About healing

About a month ago, I observed a few of the girls were walking around the room, pushing a stroller with a doll. I asked where they were going. "My baby has a one month check-up" was the reply. The two plopped down near the piano. Looking around the room, one of the girls simply stated, "Since there are no doctor things, I guess these will have to do." And she pulled a tool kit off the shelf and started "checking-up" on the baby. 

I decided at that point to get a play doctor's kit for the room. All of the children have used it thoroughly--on each other, their baby dolls, on the bunny, on any guest that may walk through our doors. They are fascinated by it. 

Wanting to build on this play, I asked a friend who is a nurse to come in to the classroom.

 She showed us a lot of the instruments she uses and talked about how children don't need to be afraid when they go to the hospital.  Only a few children were present that day, but they were definitely intrigued by her. We're planning to also have a doctor come by the room soon!

 

I suggested to the children that we set up a doctor's office. This is the sign that we made together.

Here's the waiting room. 

 And making sure the baby's are well-bandaged.

Step by step...drooling included

I've spent the past four months or so drooling over pictures of Reggio Emilia-inspired classrooms.  I've been pulled into international blogging community of people who are totally passionate about giving children the best early education possible--whether at home or in a center.  The blog list on the side bar are the ones I follow most closely though there are scads of others out there as one discovers when reading these blogs. 
Our pastor once said that our passion is tied in with a sense of duty. While this is not the way we usually think about passions, I have understood this to be true when it comes to this job and to the classroom space.  I thoroughly enjoy my job and have deep interest in many, many aspects of early childhood education, and particularly in making the environment a third teacher. My passion goes beyond just what is enjoyable though to the point where the I feel bound to this space, wanting it to truly be all that it can be--yet bound by lack of time and resources, and my own inability to make ideas become reality.  They're so easy to have, ideas.  I feel like I'm just getting the sense of what Reggio Emilia schools mean by having the environment as a teacher--but am far from putting this into practice.  However, step by step I think we'll get somewhere. 
Our teaching team spent hours over this spring break making changes to the room--some huge and some small tweaks. 

We brought in a tree that the children's theater has used in several plays! Yea! It's as cool as it looks, we're hoping to use it for puppetry as you can climb in it and stick puppets out the hole. Meanwhile, our class mascot, Mr. Funnyguy is hanging out in the hole.

Doreen made these ingenious book slings. Just get a double curtain rod bracket, pick our favorite fabric, sew a hem and slide a dowel through.

Really any time you have Doreen around to paint a monster you can't go wrong in making the space more playable. We got a bunny cage too and Jaime has agreed to let us borrow the bunnies she bought at the livestock auction until the one my brother offered us is weaned.

The space under the piano got way more attractive when we added a few pillows and rugs. I'd love to had a few more soft things here and all around the room.

It made the children laugh and play

Our Little Lamb (Elliot) didn't necessarily follow us to school on his own volition, but I don't think he minded getting a ride to school.  Naturally, the our curiosity was high when Elliot arrived and we all very willingly broke out in various renditions of Mary Had a Little Lamb and Baa, Baa Black Sheep.  Those fears that I talked about in a previous post accompanied the fascination of the lamb. I think it's natural to be a bit hesitant to touch a living thing that one's not familiar with. One of the preschool mother's passed on an article addressing the fears of two-year-olds--don't discount the fear it said, just reassure that things are okay, that they are safe. It's a reminder to me again that while children learn thousands of things in their first three years of life, there are still a lot of things they just have not experienced yet. They just need to learn.

Spin art. Inspired by the awesome book Jazz Baby I broke out the record player. It worked but we need speakers so we decided to make some spinning art instead.

Our public debut show at the mall. Who wouldn't want to send their child to a school where she can wear a ladybug costume?  No worries, we have boy costumes too!

spring contentedness

 It is very hard for me to be grumpy on a spring morning of 75 degrees a breeze that makes the willow tree dance. I took both the morning and afternoon classes to the park around the corner on Monday. And I could not help but just breathe deep and smile.  I think it's the same for children--the young love being outdoors. LOVE it. I have no research to base this on, but I truly think that children (and grown-ups) just feel more peaceful outside. Not that this solves emotional turmoil instantly or even prevents any conflict from happening. But there is a contentedness felt outside (particularly in weather from in the 65-75 degree range) that is rarely replicated elsewhere. There is a movement in the preschool world to get kids outside more. See my blog list on the sidebar--seriously awesome educators and parents who all understand the importance of getting kids outside.

Our wet, chilly spring has kept us mostly indoors--which has been fine since we have ample space to run and jump and climb and slide indoors. But I'm anxious for the fenced in space we'll get next week. And I'm pumped about creating a space outdoors where the children are free to still be creative, to exert physical energy, to learn, and of course, to just be content.

We colored eggs with crayons immediately after taking them out of the boiling water. I just put them in an egg-holder cut out from the egg carton and held the egg there. Melted crayon has to be one of the greatest art mediums ever. We got brilliant colors and a marbled look when colors mixed. It was pretty mess-free (not that we're afraid of messes or anything..).

Van Ghost

 

We're introducing the children to Van Gogh this month. We've been looking at the Starry Night painting. And our awesome art teacher, Doreen, discovered that you can zoom in on real paintings in museums with a Google application. The swirls in the Starry Night are thick and textured. So she got the idea to use frosting to have the children experiment with making their own swirls.

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The best part, of course, was tasting the paint--both during and after the swirling process. We've discovered that frosting, while it may rot teeth and cause serious sugar addictions, is a very effective teaching tool. Now even the two-year-olds know Van Gogh's name and paintings...or some variation of it. One little girl calls him Van Ghost and shrieks just a bit when we talk about him, imagining what sort of ghost he might be. Nonetheless, if frosting is involved, he can't be too scary.  

I've not really spent much time with two-year-olds. Certainly I've never taught as many as I am currently. I might be wrong about this, but it seems that fear is one of the more prominent emotions they feel. Some parents may strongly argue with this as it may seem that their toddlers have no fear, even when it seems logical to have it--like when the two teetering on the tabletop with a glass vase above her head.

So maybe it's the ones I work with but I find that they fear things other children might find enjoyable, like the animal head hats we have at school. Or a butterfly in a box. I am curious about these fears. I'll have to start talking to parents and other teachers and see if it really is a two thing.

The "Bad" Word

"She's bad." The words were said in not much more of a whispered voice and with little expressed anger, just matter-of-factedly. But the speaker knew what she was saying. Another girl had grabbed a toy from her. Her assessment surprised me a bit--she hadn't said much of anything yet, being her first week of school and it was a pretty low key response. It also makes my stomach churn a bit. I've actually been thinking about that label a lot recently--"BAD".

Now, I truly strongly believe we do need to teach children right from wrong. Bad from good. However, I think it's easy for kids to get in a "bad" cycle.  Teachers, parents, and other kids tell me I'm "bad", so I must be bad.  Children quickly feel that people expect them to be bad. So they keep exploring with all those bad things...and others keep telling them that they're bad. For the rest of their lives.

Extreme? What should we do instead then?  Dan Gartrell in his book The Power of Guidance says we should shift from thinking of young children misbehaving to thinking of their behaviors as mistaken. The truth is they just make mistakes--just like adults do. And they've got a lot more reason to make mistakes. Especially a two-year-old who doesn't realize that other kids might have possession issues just like her own so she just takes the toy she desires, even if it's in the hands of another.  She plain and simply doesn't know.

But yet I catch myself using this  "bad" word all the time, particularly with kids. One night, my niece asked me if I was going to have a time out chair at my school. I told her that I didn't think my students would be "bad." There I go, fueling the fire. Message sent: Kids that get sent to time-out are bad. 

I haven't used time-outs yet, and I would really like to keep things that way.  While my first week is past, and emotions do flair and kids do not always comply to my wishes immediately, we still have small numbers. I know that there will be issues in the future that will tempt me into punitive measures--that's just life. But my goal is to keep an atmosphere of guiding and teaching and forgiving. And forgiving.

The math of beginning

Here's the math of a first week:
1st week of school + only a few kids (three at most) = very few displays of extreme emotion /behavior issues

It's easy math, the sort that I like a lot. There were  a few moments of taking away toys, but the problems were actually solved very easily with an explanation of that “it makes your friend sad when you take her toy away…you need to ask first“. One two-year-old in particular, was good at just saying “ok” and going and giving the toy back.  There was the moment when a child did not want to join the group music time. She was playing with a tractor and was not willing to stop. She actually gave me a little chase. I  did not want to chase her though. So I gave her two choices.: Come to the carpet without the tractor or come with the tractor. She came with the tractor and soon became in engaged with the group activity.  This is our main goal, right?  The tractor even got a little dancing in.

Another teacher asked later what my philosophy is on how much we try to get kids to follow instructions. I’m not sure I completely know the answer to that. I told her that there is a certain point they do need to learn to follow instructions--there are times in life that their safety depends on following the instructions of an adult.  However, they should probably spend more time being able to choose, rather having to following directions. So we certainly can give them simple instructions to follow--and expect them to follow them. But the majority of the time we should give them choices.

Waiting by the edge of the carpet for a tumbling turn

Joy

Our goal should never really be to control them. If our goal is crowd control--give them two choices:  You can either sit on the edge of the carpet or stand at the edge of the carpet. Not that that’s going to necessarily get the child to be still on the edge of the carpet every time. But it turns it from being a control issue. Throwing in silly choices probably increases the likelihood of the the children actually choosing one of the things you offer them.  Like--You can wait on the edge of the carpet like a pirate chewing gum or like a blow fish.



Now, I’ve had plenty of control wars with children.. I am no expert-- this is my journey: I
want to keep children safe. Always. I want children to be joyful, to be challenged to higher heights and deeper depths. I want them to be who they are meant to be. I do not want to be manipulated by them. But neither do I want to manipulate them.  I want them to be respectful. I want them to feel at peace. And I want to feel at peace. (And I do not feel at peace when I’m chasing a child around the room trying to get the tractor from her).

I know that the math of preschool emotions is going to get increasingly more complicated. Hopefully, it will just never become logarithms or quadratic equations. At least not until I'm a bit more proficient in the math of emotions.