The One With Young "Love"

Max and Lola, Age 3

Max likes to chase Lola around the classroom but she does't like it so she will scream. Then when a teacher asks Max to stop, Lola begins to chase him...this has occurred for weeks.

Max comes up to me and says, "Ms. Erin I like Lola." So I said," Max that's sweet of you, do you want to be friends with her?" And his eyes got HUGE and in his adorable pre-school country accent he says, "YESSSSS! I want to take her home with me!"

.....He was as serious as he could be.
It just doesn't get much sweeter than that.

The Weird One

4 Year Old Boy

I am not sure if this one is funny or just out right strange, but here you go...

Had a little boy bring me a naked baby doll lying on a tray from the kitchen center. He walks up and says, "Would you like some...?" As any normal confused person in this situation would, I asked "What is it..?" He called it Shamooze...or something like that. Then as serious as he could be he said, "It's what you eat when you pick out it's eye balls.".....I myself was speechless, however my co-teacher simply said, "Well I prefer pizza, but thank you." 

Quite possibly the weirdest conversation I have had with a child...EVER.

The One With Only One Word

Sarah, Age 3.5...She is one of my most entertaining littles.

I had one child with a broken flip flop so she kept taking her shoes off...which automatically means EVERYONE else wants to take theirs off also...

After answering "No" to the taking the shoes off question...at least 3 or 4 times... stubborn strong-willed Sarah is sitting at the table for snack and I suddenly see little toes ON THE TABLE. So my co-teacher said, "Sarah, why are your feet on the table?" ...She goes on..."And why are your shoes and socks off after Ms. Erin told you not to?" So like any 3 year old she gets that little look in her eyes and sits in silence just staring at you..almost like a dog after getting in trouble haha. I told her it would probably be a good idea if she put her shoes and socks back on her feet. After 5 minutes or so of refilling waters and feeding crackers to little vultures I noticed little toes BACK ON THE TABLE! I asked her, "Sarah why haven't you put your shoes and socks back on?" She puts out her hands and shrugs her shoulders while saying, I don't know how. "Well, do you think it would be a good idea to ask a teacher for help?" I sat down on the floor with her and begin putting her socks and shoes back on. I then asked her, "Sarah what have we learned from this?" She looked at me with that puppy dog face and simply said, "Obey."

I mean what more could you possibly ask for from a 3 year old. :)

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

The One With The Meltdown

Leah, Age 4

This is during recreation in Awana...

All the kids are playing the games...then oh no! we're switching games! With Pre-schoolers this doesn't always go over well. So the guys leading the games tell all the kids to get into a hula hoop and they would start the music. When the music stopped they had to find a hoop and if you were in the hoop the person pointed to YOU WOULD BE OUT!...These 4 words often don't go over well with pre-schoolers either. So I see all 13 of my kids following directions to play except..one. Yes one child out of both classes and 20 plus kids would not want to comply. So I walked into the middle of all the chaos to ask her why she wasn't playing. As soon as the words came out of my mouth oodles and oodles of tears just came pouring out of this child's eyes. I was like Leah Leah calm down and tell me what's wrong. By this points it's like Niagara Falls and the child won't even calm down enough to speak. I said "Leah calm down, and use your words to tell me what's wrong...(If I had a nickel every time I said that one.) Finally she mumbled the words.."I don't want to play because I don't want to lose."

Oh to be 4 years old and completely lose it because you are afraid to lose a game of four corners. ;)


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

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.