Teaching.

Today I had orientation at my practicum school!

Practicum is basically a step down from student teaching. I have a classroom, but I'm mainly just observing and helping out and the regular teacher is still in charge and plans everything. I'm just there to get the hang of things.

Today was just kind of an overview. We met the principle and she told us about the school, then we went on a tour and got to meet our supervising teachers and classes. I have a kindergarten class and I only got to meet them all for about a minute today, but they're all adorable. It's a really small class too, maybe 15ish kids and Lilly the Rabbit so it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm super excited for this semester =)

Things are probably going to get pretty busy now that I have a bunch of kindergartners plus Ben the virtual child (who is now 8 months old and doing fine. I virtually went back to work so he's been going to daycare and it seems to be going well).

I should throw out that Ben is really not that much work, maybe 15-20 minutes a day. Definitely not as time consuming as an actual child. But still, I want to do it right ya know?

Parenting?

I've realized that as I've gotten into some major-specific classes, my assignments get more and more...what's the word...interesting.

I started raising a child today. His name is Ben and he is three months old.

For my Human Development class we have to raise a virtual child, from birth to age 18. Ack.

It tells you your initial situation (I had pregnancy complications and my baby was born way early and had to be hospitalized for a week) and then it gives you a bunch of situations and you have to decide what to do. My child is probably going to be really screwed up because I have NO FREAKING CLUE what I'm doing.

To paraphrase one of the questions, "You want your child to develop curiosity and interest in things, how do you do this? Pick one of the following:

• You deck out his crib with the latest baby gear, like red and white rattles, etc
• You hold him, talk to him, and interact with him as much as possible
• You give him lot of audio stimulation, like talking to him and listening to music"

Umm...they all sound pretty good to me. I picked B.

Another example: "Will you breastfeed your baby?

• Yes, he will only be breastfed
• Yes, but we will supplement with formula
• No, we don't see the need to"

Again...ummm...B?

Remind me never to be a single parent.

Hopefully this kid survives. We'll see how it goes. I don't think I'm quite ready for this whole parenting thing.