Back to School!

So, the daycare that I work at takes care of children from anywhere to 6 months old – 5 years old. Children up to 12 are accepted for afterschool care as well. However, during the months of September all the way to June, it is considered school time for the pre-school and pre-k children, and that means actually LEARNING!! The children are usually eager and excited to further their knowledge; at this age they are probably the most curious they will ever be.

I’ve been working here for almost a year, and alllll summer long, it was nothing but fun fun fun for these children. My co-worker “Miss Jill” and I would play music for dance time, play games like duck duck goose, have them do crafts, play with play-dough, etc. Now that it’s actually school time, the children seem to be less concerned with senseless free-play and more concerned with picking up books and studying the words. They’re all so cute, they often show me their pencil work and brag about all the new words they’ve learned that start with the “letter of the week”. This week’s letter was A, and yesterday I had them all color a blank sheet of paper and made them into paper Airplanes. I took them on the playground and we flew our paper airplanes in the wind and they loved it!

Also, last night was back-to-school night for the parents. I’m not a very good public speaker, so I let my director (also the pre-k teacher) do all the talking. I just stood there and met all the parents, most of which I already knew, and listened to the new and exciting things that the children would be learning in preparation for kindergarten. It made me think of last year’s children who went to kindergarten this year and don’t come back for afterschool care. As difficult as children can be, I miss those kids so much  Whenever I think of how much I miss them, I realize how hard it can be for a teacher to become comfortable with a class and then say goodbye to them after a year for a new class to come. However, I think the new pre-k children this year will grow on me just as well.