Friday, January 15, 2010

The Compassion of 5 Year Olds

Today I had a wonderful morning at work. The kid who has the parvovirus is at home today so I only had 6 kids, they were quiet, calm, respectful of each other. They shared so well! I was in awe of them. This group of kids is normally a crazy bunch. They like to scream and yell and run and argue. Not today. The girls loved the tutu, (I only had two girls as the other was at home and the two I had were the twins) they shared it with each other without a single argument. One of them helped me to make the second tutu. AND the most amazing part of my day was circle time. Normally each morning I have to sit the kids down and force them to listen to me blab on about some stupid topic. This week it's snow people. (The topics are chosen by my supervisor) The supervisor isn't in today so I let my kids relax. I gathered them on the carpet and we all sat together.

I let them start their own discussion. Guess what they decided to talk about? The earthquake in Haiti. I should remind you my kids are only 5 years old. One of my kids told me it was a very scary thing that happened in a far away place, and that lots of people got hurt really bad, and some even got lost. Another said that an earthquake is when two plates under the earth shift into each other. One of them said his daddy is sending money so that the people can have food to eat. I was almost ready to cry! (Of course I told him that was a very very good thing to do). It was amazing watching them interact, they were very serious about the topic, they took turns speaking, they listened to each other, and they asked me intelligent questions. They all stayed on the same topic and they were all very concerned about the people in Haiti, and what happens when there's an earthquake. I wish I could let them do their own discussion everyday.

After lunch we had to send home a second kid with parvovirus. I wonder if I am going to be extremely lonely on Monday.


And now for something adorable, my monster in his fancy clothes, and about to throw one of his famous little fits:

2 comments:

Stacie said...

Aww, I'm so glad that you had such a great day at work. You needed that after the chaos you usually get from the kids.

Their discussion sounded so amazing. Such a deep topic for little ones.

Sky looks so cute on his hands and knees in his fancy clothes!

Corrie Howe said...

He doesn't look too happy in the last picture.