Touching the octopus and other acts of bravery

Yesterday was another hard day. Our one child is in a tailspin, presumably because things are very bad at home, and brings to our peaceful little classroom a tornado of terror, rage, and stress. The three adults are barely coping, and it feels terrible. Read More...

Valentine’s Day party in preschool

We made the heart handprints, and they turned out wonderfully. We started making them on Monday, but even the ones we did Tuesday dried quickly enough to be able to write down the children’s quotes for their mothers, and send them home that day. I used Read More...

a difficult Valentine’s day

One of my friends came to school yesterday, limping heavily. She explained, “I was bad, so Daddy punched me in the leg.” My assistant teacher, who was the one who greeted our friend off the bus, said later that she nearly threw up, right then and there. Read More...

hands

Today we went to the auditorium with the whole school for an assembly about Black History Month. The featured speaker was wonderful, but his words went over the heads of my small ones. Nonetheless, they were very patient and good, and they enjoyed the Read More...

a valentine’s day craft we are definitely going to try

I originally found this on Pinterest, from this blog . Isn’t that sweet? We will start Monday, if we have time. I suppose it has to be done in three steps — the pink heart handprint, then when that dries, the red heart handprint, and then when that dries, Read More...

i know why i am so tired

It hit me at breakfast this morning. My classroom is a well-oiled machine. It runs smoothly, calmly, and happily. That is my normal. But in the last few weeks, with Crow struggling and Little One totally falling apart, my classroom is not running smoothly. Read More...

it is hard to be an angry, stressed-out preschooler

Little One is struggling, and we are struggling right along with her. For about two weeks now, she has gone way backward in terms of her behavior. She comes in sad, or manically happy, which soon veers into tears or yelling. She desperately wants the Read More...