Sunday, May 25, 2014

Carmangay Colony

Friday morning the boys and I got Emry off to school and my plan was then to CLEAN our house and catch up on laundry!!! Two minutes after the bus drove away Calum brought me the phone and said I had to call a lady! Curious I checked the message and sure enough a lady did call!! She asked if I could sub as a teachers aid at the Carmangay Colony! I called her back to get more details and let her know I might not be able to find a sitter for our boys with such short notice, her only response was "bring them...I'm serious!!!!" She said she was so desperate that she really didn't mind if they just hung out!!

The boys and I got ready, called our neighbor, also the mom of Emry's best friend, to see if Emry could go to golf with them, and we were on our way!!

Once we got there we met Mrs. Montgomery, the "principle" and got the boys settled in her room with Lego and trains!! She teaches the grades 1-3, and I was to go into the other building with Miss Barton and help with the grades 4-9! I have actually never been to a colony before so I wasn't sure what to expect! I know each colony is different but this one was quite laid back!! Friday is a short day so the first part of the morning was spent doing independent reading then Miss Barton read to the class a couple of chapters from a novel they have been reading together as a class. She would stop and ask questions and the kids would get right involved answering her questions. 

Next was recess!! Everyone went outside to play and after a good twenty minutes I wondered just how long recess was! After 30 minutes I asked!! I was told that whenever they felt like blowing the whistle they would!! After a few more minutes the other aid finally asked me if I knew what time it was! I told her and she decided it was time to blow the whistle!!

After recess was Math and I was able to help the grades 4-6 if they had any questions!!! Wow!! Am I ever thankful I had the answer key it would have taken me quite awhile to remember some of the questions they had! 

After Math it was lunchtime!! Fridays the teachers and aids eat with the colony!! Each little kid was assigned a buddy to walk with to the lunch room and as I came out of the big kids building I saw Calum and Armin holding hands with two boys!! Once at the lunchroom the teachers and I walked into a large room with tables and benches but totally empty of people!! The colony members eat earlier then serve us!! The kids eat in a totally different room!! The buns were so yummy!! I could have eaten all of them but I refrained!!! I was given a bag of buns to take home, and I was so grateful!! 

After lunch it was recess again and it went on much like the morning recess!! Once they finally blew the whistle all that was left to do was writing in their agendas and doing their clean up jobs!! Then the big kids would go get the little kids and do buddy reading!! Then it was home time!!!

As we were walking to the van Calum turns back and gives one of the girls a big hug!! She wasn't quite sure what to think of that!!! Once we were in the van and about to back up 4 little girls knocked on our window so I rolled it down and they asked if they could come home with us!! I told them we would be back again!! They liked this idea, and then let us leave!!

The boys had fun and were so good!!! Maybe I need to stop threatening them that if they won't be good they will be going to live on a Hutterite Colony, because they really seemed to like it!!!

I get to go back on June 2nd for a whole day! I'm really looking forward to it!!!

1 comment:

  1. Loved reading about the colony you were at. Seems like they didn't teach alot, but lots of time for the kids to play. Sounded like a fun day for you, and yes, those ladies know how to cook. I bet the buns were delicious.

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