Crescent Heights Day 37

Today was back to school night... at 3pm.

Before the kids got up, Ms. Jodhi asked me and then Mr. Wayne what we’re doing when the teachers go to a conference in Anaheim next week. Mr. Wayne paused and Ms. Jodhi said this is taking too long and walked away to Ms. Leslie. I love how Frank and honest she is. Nobody knew what was expected so I went to ask Ms. Alex, who didn’t know, so Ms. Champ chimed in from her desk that I don’t need to come in on the conference days. I thanked her and Ms. Alex joked that I sounded too happy about not coming in. 

We started changing diapers at 2pm, Ms. Sosie said she was told we need to wake up the diapered kids and change the diapered kids first, then take the older kids to the bathroom and everyone needs to finish their food inside, no more food outside. More changing rules.

The kids finished eating around 2:40, there was back and forth about taking the kids outside or having them inside when the parents come. There's no structure or routine for back to school night, it's improvised every time, said Ms. Leslie. We let the kids play with toys at the tables, but they started getting punchy and antsy so we moved them to the rug, Just as we did that, the parents came in. 

One new little girl had to pee, her father is not allowed in the children's bathroom so I had to go with her. He stood in the doorway, I stood in the bathroom, it was strange. He was a friendly, nice, chubby white man, but it still felt odd. I talked through everything I was doing as I did it.

When we got back into the classroom, the kids were antsy on the carpet. As I walked over to the teachers, they introduced me to the parents, and I asked Ms. Flores if we could take the kids out, and thankfully she said yes.

Ms. Leslie, Mr. Wayne, Ms. Yami and I took the 12 kids outside. They were running around, chasing each other. Ms. Yami got the idea to have them all play together, doing red light yellow light green light. We got the kids lined up on the stone faux floor, facing the classroom and the cement. When she yelled green light, all the kids took off and Eliana face planted into the hard ground. She stared crying so I ran over and hugged her, the rest of the kids were spread around, except Samantha who was behind us. Samantha started laughing and pointing, and I told her that's not nice and we don't do that. Another aide took Samantha to the side to talk to her, and she started whining, "I no laugh. I no laugh at her. I laugh at something." She had to sit out the rest of the afternoon with the threat of going to Ms. Champ.

The other kids came to me and Eliana to check to see why she's crying. Even Zarah came to check on her. I'm always so touched when kids are sympathetic, I told Ms. Jodhi and Ms. Flores when we recapped what happened after the parents left, Ms. Jodhi loved it.

Eliana was taken inside to get an ice pack. Her dad was called and said that she's clumsy and not to worry. I didn't see it, but Ms. Yami said she had a big swollen goose egg on her forehead that was starting to bruise. Ms. Yami felt so bad, but she saw that she just tripped over someone else's feet, nobody pushed her.

Finally, around 4:05, the teachers were finishing their lecture. We didn't know if it would be 20, 30 or 60 minutes. It was over 4pm, so over 60. A lot of parents lingered to talk to the teachers, their kids playing with stuff around the classroom. We only had 4 kids left by then, probably because most of the parents got them after back to school.

There was one little girl who came with her dad and grandma Tammy for back to school. Emma had cheezits and didn't share them with her, so she came to me. I gave her the bag Ms. Jodhi gave me and she was so happy. The older girls, Zoe and Isabella, started sharing their crackers with her as she walked by. Her dad, Jason, told me her name is Jaece (pronounced jay see), and she had two older brothers. I gushed how I have two older brothers and spell my name like her. I asked Jaece if she was excited to start school and she said yes. Then she said, you shouldn't be at school to me. I asked why? Am I too old? Am I too big? And she said, "you're too beautiful to be at school." And I just about started to cry, I thanked her and told her dad and grandma how sweet she is. She quietly said to me, "I'm an Angel," and I agreed and said she has a halo above her head.

Jaece didn’t want to go home and resisted. I asked Ms. Jodhi to help and she called Jaece over for a gift to take home, and all the girls ran to her. Tammy said to me, I don’t know how you have the patience to work with kids, I couldn’t do it. I can’t accept compliments so I said Ms. Jodhi is the pro, she’s been educating for 28 years, plus I don’t have kids so I can be patient for three hours at work and go home and be free. 

Ms. Yami said she's not ready for Monday, when she'll be in Classroom 1 with all the new students. I'm hoping we have more Jaece's and less Abigail's.