The Choking Game

I was looking on the Dr. Phil website today to see what shows were on this week-(yes, I do watch the shows sometimes) and came across one in particular that peaked my interest. It's about a game that teens and pre-teens play called "The Choking Game." In this game, they put pressure on their necks using hands, belts, shoelaces, etc. until they get a high from the lack of oxygen. Then they let go. However, this game has killed many teens & pre-teens and will continue to kill many more. Teens & pre-teens play this game in groups, in the locker room, and alone. When they play it alone, they have only a few short moments to release the hold on their neck before they pass out and eventually die due to lack of oxygen and blood flow to the brain--it's like hanging yourself.

I'm not even really sure what to say. In a way it boggles my mind that kids do this, but in another way--I can completely see it happening. I can honestly say that as a teenager, if someone had brought this up to me--I might've tried it. Peer pressure and curiosity are amazingly powerful in a teenager's life. That and the fact that the part of the brain helps with logical decision making doesn't fully develop until after the teenage years. I honestly wouldn't even call it a "game." When a game is killing children across the nation and around the world--it's not a game. Soccer is a game, baseball is a game, solitaire is a game...choking yourself to get a high from the lack of oxygen is not a game--in my opinion.

I found two articles that explain it a little better then I have:

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Health/story?id=987294&page=1

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/09/choking.game/index.html

Random Things...

Nothing big going on. Just the usual little things of every day life. Although my boss is driving me up the wall. She'll come in for like, an hr. a week and then try to tell me and all of my assistant teachers how to do things. We pretty much have it figured out how to work with certain kids and their parents and she comes in and tries to force us to do what doesn't work. It's really frustrating. We're there every day, she's there for an hour once a week. I realize that she's been in this field for 30 years, but this isn't the 70's, kids and families are different now. Obviously I wasn't around in the 70's but from what I've heard, it was totally different from how it is now. But I could be wrong, maybe she's right and the rest of us are just doing it wrong. Who knows, guess I'll find out.

As for the medical news, nothing new there. All the test results came back normal. I'd be happy if it didn't mean 2 more months of hugging the toilet almost every night. Hopefully this next test will give us some answers...keep your fingers crossed. It's planned for the day before Thanksgiving--but seeing as how I wasn't going to be able to eat Thanksgiving dinner anyways, I'm not all that upset.

Um...what else is new...oh, that teacher that I complained about a few posts back-(the one who doesn't do anything)-she has had her hours drastically cut back now so I don't have to work with her AT ALL. I was so happy when my boss told me that...it's so much more peaceful at school now without her there in the afternoons.

I guess that's about it. Like I said, nothing new going on. Have a happy Thursday everybody, 1 more day till the weekend!

I Used To Be Normal...

Until I started my job at the Child Development Center a year ago. Scary things happen to your brain when you work with kids. Here's my list of how to know if you work with kids:

1. You can remember all of the words The Wiggles "Fruit Salad" song, but you can't remember 1/2 of the words to a favorite song on the radio.

2. You have a favorite kids song, but not a favorite adult song.

3. You hum kids songs in your college classes because they're stuck in your head.

4. You believe that anything less than 10 potty accidents a day is doing good.

5. You firmly believe that potty training is an art.

6. You fight the urge to remind everybody to wash their hands after going to the bathroom.

7. You almost put a kid at the park in time out for not behaving.

8. You have to make an effort to talk to adults in a 'normal' voice.

9. You believe that parents who send nothing but candy in their kids lunches are out to get you.

10. When you cut food up, it's always in bite size peices so that nobody will choke--even if you're giving it to adults.

Paint, Paint Everywhere...

And not a drop of it on paper. Today was an interesting day at work. 3 kids wanted to paint acorns. So one of our teachers-(interestingly enough the one who won't do anything BUT art activities with the kids)-took them outside with some paint and the acorns. All was going well outside and there were 2 teachers out there so I went inside to clean up snack. I come back out and the 3 kids are COVERED in paint. It was in their hair, eyelashes, faces, ears, and arms. Their clothes were spotted with paint as well-(they had smocks on, thank heavens). I kind of wondered what happened since the teacher who brought them out there was sitting right next to them. I soon found out what happened...I watched as the teacher took a paintbrush, dipped it in paint, and put a nice big smear across on of the kids cheeks. Then they began throwing the painted acorns at each other--I expected the teacher to stop them but instead, she joined in. So I walked over there and was like "let's get you guys cleaned up" since it was almost time for pick up. It took me over an hour to clean the 3 kids and all of the painting stuff up. And this teacher didn't help with ANY of it. That's when I got PO'd. If you're gonna make the mess, be responsible enough to clean it up. To top it all off, I had a parent get upset at me about it all. Which I can understand, the kids hair was basically dyed blue from the paint and his clothes were pretty much in ruins.

In the rest of my life, my medical problems are getting worse. I couldn't even keep down yogurt today. I basically had a meltdown last night--it was a combination of things that set it off, but it was mostly all of the tests-(some of them are quite painful)-stress from being sick, and tiredness from not eating enough. Test results aren't back from the tests I had last week. They should come in some time this week--I'm crossing my fingers that something shows up because I'm just about done with it all. Mentally I'm just not there, emotionally I'm a wreck, and physically I look horrible. But, I guess we'll just have to wait and see..that's the only thing I can do.

Medical & Internship Update...

Well I made the trek back home last night after work. 30 minutes outside of my hometown my car decided to go on the fritz. Apparently one of my spark plug wires came loose, got into the fan, and got chopped in half. So I ran my car on 3 cylinders for the last 30 minutes of the drive. That was fun, it almost died on me a few times and I was just hoping that I'd make it back because I was in the middle of nowhere and it was the middle of the night. So I got up this morning, took my car into the shop-(I love knowing mechanics who will get my car in at the drop of a hat.) Turns out that my oxygen sensors were shot to hell as well. So that was a nice $350 surprise. After I dropped my car off it was off to my Dr's appt.

Get to the Dr's office and looked horrible. The nurse, and even my Dr. said I didn't look good-(being sick every day for 3 months will do that to you.) So the next step is to have an endoscopy. Lovely, can't wait for that. It won't be until November though because I have to have at least 2 days where I don't have to do anything and well, that's just not gonna happen at school here. Got a refill on my prescription so that I can still eat some stuff. Then came the fun part, my Dr. wanted to do some more lab work. So it's off to draw my blood. 6 tries later and still no blood. So the Dr. sent me home to drink a bunch of water-(which I promptly threw up)-and then to the hospital to have a lab tech draw the blood she needed to do the lab work. 4 tries later and we finally got 1 vile of blood. Thank heavens she only wanted 1 vial. Last time it was 5, and the time before was 6 viles. So now we just have to wait for the results of that and then it's off to be drugged and have a tube shoved down my throat in November. Should be a grand ole end of the year for me. To top it all off, Aunt Flo decided to visit me this morning. And do you think I have any feminine products at my dad's? No, of course not. So that was fun.

Now onto the internship, turns out I'm working with second graders, not kindergarteners. Apparently my advisor didn't listen when I told her K. Oh well, it's fun nonetheless and it'll be a good learning experience. That's about it for now.

Another Day, Another Dollar...

Well school started again today after the long Labor Day weekend. I start my internship at a local elementary school today. I'm going over there around 1 O'Clock to meet with the teacher, sign papers, and set up the days when I'll be working with her. I'm a little nervous, I've never worked in an elementary school before so it's a brand new experience for me. I'll be working in the Kindergarten room so at least the kids aren't that much older than what I've worked with before. I go back to work today. Thankfully work is going better. The teacher who didn't do anything was taken off of the floor and put in charge of the literacy program. This way she won't have to work with kids and we'll all be much happier. We're getting 9 new student teachers this week, so that should be fun *rolls eyes* Training them is alays the hardest part. I'll never forget the student teacher last year who told one of the 2 year olds "If you hit me, I'll hit you back." Lovely--just lovely. Why do people like this go into child care? I mean, really...what are they thinking?

In other news, I'm having a hard time adjusting to not seeing my boyfriend every day. I got spoiled living with him this summer becuase I saw him every day, regardless of our work schedules. Now, it's a 2 week minimum between the times when we can see each other. It's hard for me to get used to sleeping alone again. I can't just roll over and there he is. I honestly don't know how military wives do it. I would be a basket case if my boyfriend went to war and I didn't know if/when I was going to see him again.

For those of you who have asked why I haven't posted anything about Hurricane Katrina, it's because I just don't know what to say. It's not because I'm an uncaring person, it's honestly because I just don't have the words to express how I feel about the tragedy that has fallen upon our nation. I've watched the news, seen the pictures, read the articles. It's just mind boggling to me. All I can say is if you have the resources, please donate. I am a college student, I don't have a lot of money, but I donated what I could. Hopefully it will help out someone, somewhere.

On that note, I'm going to go get ready to head over to the school. Be safe, take care, and God Bless.

Paint

Paint is a wonderful medium to use with children. There are so many activities you can do involving paint that range from extremely clean to extremely messy. One of my favorites is car painting. Here's how you do it:

1. Put your kid in some clothes that can get messy.
2. Over the clothes put on a paint smock or an old adult shirt that you don't care about.
3. Put newspaper over the surface you're going to do the painting on.
4. Get some small toy cars-(hot wheels, etc.) and paper to paint on.
5. Pour some dish soap into a paper plate. On top of the dish soap pour on some tempera paint. Don't make the mixture too deep, about 1/8 inch is fine. Mix it together with a plastic spoon, throw the spoon away.
6. Let your preschooler dip the wheels of the car in the paint and roll the car over the paper. It'll make a cool design.

If you're really ambitious, get 2 or 3 plates of paint going. This is a fairly messy activity so it's best not to do it over a beloved carpet. With the dish soap added to the paint, most of it should come out of clothes, etc. It's no guaranteed though so make sure you use 'paint clothes' and newspaper. It'll cut down on the stress of cleaning up.

Updated: Teacher's Who Don't Do Anything...

Tuesday was my first day of work. I was working with one other teacher, Ms. E. We had 8 kids between the ages of 2 1/2 and 4. I worked with Ms. E last year and had no problems with her, this year it's a little different because she doesn't do anything. I cleaned up snack, I changed 4 pull-ups, I cleaned up the house, small block, active, and art areas. I put notes and pictures into the kids cubbies to take home. I answered the phone and the door. I held a crying 2 1/2 year old for 3 hours while she screamed in my ear. I locked up the center and shut the windows. She sat in the quiet area even when there weren't kids there and whined about having to clean up one area.

Yesterday went better because it was Ms. K, Ms. E, and myself. But Ms. E didn't do the one thing that Ms. K asked her to do before she left, put away one lousy cot. I don't know if I can handle 8 kids by myself every Tuesday and Thursday. I feel like I'm having to do a majority of the work by myself and I'm afraid that I'm going to burn out. Why do people go into childcare when they don't want to work with children? That's like being a doctor and not liking people.

Today went well with Ms. E. I called and talked to my boss about it this morning and she gave me some suggestions on what to do and how to handle it. She also said that she would talk to Ms. E about being more involved on the floor with the kids and helping out more with cleaning. At least it's an improvement. And I'm glad for that, makes the day a little more enjoyable.