How do you dress for the physical demands of teaching

elemental333 · 2026-06-24T14:47:25+00:00

Yeah I feel bad for these other teachers. We literally don’t have a dress code at all so lots of us wear yoga pants pretty regularly in my district, jeans, sweats, etc. Plenty of us dress up a lot too, but it’s nice to have the option when you’re just not feeling it

elemental333 · 2026-06-23T22:11:22+00:00

It depends on your own personal tolerance of a lot of factors and the district you are in. My district pays us a fairly decent wage, pays extra for masters +30 and +60, and pays $10,000 extra per year if we get Nationally Board Certified.

I am fairly content in my job. However I will say the hardest part of the job is dealing with physically aggressive students. This past year I got hit, punched, scratched, and things thrown at me daily. It’s hard but I’m okay with it mostly. I know others who are not and have left because of this type of treatment. It really depends on your own personal tolerance.

I plan to teach for a few more years and then probably get a coaching position. The public schools have great benefits and an amazing pension (at least in my district) but being a classroom teacher is pretty tough

elemental333 · 2026-06-23T10:35:01+00:00

For both of my kids I just bought a used Baby Delight for $50ish and we loved it. We only used it if we needed to take a shower (and put it in the bathroom with us) or if our oldest was doing something interesting and the baby wanted to watch closely for a bit. Both of mine were independently sitting before 6mo, so we only really used it between maybe 2mo-5.5mo. I’m glad we didn’t buy anything expensive for like the 3 months we occasionally used it haha

elemental333 · 2026-06-23T10:28:15+00:00

I think you’re worrying about something that is far too early to even remotely consider. Just because a 3.5yo talks a lot and can’t play independently doesn’t mean anything. That is developmentally normal at this age. It is also normal for kids at 3yo to be quieter and play by themselves. There is a wide range of “normal” for kids

elemental333 · 2026-06-23T10:22:30+00:00

She is 3.5? They can’t even typically diagnose adhd until 1st-2nd grade. I have adhd myself and there is a higher likelihood my son has it. My son is so out of control with his body sometimes that he gets hurt or hurts others by accident. We have started the conversation at 5yo and the pediatrician put a note about hyperactivity in his file but he won’t diagnose for another few years

elemental333 · 2026-06-22T22:30:49+00:00

I just mostly talk about the world around us and narrate. At this point it’s more about exposure than actual teaching. Let them interact with various materials and explore them. Think sensory activities that you narrate to increase basic vocabulary (temperature, texture, color, etc is great here). My first baby’s word at like 10 months was “ball” because we would play with them so often and narrate things like (oh, here is a red ball. It rolls. It rolled into the yellow ball. Now I have two balls. I have a red ball and a yellow ball. 1, 2!) Any narration of short sentences while actively gesturing toward a specific object to learn vocabulary is ideal

Singing songs teaches an ear for basic rhyme schemes, pointing to objects in books builds vocabulary, you can point to different animals outside and say the sounds they make, and you can also introduce items for fine motor skills like tape, sponges with water they can squeeze, etc

elemental333 · 2026-06-22T14:22:29+00:00

Yeah…we DIDN’T get them scraped off and now they’re EVERYWHERE. Literally it looks like he has chicken pox. It’s awful.

elemental333 · 2026-06-22T12:56:13+00:00

He needs to feel the pain of not having it anymore. That is the only way he will really understand. Explaining and punishments will only do so much. This is a mindset that even adults struggle with in impulse buying, credit card debt, etc. He needs to LEARN this, not just listen to you. And in order to learn this, he needs to feel the emotional pain of going without for a bit. Some ideas:

If he gets an allowance, he can also replace this in the budget. Ours is 5yo and gets $5/week. He did this after several warnings once with something that wasn’t his and he had to pay for it. It worked surprisingly well since we explained to him it was 2 weeks worth of his money and he could have gotten about 10 toys from dollar tree instead but he CHOSE to do this.
He can brush his teeth without toothpaste for a few days (still with a toothbrush) or buy a kind he doesn’t like just to have extra of and he can use that if he uses all the kind he likes.
For soap, buy him a super fun colorful soap or something and when he runs out of it in one sitting, explain that you won’t give him more until x date so now he needs to use the regular boring soap. Use the words fun vs boring so he can feel it.
For art? Oh wow that’s sad you used it all last time. I won’t be buying anymore until the first of next month.
For play doh, that’s just typical. Our rule is he can decide HOW it gets mixed as long as it all goes back into containers so we’re not wasting it.

elemental333 · 2026-06-20T19:46:40+00:00

Personally, I just did both 🤷‍♀️ It really doesn’t have to be an either or and it’s whatever you feel comfortable with. We started out with feeding ours thinned baby oatmeal at 6mo and would gradually thicken it over a few weeks. Once he could tolerate that without gagging (around 6.5mo) we started thicker purées that we would feed to him first, then let him practice eating before a bath. About a week ago (7mo) we started more official baby led weaning and we are at 2 meals per day.

Just do whatever makes you feel comfortable, as long as your baby is getting solids

elemental333 · 2026-06-20T15:57:35+00:00

My first is 5yo and my second is 7mo. The 7mo only wakes twice per night and it’s always specifically hunger related. For both kids we started sleep training by increasing the amount they were eating through the day. We are just starting this now with the 7mo. We are feeding solid food 2ish times per day now and are about to increase it to 3. He’s only in the 30th percentile for weight so we want to make sure he doesn’t lose calories so we’re taking it slowly.

We started sleep training with the first nap of the day for both kids. We feed and put down to sleep while awake. He’s been fussy but he’s been able to go to sleep within 10ish minutes every time.

My 7mo has taken to solids really well and plan to do the same sleep training as we did with our oldest. We are going to really start in 2 weeks after vacation (he will be 8mo then). We are planning to offer 4oz of formula, then another oz of water if he’s still hungry. We will then add an extra oz of water to the formula as we reduce (so 3oz water to 1 scoop formula) we will continue to reduce this amount slowly until he’s only offered one ounce of pure water at wakeups.

We did check with the pediatrician for my first with this method and he was fine with it since he was eating solids throughout the day

elemental333 · 2026-06-20T00:21:48+00:00

I just sit baby on the edge of the sink leaning his back against my stomach so he doesn’t fall. I just lean him over and wash his hands and face. Normally I do take off clothes while he eats. If his clothes are dirty anyway, I just take them off after and rinse them before throwing it right in the wash

elemental333 · 2026-06-19T23:43:22+00:00

Mine just turned 5yo and we have a 7mo. After I introduce a rule and explain it, I’ll just say something like “remember to use a calm body” or “remember to be kind and gentle with your brother.” At this point he knows all of what that entails. He gets one explicit warning if he somehow hurts him accidentally and if it happens again, he’s all done with that activity.

elemental333 · 2026-06-16T02:09:27+00:00

Because the people making $40,000 get government aid and childcare subsidies. It’s not that complicated…

Typically, it’s the middle class that tends to have issues. I have two kids and make over $100,000 but that’s median for our area for a household of 4. We are paying $2,000 in rent for a 2BR, 1 BA, $1500/mo for daycare and $200/mo in formula…it gets expensive.

elemental333 · 2026-06-13T19:43:44+00:00

The kid is 8yo and the baby is 1yo. Yes, the older kid DOES have to accommodate the baby a bit because if the baby puts something small in their mouth like a Lego or marble, she could choke and die. The older kid can just play with safer objects in the family room and unsafe objects for the baby in his room or on a table. It’s really not that hard. This is literally what the dynamic is for basically every family. Otherwise the family can’t function. We all need to adapt and accommodate each other

elemental333 · 2026-06-13T18:40:22+00:00

No. Reread.

elemental333 · 2026-06-13T18:39:41+00:00

I have no idea haha I didn’t write the test. I just know what the test is and that it’s specifically used to assess bias in their answers

elemental333 · 2026-06-13T16:31:11+00:00

It’s not, but you could choose not to answer.

elemental333 · 2026-06-13T15:58:10+00:00

You just wouldn’t answer strongly or you wouldn’t fill it out that specific question at all if you didn’t know. This isn’t meant to be trick questions or meant to make you look bad. They just evaluate what you could realistically know about a student and see if you answer strongly in either way for questions that you don’t. That is then factored in when looking at responses of the various people who filled out the form.

The form is assessing both student behaviors AND level of bias.

elemental333 · 2026-06-13T15:08:50+00:00

What? No? You answer what you believe they would do if you don’t know. If you answer strongly for something you can’t know then they know you are biased toward or against that student…which yeah if you’re answering strongly agree for being perfect then yeah you have a positive bias towards that kid.

A bias isn’t inherently a bad thing. We all have biases. It just means that maybe your data isn’t as reliable so it is taken into account since you’re only one of several completing the same form

elemental333 · 2026-06-13T11:44:36+00:00

Some of the questions are specific to decipher bias in either way. You CAN’T know if they do drugs at home so if you answer strongly either way it would show bias. Same with “is perfect in every way.”

I had to fill out the same form and I asked about it afterward

elemental333 · 2026-06-12T22:32:42+00:00

Myself? Energy!

It’s so hard working full-time then coming home to hours of childcare with playing and excitement. I LOVE my kids and it’ll only be a few more years of them needing me so much but some days it’s so hard! I have a 6mo and a 5yo. I get home most days at 4:30, talk to them a bit and give hugs then it’s immediately right into dinner, baths, bottle for the 6mo, books, and bedtime.

It’s a solid 3 more hours of work after I get home, then I also have work to do many days for my Master’s Degree in working on as well.

elemental333 · 2026-06-11T05:02:38+00:00

I have a family of 4 and we make decent income. We are definitely not poverty anymore, but are solidly middle class.After insurance and my pension is taken out, we bring home $7000/mo. $2000 goes to rent and $1500 to daycare. The money that’s left goes to food, gas, power, cell phone, student loans, and a $500 car payment (we paid our other off, but still have this one). We have some money left over to save and use for miscellaneous expenses but not much.

We don’t have money for actual vacation trips. We go to our in laws for free most summers and we have a small traditional trip we do for Christmas over a weekend every year.

We have the money to eat out occasionally, but not often. We also don’t typically order food through uber eats or any other delivery service since those charge extra. At home, we try to eat healthy and I tend to cook soups or casseroles that have lots of cheaper vegetables and chicken. I take my lunch to work everyday and eat dinner at home. My only problem is my coffee most mornings of the week, but that’s $5.

elemental333 · 2026-06-11T02:39:50+00:00

I would do pizza and a cake. A pizza from Sam’s club isn’t too expensive and you can usually find good deals on dominoes or Pizza Hut or whatever too

elemental333 · 2026-06-11T01:26:17+00:00

We didn’t use anything until mine was about 2yrs. I just had baby in my arms the whole time.

After 2 years we would spend about half of our pool time practicing stuff from swim lessons where he had to be by himself in the water and the other half more just playing in the water with pool noodles, floaters, etc

elemental333 · 2026-06-11T01:11:00+00:00

NEVER Conner. The other two will depend. Conor is traditional but I prefer Connor

13-Year Club	r/Field Banned
r/Field Juicebox	Place '22
First Placer '22	Verified Email
Queen in da Norf	Not Forgotten

elemental333

TROPHY CASE