Happy Halloween! Today...Hummm. Church was nice. I was on older children duty, so I got to actually sit in church and hear the sermon. The minister did a good job of engaging the kids, so they sat still nicely. It helped that I had the lure of trick-or-treating tonight to make them behave.
I also discovered this morning how to give Cirdan his Amoxicillin in a way that he likes! Yay! For all you moms and dads out there who would like to know: make some really strong hot chocolate mix (like twice as much cocoa mix as usual) and mix in the medicine. I only had to mix it in the hottest setting tap water too, so it was really REALLY easy! He actually asked for the medicine in the afternoon so that he could have the chocolate! Woo Hoo!!!
Then this morning there was some extra fun, in that Tykah babysat after the first service we attended, so Solomon and I went to hear a dear friend give the sermon at the cathedral service. I really enjoyed it and got a lot of value out of it. It helped me reflect on how I think about my Job. I realized that I treat the kids with a lot of contempt. I need to re-train my thinking: think about all the wonderful things about the kids, and flood my consciousness with the reasons I love them and care about them. I notice that I resent their questions. I could appreciate their curiosity, but instead I tend to feel annoyed that I have to take time out of my day to tell them something that they don't know. Being a teacher is not something that I like to do, and yet that is a big part of what I am here to do for them. I get to be their example of how to live and behave. The main thing I can do to help myself gain patience for their questions and general ignorance, is to remember that they want knowledge! I have to remember that it is a huge privilege to share my knowledge with others. I am also going to try to reflect every day on the qualities in my children that I like and admire, and want to encourage. I probably won't post that here, but I'll be writing it!
So the rest of the day went well, Solomon got some homework done, while the kids and I dressed up in our costumes, and went to Glencairn (it's a really cool museum near our house) for a scavenger hunt. The kids each earned a prize, and we came home and had some quiet time. That was fun for all of us, the kids watched a movie while I cleaned up the house a bit, and did some writing. Then we had an early dinner, spruced up our costumes and put on under layers of clothing to keep warm, and headed out to collect tons of candy! And boy did we!!! I was surprised by how much we got! And I'm not very happy about it either!!! I'll have to make some decisions about how to handle that. A: let them have one piece a day until it's gone, B: Let them eat it all in one day and get it over with or C:the candy fairy comes and makes it disappear. I have to think about it some more...
Well - that's well over my quota for today, but I'm happy with the reflection! Oh and I may ditch this letter grade thing and make this a pass/fail course...I'll keep thinking about it.
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