Recent Thoughts and Experiences While Teaching

OH BOY! I feel like it has been so long and only today really sticks in my mind right now.

Well. I have to say that farmcraft with 3-5 year olds is a bit of a challenge. Although I love this age, it is not as easy.

Today I had a group of nine 3-year olds. I struggled to find ways to present material to them so that they could learn as well have fun. I found myself talking much less and doing more. I didn't know how I really felt about this. At times I feel like these kids should be taught by an equal amount of talking and doing. Maybe I am selling them short because they are so little, but at the same time, they are 3! What is really tough about this age, as compared to even 5-year olds is that they are so shy and don't really talk or interact much. I had one girl today that was really into everything, but then her teacher had to continually be telling her to "stop doing this and that". The rest of the group was quiet and not really totally engaged. They wanted more to do with their parents and very little to do with me and what I was doing. I gotta think of ways to get to these kids, but at the same time they are 3, and having a stranger try to get them out of their shell may not work so well.

As for the rest of my experiences lately. We have had some young ones so that have been similar. Although I do find that I enjoy this age, I struggle trying to feel okay about the fact that they may not be getting all of what I am trying to teach them. The 5-6 year olds have amazed me! They are super smart and really into everything that they do. A few weeks ago when Jabin and I were working together, I was singing "Dirt Made My Lunch" to a bunch of kids. Before I began the song we were talking about their lunches and where dirt fit into the whole picture. One kid looked at me and said, "Well DUH, everything comes from the earth, I get it!", the other kids looked a little confused but eventually they caught on. This just made me smile and feel like at least one of them really understood where I was coming from and could pass this on to his other classmates at some time.