One door slammed shut, but a new open flew right open

Well I was of course laid off last week as you may recall. Good riddance is all I have to say! After today it's nice to remember what being appreciated feels like.

So after losing my job last week I put in a good 2 day effort into a find a replacement. I was mostly looking at skool holiday programs, but of course they were all in the midst of their programs (and thus having the staff required) AND the economic climate down here being what it is (most holiday programs are at 60-75% capacity from what I heard today) meant I had as much of a chance as Harry Potter against a Balrog getting on with one!

However phoning any reference to a kids holiday program I could find, I accidentally stumbled onto the number of a "daycare" (I'll get to why this isn't what my readers in North America might think it is in a moment). As I introduced myself as a registered teacher in my phone calls this place was very interested, and immediately insisted I come in to talk to them.

So "daycare" down here is short for Young Childcare and Education. What we in Canada would call daycare has been combined by the government with Playschool and Kindergarden. Meaning it is a formalized educational institution= my teaching degree and certification allows me to work there as a teacher!

Long story short I was added to their relieving pool a couple days later after the appropriate paperwork was filled in. Leading to my first day of working with them TODAY!

I'm pretty excited (but also tired... little kids take up LOT of energy). It is so far a great place to work, and I ended the day with high praise from the staff (not that it was hard to impress, without boasting, I have YET to meet a room of young children I can't win over in 8-20 seconds!). More the point they're already booking me in for more, and getting right into the one (of course) red tape battle I have to contend with. I proved today I'm worth the fight and the trouble (or so I hope)...

This gig also goes on all year. Meaning for those weeks where primary skools slow down I'll have this as a backup!

It is only 3 blocks away from my house too turns out, so it is a quick (very uphill sadly) walk away. Additionally I get PLENTY of exercise entertaining the kids. So I may yet turn into Arnold...

The only down side to it all is that as I'm not a proper "early childhood" trained teacher, again I'm primary, I get paid on the lowest tear of the payscale (though this daycare was nice enough to give me the highest level of said tear... again I really like this place already, and I only just started!). So I'll have to figure out how to balance between it and my primary teaching once primary starts back up again.