Update of sorts

Well the room is coming together finally. All of the painting is done, the shelves are in place, and I loaded them up with toys. My biggest aggrivation at in the classroom was the fighting that happened between the kids. It wasn't the little tit for tat stuff that happens every day, it was the all out brawls--hitting, kicking, spitting, and biting that was going on. These are 3 year olds, or nearly 3 year olds here. Perfectly capable of talking and not resorting to violence. Sure I understand that occasionally 3 year olds will forgo words in favor of physical but this was ALL THE TIME. Then something interesting happened. It stopped.

Once I put a bunch of toys out--not new mind you, just ones that had been put up for whatever reason before I began working there--the physical brawls have pretty much stopped. We have the occasional physical fight...but only about once a week and only with specific kids-(okay, 1 specific kid who is a holy terror and bully). My "run around like a crazy person and throw stuff" kids come in, find a toy, and they sit and play with it now. My cryers aren't crying nearly as much. My whiners aren't whining nearly as much. My biter has not bitten in 3 weeks. The house area is being picked up, the books are being put on the bookshelf--not stepped on and ripped. The couch is being used to sit on, not jump off of to body slam each other.

All of that because there's enough for them to do now. Ironically, I thought having more toys out would require more work on the teachers part. That just isn't the case though. The kids actually put toys away when it's clean up time, they want to know where they are for next time. Sure some stuff gets tossed in whatever ole bin is available at the time, but it's less than it used to be. In short, the kids are RESPECTING the toys more and more, resulting in less stress for me and more items for them to play with. The reasons behind WHY this is happening are numerous, one I will go into in another post. But for now, rest assured that although I am still majorly sleep deprived and the paper work is nowhere near done, the classroom and the kids are turning over a new leaf.

THAT my friends, is why I LOVE my job.