Work

I love conference.  I love my family.  I love my roommates, new though they might be.  And then I absolutely love love love my job.  I was listening to conference and I think it was one of the talks yesterday that talked about how sometimes if you're not yet married you get the opportunity to have different kind of families and other kids that you get to teach.  Which I do.  Every day.  All day.

Just to kind of explain a bit of my job, I'll go through my saturday and kinda let you know what I teach and what goes down.  So I get to work about 9am, and set up circuits for my kids to go on.  These circuits have different mats and equipment that they kids will work different skills on, with arrows guiding them from one station to the next.  Part of my job, is to create these circuits, and change them every two weeks to go along with our theme, which this week for my tumble and tiny tot classes is The Polar Caps.

So come 9am on a saturday, I set up the circuits that we've been using all week and make sure the gym is ready for the madness that is saturday morning.  Our gym is fairly small, and on saturdays, we have about 5 classes of about 7 or so kids each with new kids every hour.  So about 35 kids going around these circuits one hour, and then 35 more kids the next hour.  But.  That's not counting my classes the first two hours.  Which are parent-tot classes.  Which means, I have closer to 12 kids under the age of 3, with their parent/nanny, all in the tiny space that is my gym, while the other coaches have their classes going on at the same time.

One day, you should come see the madness.  But it's organized madness.  It flows, the kids learn, have fun, and in my case, the parents learn too.  I'll go through the circuits with them, teach them how to help their child do the skills, and teach them why we do certain skills and what they lead up to.  And all the while, i sing songs.  :)  Say say oh playmates, come out and play with me....it's a hoot and a half and i love it.

Sometimes I wonder what parents think cause I am ridiculous, but it's fun, and the kids keep their attention better that way and learn better when I am being crazy...so crazy I am.  I sing songs, talk to the kids upside down, pretend to be penguins, polar bears, snowflakes, snowballs, snowmen, reindeer, snow leopards and whatever else my crazy kids come up with.  Snow bunnies.  and that's just this last week.

So on saturdays, I have two parent tot classes, and then one tumble tot class, which is the 4-5 year olds.  And yesterday was particularly rewarding cause I have finally got to that point where the kids aren't testing my boundaries.  At least not in that class.  My tuesday 3:30 class...that's another story.  But it's real rewarding to reach that point where you don't have to teach listening and paying attention...instead you can teach gymnastics.

Most of my mornings are pretty much the same, I have a parent tot class and then sometimes one other class and then something my gym does called open explore hour.  It's an hour from 11-12 on mondays through fridays when you can come with your child (under age 6) and play for an hour for $5.  Free play and it's real fun.  :)

I realize this probably wasn't a super helpful explanation cause I kinda jumped all over the place.  Maybe I'll explain a circuit next time.  But come and visit.  If you have a kid bring them to free play.  And now friends, as I would ask my preschoolers, what is the last song that we sing of the day??  The goodbye song!!  Bye bye coach Annie bye bye coach Annie....fare thee well and goodnight friends :)