Written by Taryn Newville – Toddler Room Teacher.
There’s a reason I do what I do…..I love Toddlers! They are so bright and inquisitive. They never cease to amaze me. And you know, they never stop being special to me. Even when they are in High School and refuse to acknowledge that I knew them when they were in diapers. I love to see their little brothers and sisters and I look forward to the time each new addition comes to my room. Heck, I stop through the Infant room regularly and talk to the babies so I’m not such an unfamiliar face.
I’ve been doing this quite a while now. I’ve been been actively iinvolved in child care since March of 1994. Before that I did the dishes and such for my mom’s childcare center, then rushed off to play with the kids as soon as I was done. I have worked with every age bracket and I keep coming back to the one year olds. They are by far my favorite age group. I have three children of my own now. They love to visit “Mommy’s Toddlers”. They have grown up with their mom as a teacher and I feel blessed to have been able to take them to work with me for their first two years of life. As they got older they moved on to other classrooms and I was able to watch them grow from a short distance away. What an awesome opportunity! It has allowed me to watch other families grow up too. Each child holds a speical place in my heart.
I stay on top of when each little one will be joining my room because I like to be prepared. I want to give them a chance to get to know me and to have the opportunity to know them. It’s why I try to start transitioning weeks or a month in advance. I send out my welcome letters myself. It’s important to me to make the contact. I have a philosophy about transitioning. It goes something like this: Transitions are ineveitable, but they don’t have to be excrutiatingly painful. We start with an hour. If an hour goes okay, we do longer. We typically start with the period between breakfast and lunch. Then we add lunchtime. Then naptime, and pickup time. Last of all we usually add Drop-off time. This allows the little one to get used to us and then for us to begin to connect with mom and dad. By the time the little one permanently joins the room. We are all quite familiar with each other and the switch goes relatively smoothly.
Toddlers are funny. They understand so much more than we give them credit for. The more you watch them, the more they’ll amaze you. Their personalities are really just devloping and they try out so many new things. They try to interact with peers, they push limits to see just how far they can go, they try so hard to communicate and they develop a sense of humor. I have a little one in my class who loves to run around in the sand box. Especially if there are hills and valleys in it. He runs up and down them laughing the whole time. I have other little ones who insist that the mommy, daddy or grandparent from the dollhouse will fit in the dollhouse stroller, then laugh when you say the’re too big and show them how the dolls just fall out. They bring a book to one teacher to be read, then bring it to the other teacher so they can hear it again. They start shaking their head at the table just to see if they can get their friends to do it too. Sometimes you just have to laugh. I believe it keeps me feeling young.
So, I’ll probably never be rich, but I might just impact generations and really, what better legacy is there?
