(no subject)
I really did only get on the computer tonight to send a couple of work-emails, and somehow I got distracted by Sean and WW and LJ and THIS SONG. I was going to make some muffins tonight, but I am way too exhausted, and I've got a 6:30 start tomorrow morning...
I'm at Lifeline all of this weekend! It should be fun, I feel like I haven't been in aaages. If you're in Canberra, come and check it out; it's at the Budawang building in EPIC from 10am both days. A whole warehouse full of cheap books, and all for a good cause - how can you resist? (You actually should have gone on Friday, because all the best stuff goes then... I didn't make it this time either, though; real life got in the way. I suppose there's always April.)
Mum did go, though, and she picked up some books for my kids at work (that place is seriously in need of some new books, right now it's got about 90% crappy Disney Golden Books... I'm glad it's so close to the library, that's all I can say) and a box set of Narnia audiobooks and an Alice in Wonderland audiobook for $3(!) and $1, respectively. Now are you convinced that you have to come?
However, the REALLY exciting thing is... that I'm getting a lunch break tomorrow. And on Sunday! And I even kind of got one today! And then after that I don't have one until Wednesday, but still, this is a huge treat for me at the moment. :P
After that week it's the school holidays, and I'm taking a week off work to go to Meringo with my family and Julie and Samuel (who is seven now, what the hell?), and after that I think I've got another week off school and then I've got half a week back and then I've been invited to a conference up in Katoomba for four days...
Speaking of the kids at work, today I found out that one of them can write! Or sort of write - she doesn't really take the initiative to write on her own, but if there's something she wants to write down I'll spell it out aloud for her and she can write every letter perfectly. I think I'm going to have to work on linking letters to sounds and sounding words out, though; something tells me that she learned all the letters by rote and no one ever really taught her what to do with them...
Next week I'm going to make a real effort to start reading with them, reading individually and spending as much one-on-one time with each as I can manage. It's really amazing what a bit of individual attention seems to do for a kid... we have one kid, who's been there for about two months now, who until about two weeks ago did not talk, barely responded when spoken to, did not eat, did not interact with the other kids, nothing. Then a while ago, it was late in the afternoon and he was one of the only ones left, and I sat down and played with him and after maybe half an hour and all of a sudden we were having a conversation! He's a little hard to understand at times, but... wow. (I'm not taking credit for it, especially as I'm only there two days a week and I don't know what happens the rest of the time at preschool or at home, but things like this are so motivating anyway.)
God, I love this job so much.
Edit: Oh oh oh! I was talking to Luke the other day about Canberra, and he was saying that he liked Canberra, and I told him that he'd never lived anywhere else, and he said that he'd been to Sydney a few times to do a course at UNSW, which turned out to be... GERRIC. Hah! Apparently he started in about Year 5 and stopped in about Year 9, and I started year or two before starting primary school and stopped in Year 4 and then started again in Year 10... how unlucky did we have to be?! I think high school in Canberra would have been so different if I'd been in touch with all the Kaleen kids at that point...
Okay, going to bed now.
I'm at Lifeline all of this weekend! It should be fun, I feel like I haven't been in aaages. If you're in Canberra, come and check it out; it's at the Budawang building in EPIC from 10am both days. A whole warehouse full of cheap books, and all for a good cause - how can you resist? (You actually should have gone on Friday, because all the best stuff goes then... I didn't make it this time either, though; real life got in the way. I suppose there's always April.)
Mum did go, though, and she picked up some books for my kids at work (that place is seriously in need of some new books, right now it's got about 90% crappy Disney Golden Books... I'm glad it's so close to the library, that's all I can say) and a box set of Narnia audiobooks and an Alice in Wonderland audiobook for $3(!) and $1, respectively. Now are you convinced that you have to come?
However, the REALLY exciting thing is... that I'm getting a lunch break tomorrow. And on Sunday! And I even kind of got one today! And then after that I don't have one until Wednesday, but still, this is a huge treat for me at the moment. :P
After that week it's the school holidays, and I'm taking a week off work to go to Meringo with my family and Julie and Samuel (who is seven now, what the hell?), and after that I think I've got another week off school and then I've got half a week back and then I've been invited to a conference up in Katoomba for four days...
Speaking of the kids at work, today I found out that one of them can write! Or sort of write - she doesn't really take the initiative to write on her own, but if there's something she wants to write down I'll spell it out aloud for her and she can write every letter perfectly. I think I'm going to have to work on linking letters to sounds and sounding words out, though; something tells me that she learned all the letters by rote and no one ever really taught her what to do with them...
Next week I'm going to make a real effort to start reading with them, reading individually and spending as much one-on-one time with each as I can manage. It's really amazing what a bit of individual attention seems to do for a kid... we have one kid, who's been there for about two months now, who until about two weeks ago did not talk, barely responded when spoken to, did not eat, did not interact with the other kids, nothing. Then a while ago, it was late in the afternoon and he was one of the only ones left, and I sat down and played with him and after maybe half an hour and all of a sudden we were having a conversation! He's a little hard to understand at times, but... wow. (I'm not taking credit for it, especially as I'm only there two days a week and I don't know what happens the rest of the time at preschool or at home, but things like this are so motivating anyway.)
God, I love this job so much.
Edit: Oh oh oh! I was talking to Luke the other day about Canberra, and he was saying that he liked Canberra, and I told him that he'd never lived anywhere else, and he said that he'd been to Sydney a few times to do a course at UNSW, which turned out to be... GERRIC. Hah! Apparently he started in about Year 5 and stopped in about Year 9, and I started year or two before starting primary school and stopped in Year 4 and then started again in Year 10... how unlucky did we have to be?! I think high school in Canberra would have been so different if I'd been in touch with all the Kaleen kids at that point...
Okay, going to bed now.