not much has changed, but the scenery

So school is officially over, well it has been for about a week now. I am in transition from the school year to summer programming. I am with the big kids 1st-6th grade and they are a delight. Coming from the kindergarteners that are crazy and loud, these kids are gems and welcome relief.

I have been feeling these last few years that kids are growing up so fast, but this week has reassured me a bit that some things do not/have not changed much.

A girl brought in a plastic container that had a lot of strings organized in it and she wanted to make friendship bracelets. This is something that I did very often when I was young. I am currently sporting one on my ankle as we speak.

The girls have been playing school every moment they get. They pick up on all of the things that their teachers do and say and they mimic them to teach other. It is hilarious and also very endearing, because these kids are being kids. They are using their imagination and playing. Which is something that I did all of the time when I was young. School and house were my top two games I would play.

We played MASH the other day. One of the girls had a notebook with prewritten cateories. It was seriously a blast from the past. We would write our own categories that would fill entire notebook page from vacation spots to pet names. I married Simon Cowel which made me laugh.

I like that some things have stayed the same. Children seem to be amused with the same activities that amused us. They may have Ds' and PSPs, but we had Game Boys, or as my brother had a Sega Game Gear. It was much larger than the ones they have now a-days. But equally as effective. They still play school, kickball, and foursquare.

It gives me a little more hope that kids are still being kids. They may try to act cool and older than they truly are, but really they will jump at the chance to play school.

Big Step

So I took a big step today. It is a step that I needed to take a while ago, but for some reason I procrastinated, well I know the reason and I will get to it in a bit. I finally registered to take a few tests that I need to take to be a certified teacher in Illinois. You may be asking why it has taken me a year to register for these tests. Well I am afraid. As long as I can remember I have never been very good at tests, especially the standardized ones. I always second guess myself and I sweat like crazy because I am so nervous. I read and reread things numerous times because for some reason I am not retaining information because I am so nervous. I also didn't want to register for these tests because it is such a commitment. I hesitated when pressing the submit button because it was such a commitment, I was locked in. So weird.


Not sure if you remember back when I had to take a test for Family Video and I was so nervous, I was racing through things and I did not feel very good about the outcome, but I was wrong. I passed it, so maybe I am getting better at tests. We shall see, I have about a month and half to get prepared. I need to buy study material and put some real effort into this. Not my half-assed normal effort that I put into almost everything else in my life. But an extra dose of effort that is of someone else. Because I cannot afford to fail these things. I mean literally I cannot afford to fail them and then have to take them again. So fingers crossed.