with their time and they are always thinking of others that they sometimes forget to spoil themselves, we had decided to give them time. Meaning to say, since Amanda had taken today and yesterday off, she was going to go to their house and watch the kids for them to be able to get away for a few hours. Since today I had only a half day since we had our preschool graduation, I told her that I would go with her. So, that is what we did. We gave them time.

My morning started out very good, thank you very much!

I took my sister's advise and cut two thick slices of her amazing Honey Oat Wheat bread and toasted it. I like my toast crunchy, but not burnt. So that's what I did, then I smeared on a good amount of butter, but not too much and wow! That totally made my day all happy! I ended up cutting two more thick slices and toasting and buttering them and bringing them to school to share some with Mrs. A. She is the teacher that I join with in the morning to watch the early morning kids. :)

Mrs. A had already had breakfast so she ate one [she was SO happy to have ordered one cinnamon bread loaf for her family after tasting this one!] and we shared the other one with two other children that were there and wanted a taste of the wonderful smelling bread. :)

It was pretty chaotic short day at school. I am so proud of our graduates! They are on their way up to kindergarten...and this is one of the reason I LOVE LOVE my job! In these early stages of life, the children learn SO much and SO fast! And they are all smart cookies that I know will go far in life!

After school, I went home. I have a friend that we send a least a picture a day to. We miss each other so much...and I know that she is lonely at the moment since her husband went abroad for a month for school. And so, I decided to wear a flower in my hair for her...so I sent her the picture of the flower I wore...the background you can see the wonderful front yard that I am blessed to have. :)

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I am so blessed to have this place that I'm living at. It's a beautiful place and my landlady is amazing wonderful as well! She is so sweet and I know that I am safe here. :)

Since it was my brother-in-laws birthday, I got him a birthday balloon to go with the present that I got him.

It's always fun to have balloons for your birthday, at least I think that it is. :) So, I had driven over to Amanda's house and we went together to my sister's house so that she can take her husband out for his birthday. They ended up seeing the new Avenger's movie. I wanted to see it...so hopefully I'll be able to go and see it, if not, hopefully it gets on Netflix so I can watch it when it comes out! :)

But before Amanda and I got to the house we stopped at our favorite Boba tea place.

Taste Tea is so yummy! My favorite order is: Winter Melon with Lemonade, 70% sweetened, Less Ice, and Big Boba! It's so yummy! My sister and Amanda usually get the same. Milk Tea...but I like my Winter Melon. :)

When we got to my sister's house, they had just left and my parents just waiting for Amanda and I so that they can leave to go meet their friends. I knew that my sister was already going to be gone...but I'm bummed that we missed them by just a few minutes, so we just put her Iced Tea in the refrigerator and Amanda and I enjoyed our tea while we were waiting for my lil' DollGirl (2 years old) to wake up from her afternoon nap. Lil' KaiBoy (3 months old) was also sleeping...but he woke up when we got there so we got to play with his little cuteness for a bit before sister woke up and demanded our attention to play with her.

Amanada stayed with KaiBoy in the house while I went outside to play with DollGirl.

She loves cars...just like her daddy! :) While I was taking her picture, she told me that she wanted to take pictures to...so I let her take a picture...and I had a million pictures of the garden that her and her grandpa (my daddy) had made for her mom.

She loves to garden! She is going to have a green thumb just like her grandpa! I love watching them together! My dad is an out-doorsy person...and so is DollGirl...she loves going outside! She loves running...for what seems like NO REASON...but she LOVES LOVES to be outside!

Well, I am getting tired now, but before I end this post, I wanted to post up some of the pictures that I got from the wedding that we did today! My brother-in-law was able to go with Passion Roots to help put up those ridiculously heavy chandeliers! And wow! I so admire and him and Amber (my co-worker)...they had to do some quick thinking with how to put them up!

My other co-worker and friend, Ivy, sent me these pictures earlier today...and I couldn't be more proud of my Passion Roots team! They look amazing! Ivy said that they had a lot of people come up to them to compliment the arrangements and The Modern were amazed by them as well! Yay for Passion Roots! We rock! I love working with them and being part of the team. :)

"Happy birthday, Kuya Neal! I hope you had an amazing day! I love you!"