Swim
 

Since you asked.
I love ...
the light play on the water
the light play under the water
the blue of underwater
the feel of the water flowing past
the feel of the muscles in my body working
the watery sounds
the sounds of the bubbles of my breath
the rhythm of the swim-breathe thing
the feeling of buoyancy
the excellent shower afterwards!

I don't love the busy.

Today I sewed two little oddly-shaped bags--they have a trapezoid silhouette in front, but then there's a fifth seam extending underneath from the bottom of the trapezoid, and everything spreads out into a thick round elastic band in the back.

They are designed to slip over the front and cover up the hand dryers in the PPCD bathrooms, because my friend's daughter is scared of them, and they think that's why she is still refusing to use the toilet at school even though she is potty-trained everywhere else. But my friend can't sew, so I offered to make them for her.

The fabric had to be gender-neutral at the very least, but since boys usually outnumber girls 3 to 1 in this type of classroom, I leaned more towards boy decor. So it's light blue, with little dogs and fire hydrants all over it.





See, because it's fire hydrants, in the room where everyone pees. God, I crack myself up.

Those sound great Clod.
Can't get my head round them though - any chance of pictures?
I think I am way off beam in the type of hand-dryer I am thinking of.

Today we made pirate booty bags for Pirate Day (29th at my school). And the children cut out templates for making their pirate biscuits (to go in said booty bags). When we made pirate hats, Rabbit conned me into doing his skull and crossbones for him. This time he did it himself. Little future-fashion-designer that he is, he made a good fist of it, leaving me to realise he is more competant than he lets on. I admit I cut it out for him though.

Our literacy work at present is Instructions, so the children are alternately making items and then writing them up. I think it's great, as the writing up stage is usually when I'm in Class 2 :)

Oh and just a pat on the back for me - I held 31 7-8 year old children spellbound with the first chapter of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Roald Dahl) this afternoon. There was no assembly, so from the time the HLTA left at 15.00 until 15.15 I was in sole control. It was probably Dahl's wonderful prose, but I was pleased with the response regardless.

They don't photograph well since the elastic makes them all bunchy, but I'll try to remember to take one tomorrow when I drop by the school to put them on.

The hand dryers look like this:

Nope, that's what I was thinking of.

Can they still be used when the cover is on? Is it about hiding the chrome?
Or is she stressed by the noise and this is just a masking device for when she is in the toilet?

They don't get used; paper towels are closer and faster, and many children are afraid of the noise after all. But these particular machines are motion-sensor instead of push-button, so when someone moves too close it may turn on, and according to my friend even the sight of one is enough to scare her daughter. She says the cover should solve it, though--when they go to the doctor's office, her daughter is similarly afraid of the otoscope, but they hang a napkin over the apparatus and all is well. The thing I made is like a giant pair of underwear, but without leg holes.

That issue can be fixed with some lightly frosted sticky tape (translucent but not transparent) over the movement sensor.

Effective against a wide range of motion detectors, and almost unnoticable unless you're looking.

Don't ask why I know*.


*because the truth is nowhere near as interesting as what you're imagining.

Hand dryer cover, freshly installed this morning. I had wanted it to sit more symmetrically than this, but the right side just wouldn't stay sticking out without a chrome piece to push against it. Oh well.

That's fantastic! Even better than I pictured.

So I'm still not clear. Is it permanent, or does the mom carry it around in her purse to put on before the kid goes in the bathroom?

It's hopefully permanent. This girl will be in this classroom for another year and a half, and even after she leaves, there are lots of overly-sensory kids who are scared to death of those things, so it makes sense to just leave it there. They don't use the dryer for that very reason, but maybe kids other than my friend's daughter will also appreciate having it hidden.

What if they're afraid of puppehs? Or hydrants? ;)

Looks good!

Clod that's an excellent piece of work!
I'd commission one just for aesthetics.


I had a fail on my making this afternoon.
Because 2a made their pirate bags in approx 20 minutes I grossly underestimated the time it would take for Class 2 to make them. I didn't factor in that I would be having groups of 3-6 at a time. I forgot that the children with higher ability in 2a were able to get on virtually unsupervied, meaning we only worked intensively with the ones who needed it. And that 10 x three children @ 20 minutes each does not fit into a 50 minute slot.

I'm still relatively new at all this TA malarky...
And after all, the teacher thought it was possible too.

The ones we got made looked good though.
And I did get through the lower ability children. Including one extremely high-achieving child academically, who cannot glue anything to anything except himself, and cuts like Edward Scissorhands before he learned dexterity.

Oh and quite a few children asked if we would have the next chapter of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator today :angel:

Dude.

I. Am. Impressed.
Also impressed by the woodcraft and lore so many Dwellars have up their sleeves. Just ran across this thread. Also love the juxtaposition of the archery and wood topics with the baking and handcrafting posts. Maybe I'll try to get some pics of my loom and spinning wheel to post. Sort of on hiatus right now, though.

I love the posts about identifying and working with wood. My father taught me a little but I haven't had the opportunity to do anything myself - mostly buy him fine woodworking books and enjoy what he makes.

Re: BigV's video

Why in God's name would you have a computer narrate that? [/bitter voiceactor]