these kids are the reason that I am here

These little girls are my favorite. I love that I get to teach them last, so I always end on a good note. I remember the first few weeks of teaching being so stressful, especially with dear sweet Sasha crying everyday. Now that we have a routine though, these girls brighten my day with their smiles and their crazy personalities. I love teaching because of them.

Sofia, Liza, Masha, Miss Amanda, Anya, Michalina, and Sasha - my favorite class

These kids are from both Basic Reading, and Kindergarten - my first two classes of the day. Sometimes I like them, and other times they are a handful (just kidding... they are always a handful) but I always miss them when they are gone. 

Mark's birthday party (a while ago) - starting with girl in stripes and going
clockwise is Sofia, Masha, Slava, Roman, Mark, Michalina, Dima, Tereza, and Maria

Such a handful, but so stinking cute. And SO smart. 

Miss Rachel with all of our kids

Miss Rachel and Mark

Mark and I

 Next in the lineup of kids is Sofia, who you have already met. Her mom is generally late picking her up, so we color with her after school. 

And sometimes we take pictures

And sometimes those pictures end up taking 10 tries to get a good one

These little ones make me smile. :) Like a real big smile. They all have unique personalities. Dima is so cute, with his overalls and button-ups. I remember when he wouldn't come to class without his Babushka. It was a little bit stressful when she had to sit in the class everyday. And then the day that we finally convinced her that she couldn't be in there anymore, Dima had a complete and total meltdown. I was trying to do opening, and Rachel was trying to calm him down, and he was so worked up we thought he was going to vomit. Eventually Tania, our coordinator had to come in, and by some miracle he stopped screaming. I'm sure it helped that she spoke to him in Russian instead of trying to console him in English. After that moment, he has been the sweetest little boy, unless we sing The Wheels on the Bus wrong. Boy oh boy is that a life ruiner. One time I made the mistake of singing the wipers before the horn, and he wouldn't stop starting over until I did it the "right" away. It really was precious, and I loved seeing him so worked up about something, and he wasn't speaking in any Russian. :) Today his dad talked to me after class to see how Dima was doing. He told me that Dima adores me and loves it when I hold his hand to walk him to class. *heart melted* One day I hope I have a little boy of my own, just like him.

Next is Taia, a sweet little girl who only whispers. Sometimes we try to get her to say things and the only way you know she is listening is if you watch her lips. Every once in a while I can get her to say something with some sort of volume behind it, but mostly only if she really wants something. Or, if you put her in the Kindergarten class above her and they keep saying "Miss Amanda! Miss Amanda!" That is ALWAYS a good way to get someone talking. On the bright side, at least she knows my name. :) 

Standing next to Taia, is Mark. Oh Mark... sometimes he throws things (that's a lie. he always throws things) across the room. When we first started teaching he would hit me and pinch me, now he is much more well behaved, and he loves to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. If I start to sing it with him though, he stops. It's kindof funny. The class would not be the same without him, and even though there are days when I wish that I could just take a break from teaching him, I realize how much I miss him when he is gone. 

And then comes Roma, the biggest handful of all. He likes to run around the room, and jump up and down, and throw things, and grab things out of my hand, and he is just crazy. But, despite all of that I love him. I mean how can you not love that sweet little face. and when I say "English only" when he is speaking Russian, he repeats me with "Engeh only!" Today I was trying to get him to say "Have fun" and it made me and Anya (from the kindergarten group above) giggle. He kept saying "Ghave fun!" I was trying so hard to enunciate the "h" sound, and he would repeat it, and then say "Ghave fun!" It was precious. 

Dima, Taia, Mark, Roma

Miss Rachel and Dima

Miss Rachel, Roma, Dima, Taia, and Mark

Mark, Taia, Miss Amanda, Dima, and Roma

 Sometimes I let my kids play with play dough. I get so frustrated though when I have to open 5 billion different containers just to find the good stuff. After class yesterday I decided to clean it out. This was the result. 9/70+ good ones.

Did you know that dry play dough crystalizes?

 Today I read my favorite story with my favorite Kindergarteners. Rapunzel. I was pretty excited, and may have talked with funny voices, and been really animated. 

This is Sofia dressed up as the Evil Witch

Liza was our Rapunzel for the first half of the story.

And then Anya got to take a turn. 

This lesson was a lot of fun, and I loved my Rapunzel braid. 

 I may have even walked around after school with a Rapunzel braid of my own. :) Today reminded me of why I love teaching so much. 

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I forgot to mention the reason that I wanted to write about all of these sweet kids. As I mentioned in my blog post yesterday, this week has been really weird. We still have only a couple of kids coming. We had 6/12 this morning, and 6/13 this afternoon. From what I have heard the ones who are absent are all sick, but everyday that I see a new face, I get so excited. When I saw Liza today, I gave her a big huge hug because I missed having her in my class.