Oops! (Haven't Been Posting)... Feburary 26

But I remember these days like they were yesterday.

On 2/26, I dropped off my brother at basketball practice and went on to the Y at 9 am. I went in and there were a steady stream of children coming in. The worst part... they were all the age of six or under, but it wasn't unbearable. I had walked in from the back room and a little boy came up to me and said, "Wanna see my bruise?!" and I said, "Sure. What did you do?" So as he was rolling up his sleeve he told me that he fell during recess. It did look pretty bad. He asked if I had recess and I said, "No." He exclaimed, "WHAT?! NO RECESS? I can't live without recess." And I only laughed, I think I use to feel that way.

I met two new women in the nursery. They were nice and way better at storytelling than me. One of them offered if I wanted to do a craft with the older kids. That was something I was willing to do. I went upstairs to the supervisor's loft and grabbed some construction paper, animal cut-outs, and wiggly eyes. I came back and set the craft stuff on a table and one of the janitors said sarcastically, "I wanna color!" I went back into the nursery and said I was ready. Three kids came out and I knew I could watch three and make sure that they weren't going to do anything crazy with the scissors or eat glue. Suddenly, a family signed in their two sons and daughter and they rushed to the table. I looked at them and went, "Uh-oh." The girl grabbed a frog cut-out and asked, "Can I do this one?" I said why not with a little trepidation, thinking that watching six kids will be difficult. There was one boy in particular that didn't understand the concept that the glue went on his paper and not on his hands. I asked the boy to go wash his hands and he said, "No, I like peeling it off my hands." I said okay. I took my attention from him onto another boy who seemed to like glue.. and I mean ALOT of glue. I asked him, "Do you need all that glue?" He replied, "I don't think so, but I want to make sure that it will stay on the paper forever." I looked at his area of the table and there was glue and marker everywhere. His paper was soaked with glue and there was no way it was going to dry. I set it on the ledge so he could take it home. He asked me, "Do you think I have enough glue?" I said, "Yeah, you have more than enough," and he said, "Okay, can I go back in the nursery?" And I was more than glad to say yes. The girls were well behaved during the craft. I was happy.

I went to go find the cleaning solution and when I came back one of the mother's picking up their child asked, "Did they have fun?" looking at the mess all over the table, and I said, "I believe they did." Your son did three (which included the glue-y mess).

After I cleaned up the next hour and a half went smoothly. I began to learn the difficulty of trying to disinfect EVERY SINGLE TOY (easily over 400 including pieces) and kids still wanting to play with them. I was in the middle of cleaning the "Superhero/Action Figures" and a little boy took three of them. One ended up in his mouth and the other two he sneezed on. I was thinking Great. Most of the kids though were distracted by Finding Nemo. I always thought that the first ten minutes was sad because Coral (Nemo's mom) was killed and all Marlin (Nemo's dad) wanted to do was to protect Nemo from anything bad. Their was a girl who was probably three or four and after Coral dies and the screen goes black, she asked, "What happened to the mommy?" I thought, what should I tell her and before I could phrase it nicely, a boy who was six said, "She DIED!!!" I looked at the boy and said, "You didn't have to say it like that." The girl kind of shrieked in terror and she asked, "Is it true?" and I said, "Yes." She said, "That's sad," and I nodded my head.

It was time to go. I was already looking forward to the next time. The craft was fun and it was more personal time with them and their friends and me.

YMCA Day 3

I had a new battery in my car and ready to go at 8:15 am on Monday. I was ready to deal with kids for the next three hours. When I arrived to the Y, there was one baby in the nursery but a supervisor was already handling him so I went to the gym. These kids were quite a bit younger than the ones from last week and there were fewer too! I met a girl who was probably my age that had gone to Stuebenville. I haven't been, but I asked her if she knew some people that I know that have gone. She was an experienced babysitter, but seemed kind of shy with the kids. I stood there a minute after talking to the girl and a little girl came up to me with a pacifier in her mouth and looked at me. She took me by the hand to a wall and chose a Dora the Explorer book for me to read to her, next thing I know there are four kids sitting around me and listening. I added some storytelling skills to it and got the kids involved in saying "Swiper, no swiping!" and other well-known phrases. Then, a lady who worked at the YMCA for a while asked if the children wanted to jump rope. She had me take the other end and we played "Snake" and simply tried to jump rope. I didn't see where some of these children would be able to jump rope and they couldn't even walk steady. Snack time was more successful. I joined a few girls that were coloring and they were telling me what they got for Christmas. About ten minutes later, I was called to the nursery. There were three babies, a boy was crying, the girl was quiet, and the other boy was pretty quiet, however, the mother was dressing him up to take him home. The babies that were left were both five months old. The supervisor at that time had me keep the girl distracted while the supervisor changed the boy's diaper. I gave the girl a rattle toy and she loved it. I helped her while she was drinking out her bottle because she couldn't hold it yet. I would hear little burps and spit up sounds and I'd turn her towards me and she had spit running down her onesie. The supervisor said, "She does that." I responded, "Oh, that's nice." The baby began to whine a little , I found that she likes to face people, so I was in an odd position while holding the baby so she could see me. The boy continued to cry... loudly and we couldn't figure out the problem. I was trying to get the girl to sleep, but the boy had problems. The YMCA policy is that we must call a parent if a child cries more than 15 minutes. The mother happened to be in the cardio room and she came down. She figured that the boy was hungry. And that was the exact problem, he was quiet. Two minutes later, the girl starts crying. The supervisor told me that the mother didn't leave any food, which we suspected the problem was and she was there for 2 1/2 hours. Then children from the gym began to come after they ate lunch. Some only contributed to the madness in the room. A boy was arguing with another boy about a toy. The others played with stuffed animals, a Barney guitar, and "kitchen." I was done at noon. I was a little tired, but had more of a headache than anything. It was still fun.

YMCA Day 2

Well, I was suppose to go to the YMCA again last Thursday; however, my car had other plans. So I left my house at 8:10 am - from South Haven to Niles Ave. taking I-196 and I-94 is approximately 35 minutes. I left early so I could get $2.99 gas from BP right off the freeway on Niles Avenue because gas in SH was $3.09. So, I go in to pre-pay and put the gas in my car. I turn the key in the ignition and I hear the dreaded clicking sound a car makes when the battery is dead. I first thought this couldn't be because this car has not needed to be charged or jumped... ever. (I am a well-versed in automotive repairman's daughter) so I know cars and telltale signs of certain problems. I called my mom because my dad didn't pick up after calling twice and she called Geico, which sent a lifesaver to jump the car. It wasn't completely terrible, but it was cold outside and cold in the car after waiting 20 minutes for roadside assistance. Oh well! 

YMCA Nursey Day 1

I started my first day at the YMCA Nursey for senior exit last Wednesday. I finally met the supervisors that I had been emailing and calling back and forth. I started at 9 am which wasn't a problem, I'm not the type to sleep in even on vacation. So, from 9-10 was training, luckily there weren't any children there. Until I am given the tour of the building and find that the nursey is split up into two parts: the nursery and the gym. When I walked into the gym I was a little overwhelmed guessing the ages of some of the children. There were 2 year olds to 8 year olds. The YMCA nursey accepts children as young as 6 weeks! Anyway, so some of the kids looked at me like "Who's the new girl?" I scanned the eighteen kids that were there. There were two boys who were seven and eight and they acted like it. They were a rambunctious pair while playing with Tonka trucks and bouncy balls, almost hitting the younger ones. I never babysat growing up, however, I can thank babysitting at the S.C.E.N.E. Auction to some of my disciplining skills and get children to be distracted (which is terribly easy). I asked the boys and other children if they wanted to play line tag and I had a pretty good turn out. Then, it was snack time, which consisted of a handful of Goldfish and animal crackers in a Dixie cup. Some children did not understand that the food went in their mouth and not on the floor, and some liked the idea of eating the snacks off the floor. Oh boy! was the thought that relapsed in my mind. My day ended at noon and I thought that this is kind of interesting, to see how kids interact with each other. It reminded me of my young days. I also saw each child's "character" or personality and they will continue to grow up as this person. 

The Rubaiyat & The Manners of Kings

The Rubiayat expresses the principle: Enjoy life fully while you can. It teaches views on love, life, death, and other components of life the Persians valued. Seljuk Turks took over the Persian Empire and Omar Khayyam wrote The Rubaiyat to protest, peacefully. The Persians needed something to take their mind of the stressful situation. The Manners of Kings outlined how Persian rulers should guide their nation. Society wants to have their president, prime minister, king, queen, or other national authority to be kind, charitable, just, and open to what the people have to say.

Gilgamesh Flood & Genesis 6-9 Flood

The gods and goddesses in The Epic of Gilgamesh are frustrated with humans being too clamorous so they destroy all mortal humanity and later regret their own destructive doing. The gods and goddesses (immortals) were the only survivors. The flood occurred before Gilgamesh even existed, however, the combination of grieving over Enkidu's death and hearing the story about the flood led Gilgamesh to his quest to find immortality. The quest of immortality for Gilgamesh is important to him because he is one-third human though his quest is also selfish- out of fear for his own death.

In Genesis 6-9, God expresses his anger of the sins His people are committing by creating a flood. God only chooses Noah, his family, and two of every animal to survive. God's frustration was based on the broken covenant He made with his people to remain loyal and truthful to. God's decision to wipe out all humanity except for the chosen was intentional. At the end He promised He would never destroy the Earth again by flood.