kid training

the first few weeks of the year are pretty tiring at work cuz we gotta train all the kids on the kinder routine. some of them are starting to get it though!!! its great cuz having up to 28 of them, even when we do have up to 5 staff at times (usually 3, possibly only 2 on tuesday and wednesday starting next week) its never enough to help every kid with everything. the lunch to rest time routine is quite time consuming and requires a lot of individual attention to children. after lunch the children come in a few at a time (although this usually ends up being about 10 at a time) and they come to the cupboards to get their beding. each of their bed sheets etc are in numbered bags with 6 on each shelf. each child has a number and has to remember and they need to remember which shelf to find that number to get their bag. a few of them have fortunately figured this out. as for the rest of them, i spend about 10 minutes listening to kids saying (usually 2 or 3 at a time) "where is my stuff? where is my stuff?" which they repeat over and over until you help them (even if you keep saying "i will help you next. i'm just going to help so and so right now." they still keep repeating it). once they get their stuff they then have to find a bed (which starting next week they will have assigned beds with name tags placed on them) and then they have to put the special fitted sheet onto the corners of the mat (another thing that a few have gotten down; others unfortunately have NO CLUE even when expained and walked thru the process step by step). once they all have their beds we get to relax with them for a while, reading and listening to stories and music. then the whole packing up and putting beds away begins. this is slightly easier then getting them out but still a lot of moving around helping kids as quick as possible to avoid repeated calls for help. i'm excited for next term when most of them will have the routine down and the few that don't get it can easily get help from those who do and we can just oversee the whole thing and deal with issues that come up like lost teddy bears or wet mattresses after rest time..... we're slowly getting there though.