Educare

So I'm pretty sure that I am going to love this job. I could just have had a really good first day but let me remind you that this wasn't the kids or the programs first day. When I got there I met the guy that will be training me and about 10 minutes into our conversation we were laughing and I felt very at ease. Then we went through all the different procedures of checking kids in, how to collect money from their parents (auditers are picky), and how I will be paid (thats an important part). I also got Educare polo shirts...there is a different color for every day...even though yesterday all 4 of the directors had on different colors ??.
The kids arrived and immediately were interested in the new girl. He introduced me and pretty soon I was holding hands with one little girl who stuck by me the rest of the afternoon. Her name was Katelyn and boy can she tell a lie. She was trying to convince me that her teacher wanted her to color a white piece of paper blue, then use white out to write Cat in the Hat on it. Now, she had colored construction paper in her bag andI told her to use a blue piece of paper instead. She insisted that she had to color it...so she started coloring it, with a marker, that bled. Well then she saw me with a hole punch and insisted that her teacher wanted her to punch holes all over the paper saying "just like every other book". In a very sweet voice, I asked her if she had a paper with the directions on it and she said no and told me that if i didn't give her the hole punch then she was going to "make a zero on her homework". About 10 minutes later her mom came and she immediately balled up her "homework", threw it in the trash and skipped out. What an angel :).
It's also really weird what kinda stuff I pick up on now that I have had child development classes, child psychology classes and teaching methods. When all of my kids (3rd-5th) had left I went over to the younger group to see what was going on. They were in the gym playing with balls and hoola hoops. There is a boy with down syndrome in that group and he was walking around the border of the gym by himself. He was very responsive though and interested in what the other children were doing. As I sat down to play with one little girl I heard the other worker say "Kinzie, your mom is here". I of course turned around and noticed two other little girls running towards the door. The worker then said which Kinzie it was and she left. I got up and asked the other Kinzie how she spelled her name....Mackenzie. I told her what my name was and we were instant friends. We played roll the ball, bounce the ball and when I told her how I spelled my name she said "you spell yours wrong". When I asked her if we should invite Willie (the boy with down syndrome) to play with us she said "no, he won't want to". I said "he looks like he may" and she said " no, he doesn't play with us". I told Adam that its crazy, that this little kindergartner was already conditioned to notice differences and either be scared of them or discriminatory against them. None of the kids wanted to play with him actually. They already had labeled him and decided that they wouldn't include him. It was sad...but something I am going to work on...well when I get the time.
Other than that everything was fine, I got to leave early and we still get paid til 6. AWESOME.