The oval office, the thunder box, the throne...

Have any of you seen that commercial of the different names for the "toilet"? It always reminds me of my everyday life working at the after school program in Seneca.

I thought working with ages 4 through 11 would make me exempt from any "oval office" problems, but was I W-R-O-N-G!

I can tell story after story about some funny occurence, and I'll even share a few that happened in the last couple of months!

SITUATION:
We have a 6-year-old with some stomach problems that he cannot help. For a few months, he pooped in his pants EVERY SINGLE DAY! One afternoon, I saw something near the kindergarten table that looked like chocolate, but I thought twice about it and asked the director to take a look. It was, of course, POOP. Then, I thought back through my day and realized I had just been in that area 10 minutes before. I then smelled something and had this thought to look at my shoe. I looked... and there it was: HUMAN POOP on the bottom of my black high heels.

RESPONSE:
All I could do was laugh. I took some Clorox wipes to my shoes and learned to look at the floor more often.

SITUATION:
I always take my group of homework center children to the restroom on our hall before going to the cafeteria to do homework. One afternoon, a fourth-grader came out of the bathroom with a concerned look and said, 

"Mrs. Johnson, there's a turd on top of the urinal! HOW is that even possible?!"

RESPONSE:
I told him that I didn't know and that he needed to hurry to the cafeteria to start on his homework. Once all of the kids were out of sight, I giggled to myself and told the other two teachers in the after school program.

SITUATION:
One Friday while I was the only teacher in the room, Aiden (6) came up to me during our movie time with a serious look on his face and said, "Mrs. Johnson, I need to use the bathroom. Can you please tell my mom that I am in there?" At this point, it was about 3:20 p.m. "She said she was going to pick me up at 4:00 p.m. and I want her to know that's where I am," he continued. Holding in a laugh, I told him, "Thank you for telling me, but I'm sure you'll be out by then."
Aiden went into our small bathroom in our room and closed the door. I turned around and faced the other kids. Within 10 seconds, a fourth-grader yelled,

"Mrs. Johnson! Someone's using the bathroom with the door open!" 

I immediately threatened any kid that looked with no computer lab time that day so that no one would see what I saw: little Aiden's naked behind bent over the toilet looking out the door.
I ordered a fourth-grade boy to close the door quickly. Aiden then attempted to keep the door open, and someone said that he must be scared to keep the door closed.

RESPONSE:
After Aiden washed his hands, I told him to talk to me in the hallway. I asked, "Aiden, were you scared? Is that why you opened the door?" He responded,

"No, I didn't want to miss any parts of the movie!" 

Again, I kept in my laugh and told him, "Well you can't do that anymore. There are little girls and little boys in there that don't need to see you pee pee." He apologized and went back in the room. I stayed behind to giggle to myself.

I could tell so many stories from this year at Northside! Those kids are adorable, and I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know these little people that will one day be our future leaders. :)