Sometimes I just want to go back to kindergarten.

I realized that I haven't properly informed the internet about the joy that is kindergarten. I go on and on about it to anyone who will listen, and I think people have stopped caring. That's why people blog anyway, right? To post things that no one wants to listen to? Haha...

Anyways, for those of you who don't know, as part of my college classes this semester, I have to do an elementary school practicum. Basically that means I get to go hang out in kindergarten Tuesday and Thursday mornings. It is literally the greatest thing ever and I can not tell you how much I love it.

Actually, I probably can. Kindergartners are absolutely adorable. They call me Miss Anderson and give me hugs all the time. This one girl tells me she'll miss me every time I leave. One kid even told me he loved me today. Twice. I think my boyfriend's got some competition...

They're just at that stage where they're starting to learn how to read and write new words. They know all their letters already, but it's really exciting helping them learn how to read. Some of the kiddos are super smart, like the one who knew how to spell "snowboard" (I asked him to spell "snow" and he one-upped me). This is the same kid who raised his hand during stations and told me he was bored with making three-letter words. I love how unreserved kids are.

And yes, spelling "snowboard" is a big deal. They're still learning three-letter words and word families. Today we worked on "-it" words: lit, hit, sit, quit, etc., and some of the kids really have a hard time with it. A lot of them don' t know how to read "it" yet so I think it's awesome when they figure stuff out.

Today when I was leaving they all asked me if I could stay and come back every day. I really wish I could. Do you know how unappealing college is after being in kindergarten?

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?