Terrible Tuesday

Today was a not-so-great day. Little Tykes this morning was pretty much a disaster. The whole program started with one boy in tears and it just got worse from there. I don't know what it was about today but the kids would not leave each other alone. They kept hitting and pushing and generally misbehaving. There were a few more instances of tears during the time I was there and they didn't listen to what I was trying to do with them at all. It's really disappointing because I thought I had some cool fun stuff planned for them but they just didn't get that much out of it. Not all the kids were being bad, but the majority were, so even the ones who were trying to pay attention were only getting half of what they should have been getting. When I left, the counselors made all the kids take time out because they had been so bad to me and one girl burst into tears because she didn't want to be in trouble. And, here's the kicker - there were less than half the number of kids that I usually have! I don't know what it was about today but they were just not in the mood for my program. Or for being nice to each other. I admit that I may have used my loud voice and gotten angrier than I should have. I could have handled the situation better but I was sort of at a loss about what to do. Both myself and the counselors told them repeatedly to keep their hands to themselves and they just didn't listen. I don't want to be the scary mean librarian but they needed discipline - not because they weren't paying attention (although they should know better by this age) but because they were hitting each other and generally being unkind. I didn't really know what to do with the situation. I'm going to talk to Suzanne about it the next time I see her.

Once I got back to the library, I settled in for a long and boring afternoon. I worked on my shelf label project all afternoon - to the point where my hands were cramping from cutting and repetitive motion. I helped with anything Miriam and Jaymi needed but, since there were three of us at the desk, I mostly focused on my shelf labels. And I barely made a dent in them! I don't know if I will finish before my time here is up. But I do have everything made and printed so someone would only need to finish cutting and attaching the labels. Who knows, I might have lots of time my last week since Summer Reading will be over.

Overall, today was just a hard day. I'm still glad I'm doing the Little Tykes program but it hasn't been ideal. My last visit is next Tuesday and hopefully it goes smoother than this one did.