The One Where Children REALLY ARE Sponges

Sarah, Age 3.5

We're cleaning up the classroom before transitioning to a new activity. (The classroom was quite the mess) but this was taking MUCH longer than it should...

"Sarah you need to be cleaning up." ...I believe I had said this 3 or 4 times already. She would come up to me while holding a blanket, "Where does this go?" She would ask. Calmly I would reply, "Well, where do you think it goes?" She had been in this classroom long enough to clearly know that the baby blanket goes in the baby bed. She proceeded to ask where a block would go or a book would go. My patience were getting very thin. Then Sarah took a block and instead of placing it on the shelf where ALL the other blocks were and just placed it on top...So with my most calming, patient voice possible, I said, "Sarah do you think that is where that goes?"... She just looked at me and said no. At this point I mumbled under my breath, "Child you're pushing my buttons." She proceeded to walk off and procrastinating the cleaning process. A couple minutes later my co-teacher asked her, "Sarah are you cleaning like Ms. Erin asked?" She turned and replied to her, "You're pushing my buttons."

**Names changed for protection of children's identity.