Max didn't have the tie I wanted. He used to have this ugly red tie, we couldn't find it, I must have finally made him get rid of it. I was going to try and find one at the school and find some shorts too, we got told off for using things from the school prop closet. I didn't realize we weren't supposed to, I saw other girls rifling through the stuff, I only borrowed that pair of shorts and I told Isabella because I had already done it and didn't have anything else to replace it. We got in trouble because most of us were unprepared that we would have projects as homework and most of the girls that came from far away didn't have supplies at all. Nor were we told we couldn't touch the props, I wasn't doing out of respect for other peoples stuff, but when I saw others doing it, I figured it was okay. To make matters worse I couldn't find my pen and I needed some paper because, when I ran into Francesca at the Cadorna station and the lightening bolt struck. I realized on the train that I had forgotten about doing the the stacking cups. Anyways, I decided to make origami balls in 4 different sizes and draw the bears on the outside. That's always a hit with kids and then even if they crush them, I don't care its just paper. The stupid balls were a hit! Thank god, because the rest of my idea was rather weak. I also forgot to paint the hands/faces before the 'kids' went to go look for the clothes. Oh well. Lucky me my the first part of next project for EFI is Teddy Bears.
even later than much much later: it's so late now, I can't even think. Luckily Max is home and he's going to take care of the kids and I can get an 'earlier' start. Just documenting my thought process so I can be clear on stuff. My project is a little poem about Teddy Bears and how they crawl about and you have to be quiet. I know I need to do something about noise and then go shhh, but I've worked so hard on my other ideas I haven't got the will or organization to find something. I went downstairs and opened up one of the unpacked boxes, I knew there was some flannel. I was hoping to find the stuff I used for Max's hat and scarf a few years back, but there was only a small piece of white and random stuff left over from when Simo never finished her blankets. Well now I have a use for it. I'm in the process of making hats with teddy ears (modeled after a hat Karol had given Vivienne), the idea to make a cute little tail popped in my head, so I can just cut out a circle, sew around the edge, pull the ends of the string, stuff it and wah lahhh a cute little tail and then black on the nose and we have our cute little teddy bears and then we can just act out the poem. Note to self: remember to be dramatic, so the kids get it. Okay for project two, it's a poem about kids on a boat. We have to have a game in at least one of these projects, I can't think of anything, I've surfed the net on a thousand places and can't find something that I can make relate to the theme - I'm going with the memory game, but I need to present it in a way that is hopefully totally different from anything Isabella has seen, or it won't work. I've found this site where they made pockets out of wrapping paper on poster board and the pictures were hidden inside. My version I will sew some pockets out of felt (from the crayon bags) and attach it to the bright yellow fabric left over from those crowns from Sophia's 4th birthday party. Sophia and Viv often use the laundry baskets as boats, so I'm going to shove a dowel underneath to make it rock and then use the spoons as paddles (again stuff that they do) and while acting out the poem with them. I know that my weakness is the dialogue part-how do I get the kids to talk?
Ugh! Lesson was a flop! What I ended up doing was flashing the cards, acting them out and then trying to recycle the play dough and play a scultionary (like pictionary but with play dough) . I'm scanning and writing all this stuff to document my thought process for my own future reference, so I can remember what did and didn't work. This first scan is of my stick figures to see exactly what the motion is of the sport.
You know that Anna Laura Cantone and the Lauren Child authors are my favorites. So I looked at their books and tired to convert those sticks into that style.
I wanted to bring in props items you use for each sport. like a swim cap and goggles, a basket ball (we have a mini one with a spiderman hoop) but, we haven't got a soccer ball, what do you use for running? sweat bands?
I thought about having the kids make a simple kite (you can do it with a plastic bag and some sticks and tape or glue). But that just focuses on one thing. Sophia has a kite, but would real kids tangle up the strings?
The sculptionary thing might have worked, but not for this activity-i needed something more related to prompting kids to say 'he is ... ' and the sport.
(OMG -this is terrible Sophia is sitting on the couch playing and she asked what's that, indicating the pictures. I told her my drawings and asked what they are doing - and that prompted her to say the exact sentences of what I was supposed to teach....I should have kept it simple! damn!)
I have a million things to do tonight. I feel so tired and overwhelmed. Max is working until midnight. I've already tried to put Viv down once, luckily Sophia went to bed without a hitch. Tonight, the Befana is supposed to come and leave presents or a lump of coal in kids' socks. She went to bed because she wants something good and doesn't want (what she calls) cold rocks. (That's her little kid vernacular after processing my answer to her 'What's coal?' question. I had told her 'Coal is something like rocks to make fire'). Vivienne, on the other hand, has decided she is going to be a pain in the ass. Usually we just throw her in her bed, she cries for 2 seconds and then we don't hear from her until morning . Even if she wakes up during the night, she will usually just cry herself back to sleep. Not tonight. That's probably because, the Befana only got presents for her sister. (I'm getting home too late and have too much homework to do, so I sent Max to do the task. I know it really doesn't matter, Viv won't know the difference. It's more for Sophia's sake. How do you explain why only one daughter got presents and not the other. It's not right and I don't want Sophia thinking that she is more special than her sister-and she's not. We (er the Befana) love them both equally. Luckily Max got books and couple of Littlest Pet Show animals and not clothes. This year somebody is just going have to explain that the presents are for both of them ). But I digress, back to the kids going to bed. Vivienne, on the other hand, has decided that she has spoiled us enough and tonight she is going to put up a fuss. I'm sure if I just stayed with her for a few minutes and cuddled her, the problem would be solved, but I'm so agitated and overwhelmed by what I have to do tonight, I think I would probably transmit some of these negative emotions and just make the situation worse. I've sucked it up and decided to ask the Nonno if one of them could just hold and cuddle her until she falls asleep. I know that they are over the moon, as they don't agree with how we put the kids to bed anyways. So now dinner has been eaten (a whole other story in itself) and dishes are done and the kitchen is cleaned. I'm trying to write my TTC essay. It's really not that hard, I'm sure Isabella just wants us to cover the topics she talked about and she if we can apply them to how the HDEE method works. The problem is, I was up so late last night. By the time the time I got home (and listened to the Nonni's detailed account of how the day went- everything from playing, every morsel that they did or did not eat and how many bowel movements occurred-pardon the pun but, I shit you not on that last part. Nonni and preschools do that here, all the kids are like the Last Emporer. There is a Pooping Chart at a lot of schools and it has the kids name with, the number of times they've pooped and whether or not it was 'caca bella' (beautiful poop) or what have you. At least the teacher's don't have to save it, sniff it and then tell the parents what's missing from each kids diet. But if the kids do a good poop, lots of parents make a big deal out of it, so it's not that far from where the monks adorn the chamber pot with flowers and do a little jig around it. Thank God Soph's preschool doesn't do that. But once again, I digress... So, where was I? I've lost my train of thought. Oh yeah, luckily I can just go back a few lines and read. Anyhoo, by the time that I heard the account of the kids' day, spent some time with them, ate dinner and cleaned up, it was late and I couldn't concentrate. I written the first paragraph like 50 times, I just can't get the words to come out. Plus the Nonna keeps coming by and adding details about the day and asking me stuff I really don't care about right now. To make matters worse, she is deaf as a door nail. I have to keep repeating myself. Each time my sentence gets shorter until I'm just down to a monosyllabic response and my voice gets exponentially louder, so that by the fourth repetition, I am frustratedly shouting loud enough for all the people in China to hear. When Max or the Nonno do this, she gets pissed and does the 'You don't have to shout, I'm not deaf' thing. With me, she tries to be a bit more polite and always explains, it's not that she can't hear, it's that she can't understand the words. Let me translate that for you: it's because I'm a foreigner and she can't understand my accent. Aside from the fact that I've been told that I don't have a strong American accent (not bragging, just stating a fact that will go along with a future story, that I don't have time to tell now), I'm really not sure which part of SI or NO I pronounce incorrectly!
The flat next door was up for rent when we moved in, but a few months later someone else moved in. The subject came up in conversation about our new neighbors a little while later. Ever since the Nonno has talked about how he wants to rent the place, how it's too bad he missed out on the opportunity. Well not to be cruel, but we're not. They are really sweet, but I could NEVER live with them within such a close vicinity!!!!!
So now, the Nonno is sitting on the couch behind me with Vivienne on his shoulder. Clearly both are sleep. Me: Nonno, you can put her in the bed. Nonno: What? Huh? Oh no, I'm going to wait until she's in a deep sleep, otherwise will wake up when I put her down. All I can do is shrug my shoulders, turn back to the computer screen and try and concentrate. Things are quiet for a minute, but of course their breathing gets heavier and heavier and it becomes more distracting. Me: Nonno you can put her in bed now. Nonno: 'Ma, voglio aspettare finchè si dorme bene, bene'. Which means 'I want to wait until she in a deep deep sleep'. And repeat the same scene a few more times with their breathing getting louder and louder. Any deeper of sleep and both of them would be in a coma, so finally I am like Goddammit: 'NO-NNOOOOOOO (said as if they are two separate words) I can't concentrate could you put her in bed PUHLEAAASE'. And of course he says 'Oh' and teeters off upstairs. Why didn't I just do that the first time? Now it's way after 11 and I have hardly written a thing and I still have my EFI project to do. I fizzled out on the last project, Isabella was not impressed, I know I need to kick it up a notch, but I am just too tired to do anything. As I've said before, I'm not one of those people that work well under pressure, I need lots of time to think things through and work out. That is, unless, I get lucky and get hit with a random lightening bold of an idea.
It's much later now, it must be three-ish: I've finished my essay, I was going to leave it all choppy with my half written ideas, go to bed a bit earlier and fix it in the morning, but I've decided to finish up just now instead. It's so late, I can't get up any earlier than 6:30 or I won't have had slept at all. My project is for 3 year old EFI kids, the pages I got are to learn about a family members (the teddy family) and clothes. I'm thinking about stealing the stacking cups from Sophia and attaching pictures of the four family members on, with the Papa Bear being the largest and down to the little brother bear. I don't know, it's not that great but I'm out of energy, esp the creative kind. So for the clothes part, I'm going to paint the kids to look like bears or paint their hands to be a bear hand puppet, (I know that some kids don't really like this. Sophia hated having her face painted at this age, but we're actually all adults pretending to be kids and so no one will really care) and (then I've stolen some clothes from the kids' dress up box: a bright pink barbie dress, because i know that that's a favorite here and that expandable bright shirt my mom got for me in China. (Sorry Mom, I've never worn it, it's not my color and when I put it on, I look like some weird, out of water puffer fish. But it's not gone to waste, the kids use it all the time ) and some random shoes, socks and etc. I couldn't find any shorts since we have none in the dress up box and the kids stuff summer stuff is put away. I'll hide them in obvious places and have the 'kids' be the bears hunt for them (the verbs are really shop and put on-but I can't figure out how to work that into the game). I wish I could find adult sized clothes, but I don't have enough time or stuff at hand. Since I need to create dialogue I'm going to hold up the stuff they bring and repeat/try to have them repeat the name of the item when they hand it to me. Hmmmm, if I paint the kids faces to look like bears I can have them put on the items to be the Mom (purse), Dad (tie), boy (hat), girl (hair bow)-but it's not that great of an idea because only the sister and brother put on the clothes in the story. Anyways, I gotta ask Max for a tie in the morning.
OMG what a day! I went to bed too late last night, I didn't realize my iPhone was running low on juice and it turned off in the middle of the night. I woke up totally late and Max ended up having to take me to metro station closer to the city. The projects were fun to see, lots of people had great ideas, some people are still trying to figure stuff out. Yeah, the teacher liked my project/presentation. It was using play dough to make a monster and learn the parts of the body. I gave each kid a hunk and they could make a body, then I would prompt them 'Would you like to make some eyes, how many do you want?' and they had to say 'May I have 3 eyes?' etc.
We also did our demo lessons,(to show parents/kids how lessons are and if ). The demo is standard, everyone has to do the same thing, but of course we all put our individuality into it, so it never comes out the same from person to person. We have to do an introduction in Italian and then we go into English. I am very nervous because I don't like to speak Italian in front of groups of people. I know that my Italian is pretty good, but I'm still not that confident when I am the center of attention. We were split into 2 groups and I volunteered to go with Lorenza the head of all MFs in our area, who also was doing the evaluation, because I don't know her. I think I would feel more self conscious in front of Isabella. I was nervous anyways.
On the home front: All the Nonno has been talking about is taking Sophia ice skating. I keep telling him, you can't just shove her on the ice and expect her to have fun, she needs adult supervision and someone to play with her. I got home today and before I even got my coat off, Sophia told me (guiltily) is that Nonno bought her mittens. Today they went to the rink in Brugherio's center, they didn't take any gloves, so she couldn't go. So the Nonno went and bought her an expensive pair of ski mittens - and for what???? so she could go ONE day? It's not like she doesn't have 100 woolen mittens from them already! And then the Nonno just remembered that he forgot to gas up our car (I guess Max had asked). I think he was thinking out loud to himself, but I said I would do it, (because I needed to get out of the house and get some air). But of course, despite me having my jacket and shoes already on, the Nonno insisted that he go and argued with me, just adding fuel to the fire. By the time I got back, Max was home and said he had the day off so he would take her tomorrow. The Nonni have such hard heads!
Project 2: sports. have no clue what I am going to do. I will probably bring in the items from sports and have the kids run to them and try them on. But we need to make something, so I'm thinking flash cards. Maybe they can run up and touch them? match the correct items to the correct flash card?
What the hell am I talking about? Remember I got that job? Well, I need to do a Teacher Training Course first (hence the acronym TTC) . The company is called Helen Doron Early Education (HDEE). Now you get the title right? Okay, well I kind of went in with a bad attitude today. The course is not cheap, it bothers me a bit that I have to pay for a class to work for them, but I get it. HDEE franchises out and the franchisees don't want to spend the money training the teachers and then have them run off and teach on their own or for someone else. So I get it. What pissed me off is myself. I paid the money and asked questions later. It happened that I did the interview. Aside from getting to know each other and our experiences, my MF (Master Franchiser) had me sit in and see some classes in action. I was a bit limited on time, so I asked if i could come in at the end of the little kids class (what I now know is called EFI) and then the first half of a big kids class (EFAC). I sat in with Marcella and I have to say that I was quite impressed with how the class worked, I could see there was some sort of book or plan that they followed and I know that the school has only been opened since Sept and I could see the level of English that the kids are at already. It was quite impressive, I could tell it was totally opposite that from when I worked at DoReMi, where they basically just threw me in the class with 30 kids and closed the door and said teach. Marcella knows what she is doing and is follows some sort of plan. One of the hardest things to do is to plan out what you're going to do and the order the order that you will do it in. It has to be methodical because you really can't teach certain things before you teach others, but there is so much material in life to cover, it's hard to figure out where to start. Based on these 50 minutes of observation and chatting with the MF, I accepted the job and shelled out the money and signed up for the TTC.
Wait, wait, back it up. I forgot I also had to go to the main franchise in the city (Milan) and interview with the MF there and observe a class there. Let me just say I was not impressed this time, the school was crazy and hectic and stuff was all over the place and the MF was answering phones and cutting out some papers and coloring some project for somebody's lesson while she interviewed me and then she just shoved me into one of the classes to observe and I didn't get introduced or know if I had to help or whatever. And these mothers and kids and teacher just stared at me and when on about their business as if I were even there. It was weird. The teacher was active and great with the kids - there were only 2 kids that day. They were about the age of 2, in this sparse room. One of the kids was totally out of control and had no social skills, I could tell he doesn't go to the asilo (preschool). And the moms spoke and repeated the objects in Italian, which I totally hated when other teachers did that at DoReMi. The kids can see the object, they need to arrive at the conclusion that the car in my hand is a car because they see it, not because someone is telling them macchina. I'm going to give the teacher props, because she was good despite the chaos, she kept them active and had things as under control as she could in this type of situation. So anyways: there were parents and kids and props lying all over the place and everything was so chaotic when I got out of the class. I went back into the office, was polite and left, thinking 'No way in hell would I work for this place,' but I really like the MF at where I would work and the place is smaller. It's definitely totally less chaotic and I was still impressed with the method and the things they do with it (there are also weekend and holiday workshops and they put on play and stuff in English).
Anyhoo, so this is why I decided to take the job and paid for the course. The problem is, that after I waited for my MF to call and let me know what was going on. She was very prompt with sending me the paper work and everything, so I couldn't understand why once I paid, I hadn't heard back from her much. Last Thursday I started to panic, I still didn't know the address or what time I had to be there or what I needed to bring. I ended up emailing the MF and found out I needed not slip socks and found out the course was at the place where I went for the second interview (which in itself is another story. The MF told me in zona Fiera, so I was thinking the one in Rho, which is outside of Milan and probably takes 1.5 hours on the Metro during rush hour. She actually meant the old Fiera, which is much nearer. This part I was fine with, since it was just a misunderstanding). Sunday I received a a forwarded email from my MF with the hour (which said 9am to 5pm) and address of the course.
This is why I arrived late and with a bad attitude. To top things off, I rang the bell and somebody buzzed the outer door open. You have to then walk down a short flight of stairs to get to another door to the learning center. Somebody popped her head out, she didn't say hello, didn't ask if I was there for the course, didn't say anything, she just looked at me like who or which one are you? She had popped her head back in by time I got to the door and I was thinking WTF have I gotten myself into. There were a bunch of girls that already had their coats off and some were sitting on cushions in one of the class rooms. Some girls seemed as if they already knew each other. One girl (who actually arrived after me) asked if we needed to bring in paper and pencil. Now I was really in a panic, because I realized nobody knew what was going on. Well, at least we were in the same boat. I told her I didn't know, but that I was going to and went in the room and I sat down. There girls inside the room had already formed a circle and there was no room for me to sit, one of the girl's scooted over to make room (I now know her name is Ilaria), but I declined since I wanted to lean against the wall, my back hurt from standing on the metro, I had to hold onto one of those above head bars and you know I am short and can barely reach. The trainer came in, from first impressions, she seemed nice enough. Introductions were made, we talked a little about ourselves (and our age, which luckily for me -is always an ice breaker. It's embarrassing, but people laugh and open up a bit when they find out I'm at least 10 years old than they would have guessed). There were 12 of us, mostly from the Milan area, a couple from farther away in Italy and 3 from outside Italy-only two other girls are MT English). I'm impressed the trainer learned our names after one introduction.
Then Isabella (the trainer) started showing us a video about the HDEE classes- I was now thinking OMG WTH is she trying to sell us on the course or something?? I was wondering if it was worth it to call my loses and try to escape at the lunch break. And then it got worse...she started talking about various methods that HD developed her method from. (at this point I am thinking to myself, good thing I brought paper and pencil-but do I really want to write any of this stuff down??). The methods were mostly developed around the turn of last and seemed old and outdated. She mentioned scientists and researchers like Maria Montessouri, Suzuki, Glen Doman (basically the grandfather of the Your Baby Can Read thing) and Steiner. One of the older kids who attended Sophia's school last year, now attends a Steiner school . The kid's mom has told us a lot about the method - it sounded so cultish and antiquated (and she believes in it-so of course she spoke positively). Anyways, the lectures were sort of interesting in a weird, 'thank god, now I know I will never send my kid to one of those places way'. I mean, it's a bit like religion, there are some fundamental things that these people discovered that are valid even today, but there are other things that clearly outdated. For example, with Steiner, he believed that kids should make their own toys and play things out of natural products like cotton and wood and stuff. Which is totally great. It's like the Slacker Mom book, don't give your kids ready made things all the time. If given the chance, they can make something out of nothing. Kids are imaginative and it's amazing what they can do with a stick-they can make conduct an orchestra, mix the batter for mud pies, make a musical instrument, decorate a cake, etc etc. And that part I get. They also don't want to teach kids everything, but would like to give the the instruments to arrive at thier own conclusions. Again, I get it. But, in the method, they aren't allowed to use electronic things, shouldn't touch things like metal or plastic until after a certain age, certain steps should be made when preparing the food (like only using a wooden spoon to mix) . We live in Milan, people are rich and send their kids to Steiner cuz it's cool, are you trying to tell me these kids don't have a flat screen TV n their room, don't surf the net or play DS, don't have toys and furniture made with plastic, don't have polyester blended into their Calvin Klein Tshirts and their moms (or cooks) make their food without using a KitchenAide, microwave or glass top electric stove, I know no one walks to school-so cars would be out too. There needs to be a happy medium. The kids also stay with the same teacher from the time they enter the school, until the time they get out. You can figure out the advantages and disadvantages of that yourself. All the time I am wondering, how much longer until the break? I did end up changing my mind by the time the break did roll around. I figured out, she just introduced those names and methods just so that we could see, HD took the pros and left the cons of each method and then rolled up all the pros, updated it all, added music, poems and stories and made her own method. Okay, I got it, this was all starting grow on me.
We all went to lunch at a nearby inexpensive restaurant and started to get to know each other a little better and of course that was fun. We went back and did other things to get to know each other a little better, like what languages we speak, experience, etc. And then we found out we have to give standardized demo lessons. Uh oh, starting to freak out again....I didn't sign up for a sales job!
The trainer explained more about the method and how games and activities are changed often to avoid boredom and keep thing exciting, some of which we have to create and some of which are standard (like songs, stories and flashcards). She showed us some of the things she does. One of the activities was on the body to the song head, shoulders, knees and toes. She has a silhouette of a body and prompts the kids to say what is missing and uses bottle caps for the eyes and ears and mouth and nose. Simple, but effective. See how the methods are applied now-give the kids a little and let their imagination do the rest. And then we found out that we would have to do projects too, due tomorrow. Uhm SAY WHAT? Not only was the part about bringing pencil and paper left out, but so was this part!!! I mean, I'm glad that it's not all theory, it's also put into practice. I'm also glad, because this is what I like to do best (and now somebody is actually going to pay me to do it), but....despite the Nonni being here, it also means 2 other people to take care of. It's a double edged sword. Plus the girls and Max isn't home tonight. Guess what project I got, the one Isabella just demoed -this makes it much harder, cuz now I will be compared. Now how am I going to teach the same lesson, but differently???
One of the girls (Francesca) lives in Brugherio and we took the metro home together. It great to have someone to go over the days events and see what her ideas were. Plus she gave a strappo a casa (literally: a rip to house, but it means a ride home :o)
I got home and Sophia was not so happy. Last night her friend Valentina asked her for a sleep over, originally I had to say no, because the Nonni were here and I was going to be out all day, so neither Max nor I could pick her up before late. Karol and Paola (Giorgia's mom) were so sweet, they had already planned a day out at the pool and to play after the sleep over and they offered to take Sophia too. But, when it was time to go, Sophia decided she didn't want Paola to take her, only one of us. In the end they convinced her to go with Paola, but I still came home to two whiny little girls that wanted their mommy. I can see this is going to be a tough week!
Last night I was organized and prepared the dinner for tonight. The Nonni hadn't time to do the shopping, but I'm sure after this it will be a battle for who will cook dinner. I know that I need to let the Nonna do it, but her cooking drives me nuts and then she has to tell me detail by detail the recipe of food I will never make. But the Nonni already have started buying mountains of bread as if tomorrow they are going to stop making it forever:
This is the project: a picture of some kid with the parts of the body from head to toe (and including parts of the face, it even has teeth) and then the HSKT songs. I was thinking of doing some sort of memory game or match up/puzzle or twister, but I've searched the internet and I can't find anything. I keep trying to draw parts of the body, but Vivienne has decided she doesn't want to sleep and I am having a hard time looking at the internet and drawing with her squiggling body between me and the screen and the piece of paper.
Much later: damn I couldn't get anything done. This is all I could come up with, it's a twist on Isabella's project: point out body parts (I'm leaving out teeth) instead of using the silhouette, I've made some play dough (cuz it takes less time than drawing all those parts) and ups to my sister, who gave me food coloring that included black. The human body is too hard, but monster bodies are fun since they are simple and easy to do. Crossing my fingers that this works out, I really didn't have enough time to prepare.
