I had 14 unexpected day off for Christmas break. It was nice to have a break, but in all honesty, if I'm going to have 14 straight days off, I'd rather be doing something rather than staying home! But, it was what it was, and now I'm back "at it." Overseeing virtual learners, engaging preschoolers, and homeschooling. After day 1 of working in 2021, I woke up Friday morning exhausted and was more than ready to begin our weekend Friday night.
However, if there's ever a way to tell if you love your job or not, is to take time off and see if you're geniunely happy to be back. Spoiler: I was/am.
Just like every other January, our theme for the month is SNOW! We have tons of snow activities to get to, so we started it off with an igloo (that I threw together from leftover boxes from Christmas. Read about that here), our favorite snowman building toy, snowflake cookies, coloring sheets, snow books, and our favorite "fake snow" that the youngest mini kindly shared with daycare for a sensory bin. Plus, we had our homeschool activites: dissecting an owl pellet and a frog, end of chapter quiz, worksheets, and research assignments.
The kids were so excited to discover new toys in the play area, plus the igloo and the reappearance of the train table. I've had to train table put away since September, so we could use the table as another playing surface. Currently, daycare can't have blankets or anything made of cloth in play areas (due to Covid), but if I could, I'd fill that igloo with piles of comfy blankets for playing! Instead, the kids tend to take toys in the igloo to play. As it turns out, two out of the three minis do NOT like dissecting things. All three gagged as they dissected the pellet. We wound up finding the skulls of a rat and a vole and a few other rat bones. They were not impressed and said they were ready to move on from our environmental sciences unit.
The youngest mini decided she would rather learn American History with her middle brother instead of learning about different communities because she "knows all of that already." It makes it much easier when I can teach both at the same time!
The dog was happy to have his friends back. He insisted on playing in the daycare room all day long.Over break, we were spoiled waking up whenever we wanted to (8:30 or 9 was the norm on most days). It was a bit of a shock to all to resume our normal 6:30 wake up call. Friday was frog day. The 7th grader definitely failed this one, as he had to leave the room for most of it because he was gagging so much. The middle mini took over, while the youngest watched (but she definitely covered her eyes for most of it). The highlight came in not identify the organs, but in discovering that our frog was a female and had thousands of eggs! The middle mini announced loudly, "I'm performing my first c-section!" I was ready for this activity to end once that was yelled throughout the house.This frog dissection kit was a Christmas gift for the minis. This may end up being their least favorite gift.Every single egg was pulled out of the frog and examined closely by the minis. For some reason, that intrigued them the most.
I had to roll my eyes at the end of the morning because my good intentioned morning of learning was hell in a handbasket. Fairly typical for this chaos. Now, I'm resting up this weekend to prepared for my first full work week of the new year because we have so many fun activities planned for daycare and homeschool!
