Working for the Weekend.

My first week of work is over and done with.  I survived.  The last four days weren't as horrible as the first one.  Once the preschoolers got used to me they started repeating words and are actually pretty good with colors now.  Except there are a handful of them who still steadfastly refuse to say any words in English and everytime I try to get them to repeat something they just stare at me and say the word in Spanish with a look on their face like you can't trick me lady, I know this thing I'm sitting on is called a silla, not a chair.  On Tuesday one of my Preschool 1 students threw himself into the classroom wall/partition and tried to kick me.  One of the Preschool 3 boys pushed another boy to the ground, tried to punch him, and then kicked him in the stomach while he was on the ground.  In less agressive little boy worlds, I had one girl in my first grade class who for the life of me I could not get to stop doing cartwheels in the classroom.  Overall they're good kids but there's always that one in every class, or like in my first grade class, those four, who decide to do their own thing then lead the rest of the class astray.  Because as I've discovered, small children are very interested in what their classmates are doing and if one kid decides they'd rather do cartwheels than learn the difference between a clock and a watch, then they all want to do cartwheels.

Also, speaking of my first grade class, our book is divided into units and each unit focuses on a different country that the kids are supposed to learn about.  The first country was the U.S. but upon further inspection I decided we would skip that for the time being.  Mainly because for each country you're supposed to learn certain things the country is known for and certain random fact about the country to get a quick base of knowledge.  What did the book think were the most important parts of the United States of America?

1) cowboys 2) hamburgers 3) hotdogs 

In that order.  Nothing more, nothing less.  I decided my class was not going to learn that & we would just have to revisit the United States at a later date.  So now we're in China.  and what have we learned about China so far?  Pandas and bamboo.


I also caught a little girl writing a love note to another boy in my second grade class.  I saw the heart she drew with their initials in it and a little "te quiero" written but couldn't see the rest.  I was briefly tempted to confiscate it just so I could see what else it said but decided that would just be mean since she wasn't bothering anyone.  And then her little friend sashayed to the back of the classroom to give it to the boy (who, of course, was only interested in continuing his game of transformers with his friends).


In other news, some recent pictures:

Bread (Bolillos) Octavio baked at school on his first day in the kitchen.

Some sort of tasty pecan cake he made (and brought home!) from his pastry class

another cake (my favorite so far) I got to enjoy after his class!

The highest point in Mexico.

We went to the Interactive Museum today.  Octavio diligently read the signs and looked at the displays while I climbed up in the mast of a fake ship.

Budweiser, even in Xalapa!

The inside of a space shuttle.

Showing off my skills from my year of piano lessons when I was five, trying to play twinkle twinkle little star.

I was really into this game.

Virtual volleyball.  I scored one point.  Octavio scored none.  It was much trickier than the Wii!

I timed Octavio on how fast he could complete this puzzle of the Mexican states & their capitols.  3 minutes & 15 seconds was the winning time.

A bed of needles.

I was a little nervous

so was Octavio.

You were supposed to be able to put a bubble around you but sadly, it kept popping before it got past my knees!

Octavio wouldn't spin with me so I had to go it alone.

And last but not least, our sweet Lola lounging on the bed.