kindie teacher moment of the week

Messing around with the Smile Cat App on your iphone with your 7 year olds is educational, non?

Well it's way more fun than practicing for a spelling test anyway...

^.^

❂ bisous ❂

Today was a slow burnin', takin' it easy, kids are off on spring break kind of day.

I spent the best half of this morning re-organizing our school library with children's book dust up my nose and in my hair and the delicious smell of musty, well-worn pages.

I so badly wanted to take my cup of chamomile and curl up in a corner with a stack of books and just read and read.

Children's book titles are simply the most enticing things to ten-year-old Louise's brain: 'The Accidental Zuchinni', 'Willie the Dreamer' and 'I love Cloud Bread' were some of my favorites of the day.

I love the dreaminess of kid's books, how the author can just flip open their head like a lid and let their imagination fly out onto the pages.

I have a secret little dream to be a children's book writer one day

When I was tiny I would lay in bed and Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton would take me by the hand and lead me on the most fantastical adventures every single night.

When I think back on those stories of magic and whimsy I am reminded of pure joy and happiness.

I'd love to to do that for a child one day too.

❂ bisous! ❂

kindie teacher moment of the week

Give two six year old girls a Batman mask printout and they'll quite literally turn him into a big ol' Queen,

beauty spot and all

 ~.^

You can also find me filling in for Nat over at Modern Buttercup today sharing this cute teepee stamp DIY.

Go check it out!

& finally a big congratulations to Natalie, she was the winner of my cute Korean stationary giveaway!

Peace, love & triple high fives people x

kindie teacher moment of the week

Check this pair out.

Bambini Kindergarten's resident lovebirds, Jessica and Johny, wearing their finest hanbok (korean traditional dress) to wish you all a "Happy Lunar New Year' in Korean.

This was because Koreans celebrated their traditional holiday Seollal (Lunar New year) this weekend..

I was invited by my lovely co-worker to observe the holiday with her and her family at her Grandmother's home but unfortunately this cold I can't seem to shake kept me in bed most of the weekend.
Otherwise I could have spent two days helping her family make traditional Korean foods, play folk games and perform ancestral rites at the graves of their dead relatives.

I'm sorry to have missed out on being a part of this very closely guarded part of the Korean culture~ the fact that they still observe their holiday traditions so fervently is why the sense of tradition and culture has been preserved in this country so successfully.

According to the Zodiac, Asians believe we are entering the Year of the Snake...in the Chinese Zodiac the snake symbolizes mystery and malevolence. 
Previous Snake Year's have included the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, the Tienanmen Square protests in 1989 and the 2011 terror attacks in New York.

What do you think?
Is this a year of bad omen or is it all a bunch of smoke and mirrors?

kindie teacher moment of the week

It's a hard life... being 6 years old, having the in-my-opinion-the cutest-name-ever: Bernard, being the cutest kid in school and all at the same time rocking this unbelievable superhero hoodie.

Can you seriously handle this cute?

Me? No.

Makes my womb do ten round-house kicks and fifteen back-flips just looking at this picture.

I can't wait for the day I have my own babies to squeeze....~.^

kindie teacher moment of the week

Our little 5 year-old bobbin, Julie, spinning and swaying and doing swirly whirlies with big ol' hearts in her eyes, clearly feeling quite the Disney princess in her sparkly pink birthday girl dress.

Can anyone ever get enough of cute tiny humans?

I can't watch them practice this graduation dance routine without my heart dancing a little bit inside.

>.<

kindie teacher moment of the week

Were you aware of the existence of the magestical uni-horned sea beast called the narwhal? 

Half dolphin/ half unicorn, I was oblivious to their crazy existence in this world until I stumbled on them in my kids animal curriculum some time last year.

Marvelous much?

Blog icon The Bloggess seems to think so too!

Couple these with a pack of Power ranger crayons and you have yourself a rad little school lesson.

I was a little perturbed by the last question on the worksheet though.

What was the first thing that sprung to your mind......? ^.~

Kindie teacher moment of the week

I set a class of 7 year old boys the project of making paper chain dolls of them with their friends.

The results?

Monsters, aliens, dumbo ears, rabbit suits and apparent fire-breathing skills.

Such is the life of a kindie teacher.

season of giving, day 2

This is a little montage of those babies of mine that keep me so busy every day.

Their little lives are so full of love, care and protection... dedicated teachers who take care of them for 7 hours a day until we bundle them up in their little jackets, mufflers and mittens and wave them off on a school bus which delivers each one of them into the warmth and love of their families apartments.

Beautiful children, lucky children, lucky like you or I who have had the privilege of growing up in a loving home, with money and parents and all the security and advantage that brings.

It was my intention to visit a Seoul orphanage during my vacation as part of this 'season of giving' thread I'm running but unfortunately for me, but good for the orphanages, there were no volunteer spots available at the short notice.

Although I am disappointed not to physically meet the kids it is also such a sweet pleasure to know that there are plenty of others out here like myself who wanted to reach out and give some time and help to the children less fortunate than those bundles of joy and energy I teach every day during this festive season. 

I still plan to volunteer in the future but for today I sufficed by making a donation to the Korean Kids and Orphanage Outreach System. A wonderful non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of the Korean orphans through outreach and education.

3 little things// the kiddos

One week, three tiny joys.

I've decided to dedicate today's 3 "little things" to around 30 little things. 

These little things pretty much dominate my day from 9 am to 6 pm 5 days a week.

They are a hurricane of energy and spirit, endless teacher hugs and sass.

They love to rub noses with me Eskimo-kiss style, call me "Rapunzel", write me letters and draw me pictures of themselves talking to me on their cell phone.

They arrive to school in the mornings bundled up in bunny ear body warmers, bobble wool hats and love-heart mufflers.

Heart swoons.

They love nothing more than to color and paint and help me decorate our Christmas classroom with a tree made entirely of tiny 6 year old hands traced on green paper.

They can be a tough crowd some days, I won't lie. 

But they put a smile on my face every single day.

Thank you to every one of my tiny little joys for pulling the nurturing mother and the playful clown out of this natural introvert.

They've helped me grow in so many ways and they'll probably never even know it.

the Highs. the Lows. the Kiddos

Like most, I've had a million and one dreams of what I want to be when I "grow up".

Children's writer, nutritionist, farm owner, bohemian body-tattooed circus contortionist.

Full-time Kindergarten teacher in a Korean English Academy was, I'm sure of it, never consciously added by me to that list.

Perhaps I have a chuckling spirit guide who came and wrote it in there in invisible ink or something because here I am, 29 years of age, at my third year of teaching in Korea.

My first two years here were breezy~ I was stationed at a Public Middle School in a beautiful coastal city, I met and started dating Dallas and we had an amazing set of friends, my work hours were short and the pay was so good I easily saved up for 3 months of adventuring with Dallas before returning back.

This time round Dallas and I decided to try our hand at teaching Kindergarten- not for government schools this time but privately owned English Academies or hagwons as they are known here. Cast your eye back to this starry-eyed post I wrote while I was preparing for my journey back to the Land of the Morning Calm....

there was definitely a death-grip on optimism going on in that post because life as a children's teacher has been everything but the candy-colored fantasy I'd envisioned. There my mind's eye was...dressing me up in cute peter-pan collared outfits, singing songs for the kids and painting rainbows like fricking Julie Andrews!

What I wasn't prepared for were the long, long hours, the large classes of under-7's all needing your attention at the same time. The constant fighting over who gets the longer pencil, the bigger eraser, who carries the teacher's book to to the next class or who sits in what chair.  The lunches they just wont eat. The snot,  the tears, the vomiting. The language barrier that is just as much frustrating for them as it is for you.

Lawd. I've had to give myself time-out more times than I care to mention where I just slowly count to ten and breathe for a minute during some cuckoo classroom scrimmages.
For all my fantasising and good intentions I'd willingly blinkered myself to a pretty glaring matter: KIDS ARE HARD WORK!! 

BUT, but.....

For every day Ive wanted to forget there's been another that I've loved and locked in my memory forever,  for every class that ended in tears and frustration there's been a class full of pure learning and creativity, for every ornery student there's scores more whose smiles and positive energy lift me up and inspire me. 
These kids and this year's experiences have forced me to grow  up more and learn more about myself and my potential than any other job I have put my hand to.
A happy teacher= happy students, folks

  There's a lesson in here champs. A lesson I've learned the hard way but the only way I could learn it. Testing myself, pushing myself to my very limit and not running away from a situation just because I didn't like it has been one of the most stimulating, rewarding and satisfying experiences for my heart and my soul. 

I recommend it....

...just go in with your eyes wide open, not crossed with stars like mine were, that's all!