10 Things I've Learned Working in a Preschool

I've had the wonderful opportunity to work at one of the preschools on campus this year. I loved it and even though I was the teacher, I learned a whole lot from my two and three year olds. This was my last week at the preschool so in honor of that, I thought I'd share with you a few of the things I learned during my time there.

1. You can buy kids at the store. 
    - One little boy drew me a picture and told me to give it to my kids. I replied I didn't have any kids. He thought for a minute and then said "Well... you can get some at the movies. Or you could get some at the store." So keep that in mind.
2. Don't cry over spilled milk.
    - Literally. You'd be crying all through lunch every single day. I can't even tell you how many pints of spilled milk I've cleaned up.
3. Differences don't matter.
    - I had kids in my class from China, the Middle East, India, Russia, and the states. They all spoke               different languages but that didn't matter to them. They still talked to each other and acted just like the best of friends. We got a couple of new students, twins straight from China, and the other kids hardly even noticed. They grabbed the girls' hands and brought them over to play with them. Kids are awesome.
4. Forgive quickly

    - It's amazing how easily and how quickly a child forgives and forgets. It really made me realize how much time I personally have wasted holding grudges and waiting for people to do the right thing before I was willing to forgive them when I could have just been enjoying life.

5. Kids give the most sincere compliments.
    - Working with kids is a major boost to your self-confidence. A day never passed without a compliment from one of the kids and you knew they really meant it because kids are honest. They just say what they think and most of the time, that's a good thing.
6. You can choose to cry or choose to laugh.
    - You know when a little kid falls down and there's that moment of deliberation and you can see it in their eyes that they're deciding if they should cry or laugh it off? I realized we all have that choice in any situation. We can cry or we can laugh and sometimes it's okay to cry. Sometimes that's the right choice. But sometimes we just have to smile and laugh it off because we're stronger than that.
7. Nap time is a war zone.
    - It's a war to get twelve 2 year olds to sit down. And hold still. And be quiet. And maybe fall asleep. It's a war for the teachers not to fall asleep. I mean, do we really have to turn the lights out and play relaxing music?
8. It's impossible to get mad at an adorable smile.
    -But really, when they make some sassy little comment and then look up at you with their adorable little smiles, what are you supposed to do? Oh you committed murder? (smiles an adorable smile) Okay just promise me you won't do it again. Heaven help me if my kids have adorable smiles!
9. Be kind.
   - When a child was sad the kids wouldn't hesitate to give hugs and words of comfort to the one in need. There was one little girl who would cry and cry all day long and the kids would put their hands on her arm and say "It's okay, mama will be back." Remember that most of these kids didn't even speak the same language. Seeing my 2 and 3 year olds do this made me want to strive to be kinder and to not hesitate when I saw someone in need of kind words.
10. Celebrate EVERYTHING!
    - We're going outside. (Jumping up and down screaming yay, yay, yay, yay!) Time to go inside. (Jumping and screaming ensue) Turn off the lights. (Jumping and screaming again) Turn on the lights. (Same thing) Lunch time! (You can probably guess what happened) It didn't matter what we were doing, (as long as it wasn't nap time), the kids got so excited! Even over the most trivial things. There is so much in life to celebrate, so celebrate!

I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to work at ECEC and I'm definitely gonna miss those cute kids!