My hat goes off to Early Childhood Educators

Part of Jason's enrollment in "Bunny School" is my participation once a month. Today was my duty day and I was curious to see how things rolled each morning. I was quite impressed. Those ladies run a very well oiled and established routine. Being my first day, I felt a little like a fish out of water for a bit. I know how to handle issues that arise with kids in my home and I know that Bunny School handles discipline in a positive manner however when it came to a boy not sharing a car that he clearly coveted what was I to do? I knew that he was to share it & gave him a timeline for when he needed to hand it off to the next boy, but when the time was up & he did not give it up I was a little unsure. I gave him the choice that he could give it to the other boy or I would give it to the other boy, but when he had a death grip on it I was not sure if I was to rip it from his hands or not. Luckily I was interrupted by the teacher to fill out a form I missed & I advised her that there was an issue of sharing the blue car. She handled it exactly the way that I was & gave the same choices. So, now I know next time that I was handling it the right way & yes will need to pull a toy out of the child's death grip if they do not make the right choice.

This learning experience occurred during the first half hour which is free play time. I chose to supervise the block room as that is where the cars & trucks are kept & I figured this is where Jason would want to play. When the kids were let loose it is amazing how the room just swarmed with little boys & not a girl in site. I was happy to see some girls come in near the end of free play & get some blocks out or choose their own cars to play with. Next time I plan to choose either the dress-up room or art room to see if Jason will play in the room that I supervise & do different things or if he will stick to his interest...we will see.

Snack time for 31 kids is interesting & here too the routine is clearly laid out. There was an interesting little boy who will not eat snack & I was advised that when I offer the tray of food around that I not allow it to be near his reach or it may get kicked out of my hands...charming. When it was time for story & this little boy came into my group crying I was thinking...great this is going to be a fun 10 minutes, but once I told him that it was story time & ignored his protests he quieted right away. I think I got lucky on that one. I chose to do the reading circle because I really do like reading with kids & the one story we have at home & knew that the kids would like it. However, what I did forget is that not all children are like ours when it comes to sitting and listening to a story. Our kids will happily sit for a very long time & give you story after story to read, but I read to 31 kids this morning & I bet only 6 of them lasted the 10 minute circle time without fidgeting, playing with their chair, kicking the kid beside them, or trying to tell me or the kid beside them some story about themselves (boo boos, hockey, dinosaurs, cottages, the topics go on & on).

All in all it was a pretty good morning & makes me appreciate Early Childhood Educators all the more.