Sea legs

So as long as I'm up, at the computer and with my blog open...I may as well go for another post, right??? 

I wanted to post briefly that I feel I've finally got my sea legs under me in the classroom.  The first month-and-a-half at school I was working with a substitue teacher (who was fantastic!) while my teaching partner from South Africa was getting her visa details sorted out.  It took far longer than anyone anticipated, which is why they had to call in a long-term sub to start the school year.  Although he was a fantastic teacher and a calming presence in the classroom, it was stressful knowing that everything would change once the "real" teacher got here.

Now that she has been here for a full month, I am really starting to feel like I have direction and I know what I'm doing.  She is incredibly knowledgeable, very kind, gentle and soft spoken with the children, but also firm and demanding in her expectations of excellence from them.  I love her!  We are very much on the same page and I feel we make a really wonderful team.

Sadly, the move to Spain has been extremely stressful for her and a combination of stress and strange European viruses have got her feeling so bad that last Wed. she was admitted to the hospital!  I was not entirely alone in the classroom as the teacher coordinator was assiting me; but I was the one who knew what the kids' routine has been, what they've been working on and what they should continue, what new things could be presented, etc...

I was so proud of myself for being able to calmly take over the classroom and really keep the kids generally quite on track.  Of course, that is due in a very large part to all the groundwork laid jointly with my co-teacher in these past weeks, but still, if this had happened in the first weeks of school, I probably would have fainted on the spot or run home crying! 

Friday is art in the 1.5 hours after recess before going home and I felt so in control of the situation.  The night before I had the brainchild to experiment with color gradation.  They had previously done something similar with black and shades of grey.  So during the 30 min. of recess, I was madly making up an example, marking white cardstock so they could quickly draw a grid using a ruler, setting up the tables with palettes, brushes and water...  It went smooth as silk, and some of our most "difficult" children were completely absorbed in the activity.  I even had them finish in time to get the classroom cleaned up and in shape for them to go home on time. ;) 

I am very concerned for my co-teacher and hope she's back very soon, but I must say that Friday I was feeling pretty smug: large and in-charge! ;)

Birthday Bash!

Sweet potato cake with cinamon buttercream frosting.
Delicious...despite the extra butter!

 Here are some pictures from Emily's TWO birthday parties. ;)  Half as many parties as she is old!  Our second party in La Zubia was really fun and so, so easy.  I love homemade cakes and personalized parties with fun, crafty party favours, etc. but something like that just wasn't in the cards for her second party in Granada. There's no way I would have had time to bake a cake, much less deccorate a place, and arrange some kind of entertainment/craft for the kids... 

The ball park turned out to be the best deal ever!  It was 9 euros per child (not counting the birthday girl) and included EVERYTHING.  That is and hour + of play time, snack, drinks, cake, a little gift for the birthday girl and bag of party favours for the guests.  Then for an extra 20 euros you could hire a magician for a magic show.  We did that too.  It was a big hit--all of it. 

I wasn't so keen on the idea of the junky snack they prepare, but one day of that kind of garbage never hurt a kid.  Emily was thrilled.  She was pounding down the little corn puffs (like cheetos without the cheese power) and probably drank four glasses of chocolate milk!  They also served ham sandwiches and nutella sandwiches (eye roll).  Then there was chocolate cake for all.  I don't know how she didn't end up with a tummy ache, but all the kids seemed pretty excited to have free rein of whatever they wanted to eat.  I did feel slightly guilty, because it does go against my general beliefs of healthy eating and how we're raising Emily...but like I say, desperate circumstances call for desperate measures.  And really it was fantastic to be able to just take her there and have everything ready and prepared--absolutely zero headache.

Her jack-o-lantern came out for the party, too!

We even paid a little extra to have some savoury puff pastries and drinks of choice (coffee, tea, soda, beer...) out for the parents who stayed.  I spent the whole party sipping a coffee and chatting with other parents while Angelines watched over Emily. :)  The place has adult supervisors inside the three-floor ball park jungle gym, but that was a little too much for Emily.  She only stayed in there for about 20 min.  The big play area is designated for 4-11 year old kids and there is a separate area for the 3 and unders.  Emily had two guests who were "under-aged" and playing in the baby zone.  In the end she and two other four-year-olds opted to join them.  The owners were flexible, as originally they had said that the older kids were not allowed in the baby zone, but of course, Emily and her friends were better behaved than some of the 2-year-olds in there.  The only down side was that a parent was required to be in there with the little ones whereas the older kids were totally on their own.

We all bought Birthday hats and Emily was SO exited
...just not showing it in this picture!

The magic show was a surprising hit with Emily!  I didn't think she would be very game at all to go with the magician and participate in his act as I was pretty sure the birthday girl would be called to do.  I was such a shy child and couldn't stand being the center of attention in those kinds of situations where people might laugh at me.  I distinctly remember refusing to hit the piñata at a friend's party when I was around her age because I couldn't stand the thought of missing and having everyone there staring and laughing.  Emily has no such problem apparently.  She proudly identified herself as the birthday girl and then happily accompanied him up to the front to do some magic with him.  She got pretty into it.  He asked for her total concentration and "magician face" (which was a pretty terrible grimmace)...scroll down to the pictures, you'll laugh!

Friends and cousins in the bar. :)

Although the party food was less than healthy and the party itself was not so personalized as her fiesta in La Roda, I was really happy about one thing in particular: no presents!  There is a parent Whatsapp group at school and a mom propsed a very novel idea to save money and keep gifts in line with parents' values, etc.: rather than bringing a gift to the party, the parents will buy something in the name of all the school friends present.  It sounds strange, but it's actually a great idea.  All of the parents who have agreed to this idea are on a list and when your child is invited a listed child's bday, all you have to do is show up.  There is no worrying about what to buy or what the child is interested in or what the parents may or may not approve of; you just go and have fun!  From the parents' side of things, you save money NOT buying presents for other kids and can therefore afford to spend a bit more on your own child and buy them an extra something "from their friends" that is in accordance with your own values, etc.  Emily's friends gave her the magic show as a gift.  Several kids also brought beautiful handmade cards and pictures for her. So although in some ways it was your stereotypical junk-food party, it was really wonderful that everyone who came was just there to have fun, celebrate and be with Emily.  In my opinion it was really what a birthday should be about.  There was none of the gift comparing, greedy ripping through wrapping paper, or faking (or not) that you like someone's present.  It was just so much more natural.  All the kids had a blast and Emily most of all. :)

Following strict directions to carefull hold the glass while concentrating on her "magician's face".

Along the lines of birthday greed/consumerism, there was a birthday party of 30 kids there that same day.  The birthday kid walked out of there with several garbage bags full of gifts...  When you get so much, you value very little, in my opinion (and experience).  A thoughtfully drawn picture means so much more, and when it's not compared to some fancy Barbie doll all the better.

Emily didn't miss the presents one bit.

To respect different parents' wishes about kids' pictures online, this is the only one I'll post...but they were a cute bunch. ;)

One down, one to go...

The birthday party was a success; though we have decided that next year we will just have a party in Granada with her school friends.  We celebrated at the bar like last year, but it was virtually exclusively family, which means not many kids her age.  Only one little friend from town was there...  Emily didn't seem to mind not having friends to play with.  She is very accostumed to adult company and this is actually something we're trying to work on now that she's in school: relating to peers and making friends her own age.  She has bonded more with her teachers than any of her classmates.  With that in mind, having a birthday part in Granada with school friends is, I think, especially important.  Thus the title of this post: one (party) down and one to go. ;)

This week completely got away from us.  We were still recovering from our colds (me my sore throat and Emily bronchitis), and this week we were struck by a stomach bug!  All of the teachers at school were ill.  We were dropping like flys!  Tuesday I was in class alone since my teaching partner was sick at home with some kind of flu.  And then I went home Wed. after throwing up at school.  Thankfully Thurday, I was much better.  In my case, at least it seems to have been a 24-hour bug.  But then around 5am on Friday Emily was throwing up in bed.  Angelines isn't in Granada with us after Thursday mornings because she comes back to La Roda to open the bar.  I had no one to leave Emily with and so ended up not working Friday either!

Anyway, between hospital visits (we visited the ER because Emily's cough didn't seem to be improving even after using the inhaler for 3 days) and stomach bugs, we have had no time to research places in La Zubia to celebrate a birthday party.  I am hoping to get things lined up today because searching online I found a fun ball park, indoor play place very near our piso in Granada, and be able to celebrate with her friends on Wednesday.

So somehow in the time after school, I'll have to find time to make another cake and organize the food and party favours for a second fiesta.  My coconut and sweet potato cakes came out delicious!  I mistakenly read the buttercream frosting recipe when measuring the butter for the sweet potato cake, though and so put in half again as much butter as needed!!  It came out more brownie-like than cakey, but it was still delicious and everyone was surprised by how good it was.  When they heard "sweet potato", many said they prefered the coconut, but once they tried it, everyone wanted more.  As party favours we had beads and elastic string so the kids (or adults) could make their own little souvenir bracelettes. :)

I'm thinking of making invitations and a piñata with Emily today if I can get ahold of the place today and confirm the reservation.  It is a lot of work and bother, honestly, but I really do think that a party with her friends is important.  It's a great way to get a lot of them together outside school and build closer relationships in a different setting.  So... here we go.

I left my camera with party pics in La Zubia, sorry this is such a bland post.

Happy Halloween

So it looks as though I'm pretty much on the mark for my once-a-month blog post. :(  I had hoped to squeeze one in before the first.  This week has been a vacation week for me, so I really thought I'd be able to get that done, but...

Anyway, there is so much to tell, but I really just wanted to share a few pictures from our pumpkin carving.  Emily was so excited.  This was the extent of our Halloween celebrating, but she kept talking about the halloween party in the kitchen, :)  Poor kid.  There were no costumes or trick-or-treating and that party at school was canceled (to be rescheduled) because of inclement weather.

She drew out a pumpkin face and then I carved it into a jack-o-lantern.  Can you guess which of the two, she designed??  The other is for the bar.  When we lit the candle inside, I exclaimed, "Spooky Halloween!" and she caught onto that repeating throughout the day, "Smokey Halloween!" :)

This week has been a really much needed break.  But as so often happens when you're going non-stop and then suddenly stop, I started getting sick on Monday and by Wednesday evening had been prescribed antibiotics.  My throat has never in my life been so sore.  I can feel the inflamation (still), and I felt as though I was swallowing razors.  Even water, stung and burned as it went down!  Wednesday morning I went to the doctor here in La Roda and because I didn't have a fever, he prescribed nothing more than garggling with salt water and a painkiller/anti-inflamatory pilll.  We got a second opinion at 6:30 because I was near tears every time I had to swallow.  The second doctor shouted in disbelief when he saw my gigantic, red, tonsils (complete with puss pockets).  He said he couldn't believe I hadn't had a fever.  Now, after a full 48 hours on the antibiotics, I am feeling noticeably better.  I can swallow without grimmacing, though my throat is still very sore and I can still feel the inflamation.

Tomorrow we're celebrating Emily's fourth birthday (actually on Sunday).  I am up late in the kitchen finishing off her cakes.  She's asked for coconut and sweet potato!  ...Not exactly your run-of-the-mill four-year-old, right?  I always make two just to be sure we have enough.  This year I've also bought fondant and food coloring, so we'll see if my creativity gets flowing tomorrow. ;)

I promise a post party post (hehehe).  So that will bring up my monthly average slightly. ;)

Hugs for now.