Kindergarteners

My first full week of being a kindergarten teacher is over. I remember why I stopped babysitting. Although, honestly, teaching kindergarten is less boring than babysitting because you are not at the beck and call of one of two children who know that you have to entertain them in order to make mommy and daddy happy. No, instead, you have more than a handful of kids who get into fights as soon as your back is turned, or run over to play with toys, leaving their work behind, or poke their heads outside the door to helpfully yell to the administration that so-and-so poked them in the nose.

I have three groups of kids, and each group for a little less than two hours, consecutively. I was thinking about it, and when I was that age I was in school for about 3 hours per day. I don't know how these kids did it - 6 hours of class time, plus some of them hang out until 5pm because the parents are working and the school also has day care. It seems like an awful lot.

Also, I need to come up with ways to keep the kids busy because we're not allowed to use the books for the first couple of weeks which is seriously too long for "re-adjustment." They have a pretty good idea of what school entails at this point.