A Day in the Life!

What does spending days as an Early Childhood teacher look like?

Is it sitting and watching? Is it telling the children to "do this, do that"? Is it just expecting them to listen?

Not at all my friend!

It is listening to a "little" tell me a story for what seems like the umpteenth time that day, it is sitting in the floor while a lot of different littles sit all around me and want me to play. It is craft time as I teach them how to hold a paint brush, and watch them use their imagination and show me just how creative they are. 

You see, I'm not just listening to their story, I'm giving them my undivided attention, showing them that they are important and that what they say matters. I'm sitting in the floor with them because when we, as adults, get down on their level not just literally, but through play, we can begin to see the world how they see it.  I'm teaching them how to hold a paint brush and nurturing their fine motor skills, but also building a relationship with them. 

As a teacher, I sometimes set goals for what I would like to see my littles accomplish, what I want them to learn.  But many times, I find that I am learning right along with them. Littles are such good teachers, often times without realizing it.  During our time together, they teach me to find joy in the small things.  For instance, one day in my class the activity for the day was to mix different paint colors to see what color they make. As my students did this using only their hands, they giggled very loudly and without reserve. I asked each one, what was so funny, they replied with "It's squishy!", "It's making a new color!", "This is fun!".  These children found joy in getting to get messy and mix colors. That was it! When is the last time as an adult that you have mixed up paint and laughed????

  I know for myself, often times, I spend my days stressing over adult life in general. We get lost in the mundane task of everyday life and forget to slow down and take it all in. Children are God's way of showing us to enjoy our lives. 

Thank you God for littles. 



“While we try to teach our children all about life, Our children teach us what life is all about.”
  — Angela Schwindt, home schooling mom States

Why Early Childhood?

"I'll never forget the sense of wholeness I felt when I finally realized what in fact I 

really was: not just a writer or a language buff or a student of human development or a telecommunicator, but I was someone who could use every talent that had ever been given to me in the service of children and their families."

                                        

                                                                     --Fred Rogers

     I began working in the early childhood field back in 2012. I had just finished college, graduating with a B.A. in Christian Ministries from Williams Baptist College. I honestly had no idea what I was going to do with my degree, I didn't know where to go from here. I started praying and asking for God's guidance. My question to God was, "what do You want me to do with what You have given me?" I wanted to make a difference in the world around me, I wanted to make a lasting change, I wanted to DO SOMETHING. 

     One day soon after, a friend posted about a job opening at a daycare in Jonesboro. I remember thinking, I can do that. I can babysit kids all day for a paycheck, it'll be something I can do for now, until God shows me His direction. I began that job and with each day that I went to work, I was learning that I wasn't just babysitting. It was so much more than that. I fell in love with the field of early childhood during my first year of working there, perhaps even the first six months.  I made the decision that very same year to go back to school and get a degree in early childhood. I began school at Walden University and in 2014, I earned a M.S. in Early Childhood Studies. 

Throughout my quest to earn my master's degree, I worked full time. I did change jobs but it was still in the field of working with littles.  The more that I worked with the little people of our world, the more I saw the importance of what I was doing. I was these children's first teacher, (outside their parents, of course).  In early childhood, we are teaching the future. What I hope to see in the future, the changes that I hope to see in the world around us, it starts with me.  

It starts with what I teach in my classroom. If I hope to see more love in the world, I need to teach my littles how to show love to one another. If I hope to see more positivity in the world, the atmosphere in my classroom needs to be positive. If I hope to see less fighting in the world, I need to teach my students how to solve problems together.  I need to teach them kindness. 

Learning is more than just ABC's and 123's. It's more than reading and writing. Those things are very important and need to be taught, however, shouldn't learning be about things like love and kindness too? Every time we turn on the news, every time we read a newspaper, there are stories about someone killing, stealing, lying, cheating, etc.  As a parent myself, I have said many times, I am afraid of the world my son is growing up in. I have heard so many others say the same thing. As early childhood teachers, our littles have a clean slate.  We can instill these key aspects. We can show kindness and love in our classrooms. We can show them that sometimes we, as humans, get upset, we make mistakes, and we can also show them that's it's okay to do so. 

Early childhood is my passion and always will be.  One of my favorite parts of teaching in this field (which is birth-5), is watching a child succeed at something that they have been working at.  When they finally get it, their eyes light up and search for mine, to see if I'm watching. Children yearn for attention, they want approval. I want to show each child that I have in my care, that no matter what they do, no matter how many times they have to try at something, that it's okay. They are still of value to me, they still matter. They are still loved.