Rambling in the first real Autumn Evening

This morning was blessedly, wonderfully, amazingly cold!! I was able to wear my favorite black zip up sweater that should be retired to the donation bag but is much too cuddly and beloved to be surrendered. It is so comforting and warm and easy to wash (hey, that is a way to score huge bonus points with me) that I really don't care if it makes me look slightly like a disheveled bag lady. :) Yes, I am that pathetic. My wardrobe 98% of the time is blue jeans, a basic shirt (polo shirts are common or a "nice" t-shirt in warm weather and I love sweaters and long sleeve t-shirts in cold weather), and whatever shoes I can find in the closet that match. I am teaching children who leak, who like to decorate the teacher as much as the art project, who love to dig in the dirt and crawl on the floor and I don't want to have to worry about my clothing being damaged. I want to be able to be a hands-on, full contact, in the trenches teacher not a pretty-in-a-dress teacher who never plays with the kids because they might get messy. I have taught my kids that everything in my classroom is washable - the tables, the toys, the floor, the kids, and yes - the teacher. Have fun!! Learn, discover, make a mess!! Follow the rules, listen when I ask you to do something but let's have fun!! Shaving cream on the table is great and if you want to get it up to your armpits that is wonderful. Fingerpainting is messy but awesome - if you want to try it on my table or the chairs I am not going to yell but please do not paint your friends. Digging in dirt is fun but we never throw what we find at others. Lets see what we can learn from painting different surfaces - the textures, what colors we make, requesting, exploring, participation. What can we learn from shaving cream - sensory fun, communication, participation, shapes (drawn in the cream), parts of a face (same), so much more. If you are afraid of a mess, you miss so much. Now today when my blue eyed boy somehow overflowed his diaper and soaked both of us as we were swinging in the awesome fall weather that was not a fun mess. Thankfully we are both washable. He found it hilarious and laughed when I complained about being wet. Boys! I laughed when I had to send him home in girls pants because all he had at school were shorts and it was too cold for them. He thought about it and then laughed too. Thankfully, washable me also keeps a change of clothes at school. My little ones also had a great time today wearing monster masks (Roar!), singing 10 little monsters and waiting for me to "scare" them by roaring, and playing a game that I loved as a kid - Don't Break the Ice. I managed to keep the attention of 4 three year olds for 20 minutes and convince them to take turns and share materials with this game!! Awesome!!!!! That is like convincing four countries who are all at war with each other to cease fire, meet together, declare peace, and trade their best resources for a century. I will most definitely remember that this game is valued more than gold in our room and will be used during desperate times and when we are working on our attention spans and our sharing abilities. Right now we are working on our "Hands are not for hitting" abilities. I love that book. I also find it intersting that one of my kids completely gets time out and hates it while my peer model, my typical peer who is supposed to demonstrate proper behavior but ends up hitting the other child back, does not care a bit if I resort to time out. I am sounding like my mother too - "I know he hit you but you can not hit him back. Tell a big person that he hit you. Go play with a different toy. Tell him no. But do NOT hit him." Gee, that sounds familiar. She cursed me when she told me that some day I would understand everything she said - I so understand it and now i am saying it not to a child of mine but to ten children that are "mine". But my brother still has the real payback in my spitfire of a niece. Little Bit is paybacks for anything either one of us ever did as a child and more. She is 30 pounds of solid attitude. I miss my Little Bit. And now that I have written a completely free flowing, good luck trying to connect the dots entry I am going to go enjoy the first real autumn evening with a cup of hot tea, my favorite fuzzy blanket, and an old favorite book. Autumn is my favorite season.