Chuckie??? And purple dinosaurs (I'm not talking about Barney)

This is one of those "Wha??" stories...

I was sitting outside with the kids before we transitioned to nap time. We were just talking about movies and whatnot, then one of the kids said, "I watched Chuckie at my house." I said, "Wait, what??" And she said, "Chuckie." I told her, "That's scary. I don't think you should be watching movies like that. You're too little to be watching those kinds of movies."

One of the other girls were sitting with us and she was shaking her head in disagreement. She says, "Chuckie mataron senores con cuchillo." (Roughly translated: "Chuckie kills/murders girls with a knife." OH MY GOODNESS. I had to tell them, "We don't talk about those things at school. Those movies are too scary."

Just LOOK at him.

Why on earth would you want to expose your little child to something as horrendous as CHUCKIE?? It boggles the mind. I don't know how those kids sleep at night.

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We have these purple dinosaurs in our playground that look just like these:

One of the children walked past a dinosaur while it was bobbing back and forth (another child was probably riding it or just got off of it). You can guess what happened... the kid got hit on the head by the mouth of the dinosaur and started to cry because he was startled. 

He came over to me and asked for an ice pack, "The dinosaur hit me right here!" pointing to the left side of his head.

and then he put it on the right side of his forehead, and I said, "I'm sure it was an accident." Then I looked at where he had the ice pack and I said, "Wait, I thought it was on the other side?" So he slid the ice pack to the left side of his head.

A minute later, he stopped crying and said, "I feel better now." The area was just a little pink and I said, "I want you to keep this on for just a little bit longer." I thought he would just sit on a bench or something, but he got up and started walking. I asked where he was going and he said, "I want to apologize to the dinosaur." I told him, "But the dinosaur hit you, you don't need to say anything to him." So he didn't :) 

God, kids are funny.

You don't know me!

I really need to get this off my chest!

We had a sub in our classroom and he has a very dry sense of humor and more sarcasm than I care to deal with (and I consider myself a very patient person).

The kids were trying to finish some turkeys that they were making for Thanksgiving, and being that the last day of school is tomorrow, we were trying to crank them out ASAP!

While it would be nice to send the turkeys home in time for the holiday, I also knew that Thanksgiving would go on without them, so I wasn't in a panic.

I'm giving the sub instructions about cutting the feathers, body, feet, etc. and I list off the students who have not completed the project yet. Then I say, "If we don't get to all of them, then I guess they just have to wait until Monday to bring the turkeys home." He started laughing and said, "I mean, it would be nice to have it for the holiday for their parents. I know you don't care because you're not a parent or anything. But, as a parent, I would like to have something like this. I like this kind of stuff."

The audacity!!!!!! I was appalled. Fool, you don't know me!! I would risk life and limb for my kids, without a doubt. Rather than waste my energy being upset, I let it go. There are some things in life that just aren't worth raising your blood pressure for. And this man was one of them.

OK, I'm done venting.
Thanks for listening to my ridiculousness :P

Quotables about poop and yellow hair.

1) One of the kids was compelled to tell me all of this before he went to bed:


Child: "Teacher, I went poop in the bathroom and got poop on my hands."

Me: "It's okay, it was an accident. Did you wash your hands though?"

Child: "I wiped it with paper towel and then I washed it."


2) Background info: So my class is primarily of Hispanic origin. About 80% of them are native Spanish speakers, and only half of them can fully understand English. Two of them have light brown hair (very handsome boys!), but none of the children have blonde hair.

"No one in our class has yellow hair, right? Only yellow blankets."


3) Another child rushes to the restroom and looks very puzzled. I said, "Go use the bathroom," and he said, "There's too many bathrooms." We have two toilets and he couldn't decide which one to use :/

L-O-S-E-R Like Me!!

Thanks, Chels, for this blog title LOL


If some folks are familiar with that Fox show "Glee," they had an episode where they wrote their own lyrics to a song called "Loser Like Me." Here are a couple of lines:


"Just go ahead and hate on me and run your mouth
So everyone can hear
Hit me with the worst you got and knock me down
Baby, I don't care
Keep it up, and soon enough you'll figure out
You wanna be...
A loser like me"


I have a student who is particularly difficult. He is very aware of the choices that he makes, he knows what he needs to do, yet he chooses the path that isn't always best. Here's an example:


He's squeaking around on the bike track with his trike and I yell out, "Room 1, line up please." Most of the kids start running toward our classroom to line up, but he's still squeaking around on the bike, as if he didn't hear me. 


I continue to watch him, and he is aware of this, but he's still going. I repeat, "Room 1, line up please." Again, nothing.


So I finally jump in front of his bike to obstruct his path, put both hands on the handle bar, bend down so that I'm in his face, and I say with a firm voice, "Park the bike right now, we're done."


He says, "But I want to..." and I interject with a "Park it now" and I point to the bike parking lot. [He was going to tell me that he wanted to finish his lap before parking it. In other words, he wanted to park the bike on his own terms.]


He heads over in a huff, but he stops in his tracks, turns to me and says, "When I see you, I'm not going to smile at you or be happy to see you." I said, "Fine. Just park the bike."


YES. This is the student who called me a loser.


Here's how it went down!


We're sitting in circle and I'm starting to call students so that they can go wash their hands for lunch (we have lunch in our classroom). But, to sit in circle, the kids need to sit "criss cross apple sauce, hands on your lap." 


The rest of the kids are sitting with their legs crossed, but not him. His legs are sprawled out right in front of him, he's chillin'. Everyone else is done, but he's still sitting there. I say, "I'm waiting for you to sit criss cross applesause. I know you can do it, I've seen you do it before." Nothing. So I say, "Fine, you can sit there until you show me that you can sit nicely." So I'm doing my own thing and trying not to look in his direction.


He calls me over, "Teacher! I'm sitting nicely now!" And I say, "Good. Now I want to see if you can stay like that." After a series of leg-straightening and crossing, he finally stays cross-legged. I sit down right in front of him and say, "See, I know that you can sit nicely. Now I want you to sit like that all the time. You can go wash your hands now." 


AS SOON as I finish saying that, he takes one of his legs and straightens it out, then he says, "But I'm not sitting criss cross applesauce." OKAY. I said, "Just go wash your hands," again in a firm tone. He stomps off and washes his hands. VICTORY! I think...


I'm putting some beds down for nap time and I hear a voice, but I'm not sure where it's coming from. I hear, "You're a loser." I couldn't tell if it came from the bathroom or from the tables where the rest of the kids are eating and talking, so I brush it off. The next voice is clear and distinct and I know it's coming from the restroom, "Teacher Em... (in a teasing and inciting melody)" I turn my head so that this child and I are looking eye to eye, "you're a loser." WOW.


I walked over quickly and told him, "You DO NOT talk to me like that. You don't talk to anyone like that. That hurt my feelings. I'm going to have to talk to your mom." 


"I'm sorry. I said I'm sorry. No, don't do that. I'm sorry."


"I heard you say sorry, but I'm still going to talk to your mom."


QUIET. He drags himself to the table for lunch and he's sulking. But, come on, you can't talk to people like that.

I believe in fate, signs, and divine intervention.

So I've been doing quite a bit of soul searching these last few months, but the message couldn't be any more clear at this point...

Not too long ago, I went to So Cal to visit some people that I really wanted/needed to see :)

I got into a very intense and very personal conversation with someone in a car (they know who they are), and we were talking about what made us happy. A really broad topic, right? But somehow it all diverted back to work and the kids. That's all my life is centered around and right now, nothing makes me feel more fulfilled than being with those kids. I love them and I feel the love reciprocated, isn't this enough? Shouldn't I be content?

This person told me, "The only person who can make you happy is yourself. No other person will do that for you." At first, I was appalled. I thought, "Are you crazy? You're wrong! These kids love me!!!! THEY LOVE ME!!!!" Then, once the emotions subsided, I realized that he was right: I shouldn't have to define myself or my worth based on how others love me. He said, "You need to truly love yourself."

I've always had issues with body image, self-esteem, etc. Growing up, I took a lot of criticism and blame, and I've carried it with me until now. It's so easy to forgive and forget with others, but I can't even do that for myself. I'm working on it!

I don't want this to be a sob story, so I'll cut to the chase... It must have been a day after this deep conversation, I went home and spent some time with my dad (we were actually taking a drive to Las Vegas. CRAZY, right? Yes, another convo in a car.) and he started talking about friends. He said, "Don't trust your friends. The only people who will be there for you is your family. And God." Then he just kept going, and going, and going.... He said, "The only person that will take care of you is yourself and God. No one else." I thought, "Wait, I've heard this one before... Hmm..."

OKAY, God, I hear you LOUD AND CLEAR. LOVE MYSELF. It's okay to like who I am :/

And if that wasn't enough, my brother and I were texting today, and this takes the cake. I was asking him to help me decide whether I should buy something, and he said, "If you want it, go get it." I know we were just talking about an object, a thing, but I looked at the BIG PICTURE.

IF YOU WANT IT, GO GET IT. Wow.

Final thoughts: Life is just going to stand still unless I go out there and make something of it. And I have to really love who I am if I want to make things happen!

Thanks to Robert, dad, and Phil for helping me realize this.

Kids are freakin' smart.

I just got home not too long ago from a trip to Las Vegas!!! Went to see grandma for her birthday, saw some cousins that I haven't seen in ages (they're only in their early teens and already my height or taller. I should have drank more milk as a kid...), and ate lots of Filipino food. Life is good ;)

Anyway, I saw a high school friend and her 3 kids (all of whom I happen to be Godmother to).

Okay, so between this house visit and seeing my family, I got to talking about work and being with so many children. These kids are dang smart. They're funny, charming, honest, and joyful. I LOVE BEING AROUND CHILDREN (not in a creeper kinda way HA HA, I'm sure you know this :P).

These three kids were talking to me with such clarity and charisma, adults often forget what kids are truly capable of. I learned that kids can accomplish so much on their own, as long as adults provide the opportunities for them to be independent. 

Parents like to hold onto the idea that their children are their "babies," so they'll do things like pour their milk, open chip or cookie bags, fold their blankets, etc. But kids want to do those things for themselves! Or at least try to. And if they complete a task, it gets them to try other new things & take initiative. Instead of waiting for someone to TELL them what to do, they'll make choices to do things on their own.

That's why I KNOW that preschool is such a critical time in any person's life. If kids aren't socializing at that age, if they're not making friends, not trying new things, that's concerning and a strong indicator of what they'll be like in grade school. 

Blah, blah, blah... My point is that KIDS ARE INSANELY BRILLIANT. Give them the chance to show it to you. They'll amaze you.