My time is running out at the Martha O'Bryan Center! Fortunately, I just talked to Adrianna yesterday about getting involved during the school year and it looks like I will be able to go back once a week to my favorite classroom, 101. I am grateful and delighted to have developed a long term relationship with the teachers and students I love.
This past week at the center has been eventful to say the least. Monday and Tuesday were the last days of my five-year-olds' time at preschool. We had some nervous souls in the room, and Ms. Marvetta and I tried to reassure them that though kindergarten will be hard, they are probably already ready for 1st grade. We celebrated our last days of preschool with backwards day and pajamas day.
Tuesday, my dad had the pleasure of visiting Classroom 105. He came to teach the children about outer space. I had warned him that the concept would probably be very abstract to them and asked that he kept his message really simple. We were both blown away at how much they knew: what a rocket is, what gravity is, what a galaxy is. They had so much fun playing with my dad's model rocket ship--he loved how they would zoom it around and say "whoosh". My favorite part was how Aryanna said that Mars is always very angry and Venus loves to wear lipgloss. I honestly have no idea where she got that. I was so proud of all of them and my dad's teaching skills. After his lesson we painted Styrofoam balls. There were ten of them, so we made nine planets, one moon, and I made the sun.

Starting Wednesday, I have been spending both the mornings and the afternoons with the babies. I miss 105 but still find 101 to be fun no matter how much time I spend in there. Wednesday, about 10 minutes before we left, we had a fire drill. It scared me so much, because we had to throw all of the babies into one crib and carry them out--and the entire time I really did believe there was a fire somewhere! Once we were outside though I realized it was a drill and calmed down. The best thing about the drill, though, was that when we pulled the youngest baby Da'Mya out of the evacuation crib she was just giggling--it was like a ride to her!
Thursday I was finally able to help out with one of the MOBC's fitness classes. Only one person showed up but it was still fun! I am going to help them get more people to come by sending out flyers to parents in the ELC.
At this point in my fellowship, I am just trying to value each day. Three days to go!