Celebrate the Small Stuff (aka It's ALL Big Stuff)

Anyone who works with (or has) children has heard the phrase, "Celebrate the small stuff!" or something to that effect. Until now I had wholeheartedly agreed. I now see the slight error of that notion. If we're celebrating the small stuff, we're still treating those "small" things as small things. But they're aren't, they are the big things that make everyday a monumental occasion worthy of celebration.

A few days ago one of my 3 yrd old students with Autism ran away from me while we were all in the bathroom. I called his name and he stopped where he was and waited for me to retrieve him.

To anyone reading this I'm sure this is a small thing worthy of no more than a "Good listening". Or perhaps even a reprimand for running away in first place.

However, this is a child who has myriad locks on every door in his house because he WILL and DOES run away from his acreage home. He has no compunction about bolting across a busy road or into a parking lot. He regularly attempts to escape from our classrooms. Never ONCE has he ever stopped just because his name has been called. When I told his mom what happened she was shocked and could hardly believe it. He stopped?!

Now, I ask you, was this a small thing?

The last day of school before the Holidays a 4 yrd old student with Autism put down his toy cars and asked me if he could paint some pictures.

Big whoop, you say?

This is a child who is terrified of anything messy or that can possibly be perceived as messy. Until that day, for 2 yrs this child has had to be cajoled, bribed or physically forced (sometimes all three) to participate in ANY craft for more than 30 sec. And while "participating" he screams, cries, flails and begs to be let free to play with his cars.

He PUT DOWN HIS CARS, walked over to me of his own free will and ASKED to paint more pictures!

Little thing or big thing?

Take another look at the children in your life. Are you overlooking some big things to celebrate?

Crazy Day!

What a day! Let's recap the highlights of day three of my "vacation".

1) Excited about getting a new washer/dryer tomorrow my loving hubby goes downstairs to disconnect the old ones

2) Few minutes later frantic yelling has me barreling down the stairs only to see a wall of water where my hubby should be

3) After using every towel, tea towel, dish rag and facecloth we own we've done the best we can to sop up the flood of hot water

4) The water to the whole house is now shut off because the pipe itself broke off, how does one fix this?

5) Frantic phone messages to my handy-man dad whose out in the woods chasing coyotes bring him home early

6) Yay for daddy! 3 hours later he's chopped off the pipe and soldered on a new tap! Woo hoo!

7) Realization the drywall is still soaked and must now be torn down and replaced. Joy. :(

8) Finally received confirmation that I've been underpaid for the past 4 months and the back pay will be added to my Jan cheque and I'll be making a few hundred more per month for the rest of the school year! Now we can afford all that drywall! ;)

Here's to a more relaxing rest of the "vacation". :D

How Dorky Am I?

So here I am on day two of my Christmas break. Yesterday I: slept in, hung pics, hung curtains, got groceries, went & saw my babies, made a bulletin board set for January, did laundry, made stir fry & watched some TV.

Now I'm bored! I am such a dork! What am I going to do with the rest of my two weeks?

Gah!

Hmmm...

Strange isn't it? To think about where we were when we were starting out our "grown-up" lives. Say right after high school or during university.

Even stranger to think how we thought our life would turn out back then.

Sitting on the couch this evening, looking at my gr 12 scrapbook. On the couch with me was my bff from way back then. On the floor playing were her two beautiful little ones.

There we were, remembering where we've been, what we wanted, what we thought we were going to get out of life.

I'm married and a teacher, she's getting divorced, has two great little boys, she's even gone back to school recently.

Neither one of us are anywhere near where we thought we would be. But that's okay. Some of it's better, some not so great. Just had me reflecting. We thought we had it all together, all figured out, all planned out.

Hmmmm...

Interesting, isn't it?

What's Your Name Again?

One of my students has a baby sister named Isabelle. She always comes along when he gets picked up/dropped off at school.
She, of course, was there this morning when the kids were getting picked up and we all said , "Hi Isabelle!"
One little guy who just loves her, says to his little friend, "Look, it's Isabelle!"
Well his little friend got VERY upset and started raising his voice and getting quite angry. He even hit him!
So I got down and asked him what was wrong, why was he upset.
"She's a baby! She's a baby!" He yelled.
"You're right, she is a baby. Her name is Isabelle."
"NO! She's not a bell! She's a BABY!"

He thought we were saying she is-a-bell.
Love it!

I'm With You, Man!

You all know how I feel about Christmas. AKA my obsession!! :)

Last weekend I set up my classroom for Christmas. Tree (which the kids decorated and it's AWESOME!), lights around my bulletin board, lit up Santa, I even made stockings for each child and staff member & hung them! Needless to say, my room rocks!

So the kids walked in on Monday and had varying reactions to my Christmas wonderland. Some didn't even notice, some were very upset I had a tree up cuz (according to them) it wasn't Christmas yet.

One of my fav little guys with autism has had the same reaction every day all week. I love it so much I now join him in his little daily ritual.

He comes in, takes his outerwear off, puts it away, walks over to my lit up bulletin board, grabs my hands and chants "Chrimas! Chrimas! Chrimas, Mrs. R! Chrimas! Chrimas!"

We now cling to each other's hands as we do a strange little dance/hop together chanting "Chrimas! Chrimas! I so cited! Chrimas!"

Pretty much the fav part of my day now.