Teachers Deserve a Medal

One of the best things about being a stay at home mum in the chance to help out in the children’s classrooms…….at least that’s what I keep trying telling my self…over and over again…..

You see the reality is that now my little man is in preschool two days a week, I have been looking at those two days as a weekend….a weekend that I’ve waited 9 years for!

One of the hardest adjustments I had to make from full time employment as a Scientist, to being a SAHM was that there are no weekends, no knock-off times…..every day and every night are just the same, all flowing into one big mass of responsibility!

So now I hold those two precious days as almost sacred….its so hard to leave my nice quite, warm house to go and help in a classroom of not just 3 noisy, snotty, demanding  children but…but 25!!

Anyway, my daughter’s year 2 teacher asked me come in and help out with some science experiments the children were going to be doing in class….one look at my daughters little expectant face, and I knew I had to go…..

It was my job to supervise the mixing part of the experiment where the children had to mix cocoa powder, icing sugar and puffed rice together….I was instructed not to let the children eat their mixes and was put in charge of 15 children!!

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*not what helping the the classroom was like at all!!

Half way through the experiment, I discovered one little boy, hiding under the table, happily devouring the contents of his plastic cup. I called him out from under the table and he had chocolate saliva dripping from the corners of his mouth….He then asked me, with great difficulty because his mouth was full of chocolate rice puffs, if he cold get a drink.

I looked at him and with my best teachers voice,  my hands on my hips and a badly disguised smile, I asked…. “Have you been eating your mix??”  There is no prizes for guessing what his response was….it was of course an emphatic “Nooooo!” I just could help but laugh, and told him to ask his teacher for a drink…..

I did actually have some fun in the end…as I thought the experiment was a bit dry, I improvised a little. I added water to the kids mixtures and  I fashioned a cone filter from some paper towel. We then poured the mix through the filter to end up with clean rice puffs…the kids actually thought that part was pretty cool!  I don't think the teacher appreciated the mess we made though!!

I guess the day was kind of like exercising. I didn’t want to go at first….but I felt really good when I was finished. It was nice seeing my little girl interacting with her friends at school and it was nice to get to know some of the other kids as well.

I came away from the class room that day needing a stiff drink and a good lie down!! I also left with the thought that teachers deserve a medal…a great big shiny medal!

Flogging my blog today over at With Some Grace....get your raunchy pants on and have a look!