The Biggest Compliment From The Littlest Person

Today while I was busy tying the shoelaces of one of my most mischievous little boys he looked at me and said flatly but sincerely, "You're a good teacher." I looked up at him, trying to hide my surprise. "Well, you're a good student." I said. He smiled and then walked off.

I've never heard that from any of my students before. Let alone one that I often have to discipline. I'd say today was a pretty good day.

Then later on I found the same little boy's shoe in the corner of the room. "Jake." I said. "Why do you keep taking off your shoe?" "Because..." He said. "Today I have a wooden leg. I don't need a shoe." "Oh. Okay. Well that makes sense." I said to him and left it at that.

WAX on WAX off

Yesterday little "Jack" came into my classroom and went to put his name tag in the basket, but brought it over to me instead. He held up his name tag to me and said. "Teacher, this is not my name."
"Yes it is." I said. "No it's not!" He said to me in a scolding tone. "My name is WAX!" He proceeded to tell me that WAX is what he wanted me to call him from now on and would I please write WAX on the back of his name tag. He was being so ridiculous that I thought he was joking. So I said to him, "Listen, Jack I know you are only joking when you talk to me like that, but that's not the way you talk to your teacher." Then I took the name tag, wrote WAX on the back of it, handed it to him and said, "Here you go WAX."
To which he replied with a straight serious face, "I wasn't joking."

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I have another student, "Allie". She loves to tell me about her life outside of school. These were just part of our conversations. (Which by the way always consist of who do we think is better Princess Aurora or Cinderella):

Allie: "Teacher Colleen, did you know that my sister has learned to go to the bathroom on the toilet now?"
Me: "Oh?"
Allie: "Yes, and whenever she goes, My Mom gives her a jellybean!"
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Allie: "Teacher Colleen! Guess what?
Me: "What Allie?"
Allie: "My Mommy and Daddy are going away and Grandma is coming to stay with us!"
Me: "Really? How exciting! How long is she going to stay with you?"
Allie: "She is coming for Three Sleeps!"
(Adorable)

Little Ones

The other day one of my girls came up to me and very dramatically threw the back of her hand up to her forehead and cried "Teacher, I have a terrible toothache on my head!"

"Oh really?" I said. "Are you sure you don't have a headache on your head?"

"Oh yes." She said. "That too!"

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One of the father's of one of my students is about my age. His daughter is no idiot and knows that I am not married. However, she must not have been thinking her thought process through (her parents are married) when we had this conversation....

"Teacher, you wanna marry my Dad, don't you?"

"What? What makes you ask me that?"

"Because my Daddy's reeeeaaally handsome, so you wanna marry him."

(Me smiling and saying gently)"Honey, your Daddy's already married, so no, I don't want to marry your Daddy."

"Oh, well that's okay." (...And we resume painting)

Save Me

I work at a Christian Pre-school. Everyday at circle time the children pray for any students that happen to be sick or have a specific prayer request. Today "Jill" asked to pray aloud for her mother who was sick.

Jill: "Dear God, please heal my mommy. (Then she looked up at one of the boys who tends to cause trouble and added) And God please help "Jack" behave himself and not do silly things."

To which Jack frowned and said...

"I'm not going to promise you that. I'm going to do silly things."

"Jack" is only five years old. But as the other teacher said "At least he knows himself."

I think that's a good point. I'll take a lesson from him today. To know that I will do "silly" things on my own, without the help of God to save me from myself.

"like a child..."

Children are so amazing.
I am so privileged to be teaching them on a daily basis.
When was the last time you interacted with a child?
There was a time in my life when I never interacted with children, (or old people for that matter.)

I used to work at a swanky spa and catered to the rich and beautiful. I never saw children. I enjoyed it, but still...
It bothered me. I remember distinctly thinking one time on a break. "I never see children or old people." I felt like I was living in a little bubble. Fast pace, Fast pace...work, work, work! There is the song by the band Daft Punk called Faster, Better, Stronger. It's about just that, and then the need to be even more faster, better and stronger.

I will not, cannot, live like that anymore. Don't get me wrong, I think it's important to have a strong work ethic. It's the mentality behind it that I'm referring too. I admit though that because of the society I live in, my mind wants to think the way of Better, Faster, Stronger....I want to renew my mind!

So as I was saying...

I love to watch children. They do not think like me. I do not think like them. But they learn early. They are only 4 and already I see the tendency to want to compare themselves amongst themselves and to fight for the front of the line. Hmm, sounds all too similar, like the Ladder of Success if you ask me. I suppose that's what I'm there for. God teaches me not to do this to myself. And it is my job to teach them. God is patient with me. It is my job to be patient with them and teach them patience.
They do not worry about where their next meal will come from. They do not worry about tomorrow. They are so free!
And I have so much to learn...

"Teacher! Teacher!"

In pre-school we've been learning about creation. I read this book about birds to the children and how the mamma bird feeds all her baby birds and the babies cheep really loud while being fed. I was thinking today, that I feel like a mamma bird and they are my cheeping birdies, all fourteen of them... at the same time.

A Child's Perspective

I am the assistant teacher at a preschool. Today was the second day of school. It was great. The boys are a rowdy bunch, but I love them. The kinds of conversations you have with children are great, because you would never have them (or should never have them with another adult. Unless you need counseling, of course.) Here is a perfect example.

Me: "Jack take your hand out of your pants please."
"Jack": "My hand is not in my pants."
Me: "Nooooo, I can see your hand is in your pants, now please take it out."
"Jack": (insistently) "My hand is not in my pants! It's in my pocket!"
Me:(much more sternly this time) "Jack! This is your pocket! (I grab his pocket) This is the top of your pants (I point to the top of his pants)and your hand is down there so take it out now."
Jack: (forlornly with eyes down) "Okay, fine."

OR how about this conversation....

(Small boy comes running into classroom)
Boy: "Teacher! Teacher! come quick, she's crying!" He says and points outside the room.
I swiftly move out the door and see a sweet little girl dressed in pink from head to toe, wearing her hair in two afro puffs and standing outside of the bathroom. She is crying very loudly.
Me: "What's the matter honey? Why are you crying?"
"Jill": "It's the toilet paper! She wails. "It won't stop coming out! I can't make it stop!"
Me: (walking her into the bathroom now and into the stall to see a large mess of toilet paper all over the floor of the bathroom and still attached to the roll.)"See!" She shows me with her hand.
Me: "It's okay Jill, you just pull it off like this..." And I pull it off the roll.
We then washed our hands as she stood on the stool and I took her back to class, "relieved". No pun intended.

We think children have it easy and we know in fact that they do. But they don't see that. In Jill's mind, she had good reason to be upset, she was making a mess and couldn't fix it on her own. It was in fact not that big a deal, once I pointed it out to her.
Jack saw no reason why having his hand in his pants in public was wrong. If a grown-up did this in public they would be sent to jail for lewd behavior. In that moment it was up to me to explain that that is not okay.

Next time if a situation overwhelms you, try asking yourself if you are acting like a child. Then ask what your grown up self would do to calm your fears and then do it. And above all else, keep it in perspective, please!

A Costco Kind of Love

"I love you". She said to me, in her four year old voice.
"As big as my house."
"As big as the world."
"As big as God."
"As big as Costco."
"And you just can't get any bigger than that."
She said.

(I reckon I will not argue with that.)

Pokie Things

One day little Kelsey was sittitng on my lap. I can't remember what we were discussing, but her experssion changed from paying attention to examination of my face. "What is it Kels?" I asked. She often would make the same expression when she was curious about something. She would tilt her head and pucker her lips. "Colleenie, what are those pokie things?" She said pointing to my face. "What pokie things?" I asked. "You know, those pokie things way up in your nose!" She said. "You mean my nose hair?!" I laughed. "Oh, is that what those are? Cause to me they sure look pokie to me." She said.

" Ripe Tomatos"

Stardate 2004:
On one of my numerous trips to Starbucks with little Kelsey I was at the counter waiting to pay. She was hanging out behind me and then it happened. I abruptly felt two small hands grab my rear-end very hard. I made a small scene as I yelped and jumped. I turned around to see Kelsey smiling very broadly as I looked down at her. "What'd you do that for!" I exclaimed. The people behind us were now laughing at us. "Well..." She said matter-of-fact. "It's just that your bottom looks like two ripe tomato's and I just had to squeeze them!" She said very loudly.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry out of embarrassment. One thing's for sure though, at that moment, I know my face was as red as a "ripe tomato."

A trumpet nose and a melting face

My roommate Anna is a nanny. As a former nanny myself, I just LOVE the way that kids see and perceive life. So, one day Anna was out with the little boy she was caring for at that time and she had to blow her nose and well,(she blows her nose very loudly) afterward he looked up at her and said "Wow Anna, you have a really great trumpet nose!"

A few weeks ago I was substitute teaching for pre-schoolers. It was a really hot day and I took the children out to the playground. The kids had a great time running around and getting all sweaty. One particular little boy had sweat running down his face. As we were on our way back one little boy looked at the sweaty boy and said "What's wrong with your face?" "I don't know, what's wrong with it?" "Well, I think you should know that your face is melting." He said. Then sweaty boy looked up at me and said. "Teacher, is my face melting?" "No, honey, it's not, you're just sweating." I said.