International Life

Last week at Creme we celebrated the "Week of the Young Child." (One of my coworkers totally made me laugh by saying, "What about the 'Week of the Old Lady?'") We had face painting, a visit from the fire truck, we released balloons into the sky, had a Trike-a-Thon to raise money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital, and there was a book fair at school all week. That is one of my favorite parts of working at Creme--there is always something exciting going on, whether it's associated with a birthday, holiday, or something else we are celebrating. It definitely keeps us busy and on our toes! :)

One of these exciting things I've been wanting to write about is our annual "International Week." We had it in February and it was so so so much fun! Our area is very diverse and so we had lots of backgrounds to celebrate! Out of my 10 kids, the parents of 2 are from Korea, 2 from India, 2 from Puerto Rico, 1 from Lebanon, 1 from Denmark, and 2 from the US. 5 of my kids are bilingual. In our staff 1 is from Jamaica, 1 from Denmark, 1 from Panama, 2 from El Salvador, 1 from Mexico, and 1 from Uzbekistan. I love it! I love all the accents at work, and sometimes I notice myself saying certain words with the accents of the people around me (including the southern accents :) ).

During International Week each class represented a country with decorations, flags, and learning activities. We were Denmark (my coteacher is Danish). Each child had a "passport" that they used to visit the other "countries" and learn about them throughout the week. The school hired dancers, musicians, and a story-teller to visit our school to perform for the kids. We had multiple "Parade of Flags" where each class walked around waving their class's flag. And the best part was the International Night when the kids and parents dressed up in their cultural dress, brought international food, and everyone ate and walked around the school to see the different countries' displays. It was so fun!

And in a similar vein, our neighborhood is very diverse. Our neighbors are from India, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and Korea. I think we may be the only white American people on our street! :) We look forward to getting to know our neighbors better, they all seem really nice. We've been seeing more of them since the weather has gotten nicer in the last couple months. We love going on walks together around our neighborhood in the evenings. Life is good.

P.S. I have the best class in the history of my teaching career. I love my kids so much and look forward to being with them every day. They are so sweet, cute, good, smart, and funny. My life is good!