The Many Roles I Play...

Being a kindergarten teacher is not as easy as it may seem. Our everyday life’s is full of challenges, knowledge, fun and laughter. For the children we are what they want us to be… their teacher, mother, sometimes father, pet, maid, chef, friend, clown, driver, actor, doctor, lawyer, judge… you name it, THAT’S US!.. for half a day their care and safety depends on us. We have a responsibility to shape and mold the children to be decent human beings that will one day do their part to make a difference in this world.

Every last Friday of the month, we would have a swimming and birthday bash. It’s a fun day because the children don’t have to do any school work.. it’s just basically a day of FUN FUN FUN!! .. hheheh. We started the day with playing the “Freeze game” in class, I would normally make them freeze for a long time until someone across the room complains “Auntyyyyyyyyyy why so longggggggg????” heheheh… but they enjoy it and will always ask me to do that again..

We made a farewell and birthday card for one of my student whose last day is today. She is going back to Holland on Monday.. I’m really going to miss her. Her mom brought a cake for the whole school and we sang her the “Happy Birthday” song in 3 languages. She was so happy though out the day and was so busy telling everyone she turned 4 years old and then one of the so called “Johnny kid a.k.a the bad guy from the other class” says “So what!! I’m 5!!” But smart little Aysha replied “oOo well I’ll be 5 years old next year and I’ll have another cake to blow”, then Johnny no.2 just had to rub it in and say “ well then he will be 6 years old and you will still be 5!” my god some children are so competitive. I just had to butt in and put an end to this argument before one of them cries. Aysha also brought cookies for her friends. Since it was her last day of school, I made her the “Class Leader” so she gets to be first for everything and she gets to help me in class. She served us chocolate chip cookies and what yummy cookies they were ..hehehe.

After the snack break I changed all of them in their swim suits. We went down stairs for swimming… yay!. Four of my students couldn’t go for swimming because they had the Flu so they watched Barney instead.. *grins* yes Barney that perky purple dinosaur I hate so much!! Anyway, I was out side with 9 screaming children in 1 pool…heheheh a bit hard to control. As usual I have to turn myself into a Life guard, I normally lay out the safety rules and regulations before they get in the pool!! “ No pushing, No fighting, No drinking the water, No dipping your head in the water, No dipping your friends head in the water, No jumping, AND NO!! shishi’ing in the pool!!!” and each time they get in the pool I’m not surprise they do the totally opposite of what I said!. I got in the pool with them and just stood in the middle while they circle around me. Of cause I didn’t swim if I did they will have no space to move around.. heheh

From a Life guard I turned into a clown, after swimming we went back to the classroom and it was story time!! I magically transformed into the Big Bad Wolf.. hmmm and the 3 little pigs and their mother!!. It’s not easy putting on a show like that when you’re the only one acting all 5 roles… Anyway the children enjoyed the story as they burst out laughing. Then the unexpected happen a new parent popped in the class with the principle and saw me with big black ears, furry paw slippers, with a pink pig’s nose on… pretty embarrassing BUT the show must go on!!!

After the story, I turned into their parole officer and made them line up like a choo choo train… to wash their hands before having lunch. Somehow the water play didn’t end in the pool.. the children always seem to get themselves wet, there will always be 1 “Johnny kid” who will splash water at all the other children. Then the complains comes in, it takes at least 10 minutes to handle the situation and calm everyone down and get them seated at the table.

After that episode I magically turned into a waitress and prepared their lunch!! We had chips and sausages, this is the only food that they will eat quietly, enjoying their meal and licking the tomato sauce off the plate hheheh… they also had chocolate cake with strawberry icing and decorated beautifully with smartie * yum yum* and like Cinderella I had to do all the cleaning up after my mean step brothers and sisters.. yes, all 13 of em!!. They always manage to get more icing and cake on their clothes, hands and faces, then in their mouths… As a part time Indonesian maid *proudly says* it is my job to clean them up and have them looking like clean little angles when they go home. That is if they have spare clothes!

And when they have all gone home to their respective parents, I am left with an empty, quiet, messy classroom to look at. No matter how messy it looks… it always puts a smile on my face knowing that it was a great day and inside this room is where all the laughter, joy and happiness is. It’s a place where I love to be and I can imagine being here for a long long time, Happily ever after!

The end!!