The Tykes at Holiday Camp

I've been working at the tykes school for their Holiday Camp this week (and will continue to do so next week) and here are some things I've learned:

1. little boys *never* have their flies zipped. It's just not going to happen- dexterity comes later
2. tykes are GROSS. I've washed my hands more in the last three days than in the last two weeks combined. On the plus side: my fingernails are sparkling.
3. When holding hands with a tyke, say for street crossing purposes, your hand will be used to scratch their face, shove up their nose, brush hair out of their eyes, or stick into their ear.
4. There is a specific facial expression- sort of pleading, guilty, and concerned all at the same time- it means they need the toilet. Learn to identify it quickly.
5. If you start paying attention to a tyke they will most likely want your attention, undivided, for the next 20 minutes. Then they will drop you abruptly for a small wheelie truck.
6. This isn't exactly something I learned- but today one of the girls came up to me and exclaimed "all the flowers are gone!" meaning the patch of grass she'd been messing with had been picked clean of dandelions. Naturally my first response to that was to tell her that there was a song about that and to start singing Pete Seeger's "Where have all the flowers gone?" to which she reacted by looking at me like I was crazy and possibly dangerous before scampering off to go be a dragon/good fairy.

So far we have had free play time, gone to the science museum (where I had a lovely time talking to a kindly grandmother in the play space), set up the hall as a gym with hula hoops, a small climbing structure and a collapsible tunnel, and gone to one of the play areas in Hyde Park.

When we go on outside adventures the teachers wear neon yellow "City of Westminster" safety vests. Cute. Then we explain that the tykes need to look for the green man before crossing the street and that they must hold our hands, no really, we mean it. Also- catch up to the people in front of you in line and please stop hitting our butts!

Holiday camp is basically babysitting for 16 three year olds with three other babysitters who don't all totally agree about what is supposed to be happening. So that's kind of frustrating. I like teaching music better- there is a set thing I am supposed to being doing with the tykes and the structure helps. That being said the other three women I'm working with are lovely and we're getting better at working together as the week progresses.

We have a few problem children- one has just moved here from Argentina and doesn't speak a word of English. It is such a huge change for the foreign kids- we had a big break through today in that he spent the entire afternoon with us without his nanny and only cried pathetically for about 10 minutes which is a huge achievement. We also for the first time today ended up with a new nearly six year old girl from Hong Kong. She's also dealing with the abrupt change to everything she knows- but she was good by the end of the day too.

Then there is a family of three siblings and their friend from another school. They are a handful. A demanding, smart enough to know how to play us, and snarky for four/five handful. I secretly like them, but they rile each other up and then the rest of the class up and life would be much easier without them in it currently. That being said, I kind of like watching the schemes the eldest has- she reminds me of Jimmy and his "pajamas are too interesting!" comment. I feel like Laine could totally school this kid. Come visit Laine, help a sister out.

In other news I have borrowed a recorder and a beginners book to teach myself the recorder. I've been sitting at my kitchen table and chortling to myself while attempting to play. I'm on page 27! It's a waltz with 5 pitches, tied notes, slurs, and it is in 3/4 time. Fancy.

The Tykes have Parents

This is the first in a series of catching up blogs. I know you want to know about the performance, but I'm starting with Parent's open music day at school last week, because it is chronologically the first thing I need to catch up on- and that's just how I roll...


So parents day: I was nervous. Why was I nervous? Because all the stories I hear in the staff room are about parents being awful and meddling, and though I love their kids- I didn't want to be hauled out in to a hallway and forced to explain myself and why I was being such a rubbish music teacher. So I was nervous.

For the nursery children we sang Kalele, My Minibeast Friends, Tiny Caterpillar on a Leaf, Simama Ka and I am the Music Man which is a handy song because it takes quite a while for the kids to all get their instruments and settle down. The first class was bouncing off the walls in anticipation of the parents being there- so instead of being in class we had the performance/open class in the hall/cafeteria. There were a lot of parents so we sang Kalele which is a welcome song to all the parents. We sang for Mommies, Daddies, Nannies, Brothers, Sisters, and by particular demand: babies. We sang My minibeast friends which involves crouching on the floor and it was amusing to see the couple of children who just stood there the whole time- a little bit shell shocked by the audience ranging around them. In tiny caterpillar we had a good range of spinning into butterflies, and with Music Man I had the genius idea of handing out instruments to the little brothers and sisters in the room as well. I think we got them all back...

So that class went splendidly and was a wonderful success and a great way to actually start the day. The time went by much more quickly than I had expected it to. In the later nursery classes we got a big laugh when we got to the verse in My Minibeast Friends where the tykes had named their own insects "Princess the Butterfly" and "Darth Vader the Cricket"

At lunchtime I got a call saying that my own parents had arrived so I went and collected them and got them set up with food before heading back down to teach the reception children. In reception we only had one song to perform so I had another song to teach in order to show what that process was like. In the future I will have multiple songs to perform, but live and learn. The next time I have to do something like this will be for the Christmas Show in the Winter. Should be good times.

Some of the reception kids we charming with the announcement of their parents "My Daddy is in the blue shirt! Back there! Hi Daddy! Miss Casey, did you see my Daddy?" and also stopping the class halfway through to announce very clearly and precisely that they needed the toilet and could they go use the toilet now?

Anyhow- the end of the story is this: I got rave reviews from the parents, had a wonderful time with the tykes, and AND at the end of music club (which was very low key- I was exhausted) one of the parents brought me chocolates and flowers: this big beautiful bouquet that she handed me after she handed me the chocolates. I didn't understand that they were for me and once I finally figured it out, I was shocked! Flattered, but shocked. Beautiful flowers with sage in the arrangement so it smelled lovely.