Volunteering

Now that I'm in between jobs, I had the opportunity to volunteer at Hannah's preschool.  I've never gotten to do it before, and I had a wonderful time watching what they do every day.

To make the day extra special, Hannah was the "Happy Helper" at school.  The happy helper gets to be first in line, gets to talk about the weather, identifies patterns, updates the calendar, gets to select how they walk in line (Hannah chose "walking like a penguin" on the way to gym and "hopping like a bunny" on the way back), and they fill out a chart with their names and various facts.  Hannah wrote her last name (although the "W" was an "M") and when asked to fill in what animal she would be, she refused and instead chose to be a TV character - Doc McStuffins.

I got to help the kids color Easter eggs and the other art station was making large cross stamps out of tiles and pressing them onto paper.  They do such wonderful crafts at school!  Their storytime was the Easter story.  It was so neat to see the kids in the circle listening and answering questions.  I really enjoyed watching the teachers ask the kids to think about whether they were sitting by someone who was going to distract them or touch them and if they'd be able to make good choices to listen.....and then issue warnings to the boys and re-direct them....I was also impressed with how her teacher was dictating notes in gym class about the kids motor skills for evaluations (and making notes on other skills while they did craft projects).

Hannah wanted to sit by me while I was helping with eggs and while in circle time she instructed me to sit on her star on the floor and then she sat on my lap.  Despite being the independent girl and not wanting me to walk in with her in the mornings, she was quite happy to tell everyone that her mom was with her today to help.  I loved it!  The kids thanked me at the end of the day too.  I'm so thankful I had the opportunity to do this.