I volunteered to help out in Steven's classroom during literacy center time (10-11am)on Thursday's for the school year (well until I'm too big to walk around anyways... So hopefully until February)and today was my first day and I really enjoyed it a lot :)
Henry (the littlest of the boys I nanny for) just started his preschool class (Tuesday's and Thursday's) at the YMCA this week so my volunteer schedule fits in perfectly with his school schedule which is really nice (and I still have Tuesday mornings free).
After taking Henry to school, I had time for a couple small errands and then I headed to Kindergarten. When I walked into the classroom Steven's teacher paused to introduce me to the class as MRS. NINNEMAN- wow that was a shocker :) HA! I realize that I have technically been Mrs. Ninneman for more than two years now, but I can count the times on one hand that I've actually been referred to as Mrs. Ninneman... Sometimes I forget that I'm really a grown up and a parent. I better work on that. So, right after I was introduced Steven stood up pointed to me and then back to himself and said "That's my Mom! My Mom!" he was so proud and excited I had tears in my eyes! I've never asked Steven to call me anything other then Anna, although I've always treated him as my own child because that's how it should be. He is well aware that I am his Step-mom and that "Mama" will always be his Mom but it just makes me feel appreciated and so much more loved when I know he thinks of me as one of his Mom's. It makes me feel like I'm doing a good job.
So after those two heartwarming moments the kids split up into their literacy centers. My job was to keep the kids whispering/ talking quietly and working on their assignments, and to help them when they had questions. All of the kids were so sweet and so smart. I expected some of the kids to be a little more clueless of what they were supposed to do when they were at their centers because they have such short attention spans and they all seemed SO distracted when they were listening to the directions...5 and 6 year olds need a lot of redirection (this made me feel slightly less crazy as I constantly feel like Im redirecting Steven on a regular basis- its totally normal... Woo hoo!) So I was really impressed when they all knew where they were going and most of them knew just what to do! (so maybe this means Steven is often listening to Luke and I even when it appears that he isn't??).
At the end of literacy center time before I left to go pick up Henry, Steven's teacher pulled me aside to tell me that she was really impressed with how well I did, and said that I did exactly what she needed me to do! Woo hoo I've got skills! I explained to her that I spent a few summers teaching the ceramics program at a summer camp I worked at during college and I gained a lot of experience with that job, as well as being a nanny I suppose but that's only a few kids at a time... Talking about my summer camp job really brought back some sweet memories and made me miss those years... Someday when our kids are older I imagine that I will do something similar to that again... Until then I'll be a regular elementary school volunteer! I really enjoyed volunteering today.
After I picked up Henry, we went to lunch with our friend Kari and her sweet little 5 week old baby (Olive) and after lunch they came over to Henry's house to visit before Olive's doctor appointment. Kari has been lacking a lot of sleep lately so I was pleased to give her a short break from holding her baby... At first Olive was crying and really upset, but I was able to get her to calm down and fall asleep. That built up my confidence :) it's been a couple years (Henry is almost 3) since I've really even held a tiny baby... But it's really like riding a bike- I'm just really unsure how I'm going to hold two at the same time... That's intimidating!
After work tonight Luke and I went to open house at Steven's school... Visited his classroom, signed up for parent teacher conferences and picked up our book order (I'm secretly SO excited to read our new "Skippy Jon Jones" book tomorrow night) and once again complimented on my job well done today and asked if I could please come Wednesday's during the same time as well :) of course I said yes but also warned that I will be bringing Henry with me... Which could go very good or very bad... I'm hoping for good :)
I'm officially a kindergarten volunteer (and I've got skills)
I still need to down some more protein to complete my 100g for the day and get some sleep (Luke is passed out on the couch already and it's only 9:30pm)
Goodnight :)
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