Happy New Year

Its been a busy couple of weeks!
I only had a few days off from work to celebrate the holidays so we tried to pack in as much activities as possible into those few days. Christmas was really exciting for us. We went to Will's mom's cabin in rural Maine and holed up there for a few days. We had a great time relaxing, going for walks and catching up with Will's family. The kids had plenty of adults to entertain them and it was a nice break for us to have other people take care of them ; )
Work has been crazy! I've officially taken over the classroom and have a new teacher under me. They still need to hire one more teacher so there has been a sub in our classroom the past few days. Its a new experience to be the one telling other people what to do while I teach but the new teacher has picked up what to do quickly and we feel a good flow in the classroom already. I've been crazily trying to get things setup and new material available. With so many new kids in the classroom, the main point that we need to talk about is community and friendship. One of the hardest thing to teach to others is empathy. And it is so needed for good relationships! While some might say its due to bad parenting, often it is more due to the child's life. When children need to take care of themselves, or protect themselves at a young age, trust and caring goes out the window. Its a challenge for me to find ways to get these children to truly care about others and such a reward when it happens. Keeping a positive attitude about each child is important while helping them. I never see any child as being bad, only ones that are trying to figure out the world. I look at each child as having different needs on different days. There is no one answer as to how to deal with any one child. The things that I can do is show them what unconditional love is, what safety and support means, and what acceptance means.