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My Excuse For Not Getting Anything Done..
Jun. 27th, 2008 10:10 amI got very little done yesterday and I blame Crossroads (Mason's school.) Yesterday the entire Pre-K class (and, it seemed many other of the Crossroad Science clases) went on a field trip to the Children's Museum. I chaperoned.
It was... exhausting, although not as insane as you might imagine. Ms. R. got enough volunteer chaperones that each adult was given three to four charges. I was responsible for Mason and two other boys (Henry and Turuin [pronounced: Two-roo-n]). I was also supposed to have Rueben, but he was absent. When we first got into the Great Big Room as they call it at the Children's Museum I thought: "This is going to be a nightmare. I'll never keep three boys all moving in the same direction." But after about two minutes out in the actual exhibits I realized that the smartest thing to do was not to try. I took up a post at the entrance to the exhibit hall and explained to the boys when they were ready to move to the next room they should find me. If someone was done before the others they either had to wait or go convince their colleagues that it was time to go. It worked really well. Mason and Turuin had a great deal of fun playing a game we dubbed, "Where's Henry?"
I was able to do this, of course, because all three boys were actually extremely well-behaved. It took about three minutes to realize these three were not the kids that were going to destroy any exhibits or otherwise cause trouble by not sharing, kicking, screaming, etc. I could watch from a distance and let them have the freedom to run.
But I did have to keep my eye on them, and, of course, ocassionally herd them from room to room, which was surprisingly exhausting. I think, though, I faired much better than Tina's mom who seemed intent on micromanaging the four girls in her charge. She looked completely harried at the end of the day. I was tired, but not completely wiped.
I got to meet one of the other teachers (Mr. C.) who wondered what language I had on my t-shirt. I was wearing my "Free Mouse" shirt, so I explained that it was Russian and also that it was an obscure reference to a series of science fiction books I wrote. Mr. C. rolled with that pretty well... I didn't get the usual, "Oh, are they published?" etc. He actually seemed genuinely interested and enthused. I have to remember to bring him a stack of books.
Then last night was Wyrdsmiths, which was, as it always is, a lot of fun. My only complaint is that because I missed a few meetings thanks to Shawn's Dad's memorial and whatnot, I have a TON of manuscripts to read and review for next time. But that's really a minor complaint. Kelly has started his Black School series (which I'm intensely fond of),![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
naomikritzer is writing an awesome new YA about a faerie safehouse in Minneapolis, seanmmurphy is writing a cool urban fantasy, as is swords_and_pens, *and* Eleanor Arnason is handing out short stories again, so it's not a real hardship.
But I need to crack down and start getting my own writing done soon or I'm going to fall behind.
It was... exhausting, although not as insane as you might imagine. Ms. R. got enough volunteer chaperones that each adult was given three to four charges. I was responsible for Mason and two other boys (Henry and Turuin [pronounced: Two-roo-n]). I was also supposed to have Rueben, but he was absent. When we first got into the Great Big Room as they call it at the Children's Museum I thought: "This is going to be a nightmare. I'll never keep three boys all moving in the same direction." But after about two minutes out in the actual exhibits I realized that the smartest thing to do was not to try. I took up a post at the entrance to the exhibit hall and explained to the boys when they were ready to move to the next room they should find me. If someone was done before the others they either had to wait or go convince their colleagues that it was time to go. It worked really well. Mason and Turuin had a great deal of fun playing a game we dubbed, "Where's Henry?"
I was able to do this, of course, because all three boys were actually extremely well-behaved. It took about three minutes to realize these three were not the kids that were going to destroy any exhibits or otherwise cause trouble by not sharing, kicking, screaming, etc. I could watch from a distance and let them have the freedom to run.
But I did have to keep my eye on them, and, of course, ocassionally herd them from room to room, which was surprisingly exhausting. I think, though, I faired much better than Tina's mom who seemed intent on micromanaging the four girls in her charge. She looked completely harried at the end of the day. I was tired, but not completely wiped.
I got to meet one of the other teachers (Mr. C.) who wondered what language I had on my t-shirt. I was wearing my "Free Mouse" shirt, so I explained that it was Russian and also that it was an obscure reference to a series of science fiction books I wrote. Mr. C. rolled with that pretty well... I didn't get the usual, "Oh, are they published?" etc. He actually seemed genuinely interested and enthused. I have to remember to bring him a stack of books.
Then last night was Wyrdsmiths, which was, as it always is, a lot of fun. My only complaint is that because I missed a few meetings thanks to Shawn's Dad's memorial and whatnot, I have a TON of manuscripts to read and review for next time. But that's really a minor complaint. Kelly has started his Black School series (which I'm intensely fond of),
naomikritzer is writing an awesome new YA about a faerie safehouse in Minneapolis, seanmmurphy is writing a cool urban fantasy, as is swords_and_pens, *and* Eleanor Arnason is handing out short stories again, so it's not a real hardship. But I need to crack down and start getting my own writing done soon or I'm going to fall behind.