In Matthew 19, verse 14 Jesus says, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." As someone who dearly loves and cares for children, that verse has always been a powerful reminder of the importance of children in the body of Christ. Even though I have worked with kids in a variety of contexts for many years now, I am still learning new things from kids every day.I just finished my first week at my summer job. I am the assistant first grade teacher at a summer day camp. Days are spent playing games, making crafts, reading stories, singing songs, playing outside, going on field trips, and eating snacks. I went into this position thinking I pretty much knew what it was going to be like, was fairly confident I could work with the kids, and was excited at the prospect of not really having to plan anything. Well, I will just say that things rarely turn out exactly the way you imagine them to be, and in the past five days, I have learned so much.
So here is a list of ten things I have learned (or been reminded of) this week from my first graders:
1. Choose your battles. The first couple days as the lead teacher was establishing the ground rules, I followed suit and tried to enforce them all, such as p erfectly straight lines and silent sustained reading. By day three, I realized you know if they don't line up quiet and straight all the time, oh well. If they are reading books and so excited they want to talk about it with the person sitting next to them, great! I need to save up my energy for the bigger problems- fighting, naughty words, destruction of property, etc.
2. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Every day we get a designated gym time. The kids love running around, playing with balls, and just having lots of room to play. As I was supervising, I was watching a couple boys playing basketball. Now at this particular time, the hoops were rather high for 5 and 6 year olds, but these boys were not discouraged. They just took shot after shot. You could see the look of determination in their eyes. And finally, one of them made it! Pride and accomplishment radiated across his face. Success.
3. Kids are sponges and soak in their environment. This lesson is rather alarming to think about because it means everything these children are exposed to becomes a part of them. Throughout the week, many kids shared with me about their home lives. The more I learned about their environments, the more their behavior made sense to me. And these kids hear what you are saying, even if you don't think you are listening. If you say you are going to do someting, you better do it or boy will they call you out on it!
4. Be patient, just as Christ is patient with us. I believe this will be a lesson I will continue to learn all summer. Of the 25 or so kids in my class, there are about 5 who are particularly challenging. The most frustrating part is that they are often unphased by discipline. In a given day, they may go to "thinking corner" multiple times and have to sit out during activities, yet they still continue to misbehave. Yet I know in my heart it is those kids who need my love, my care, my encouraging words, and my patience the most. It's easy to love the well-behaved, quiet, sweet children. But the true test of character is loving those who aren't as easy to love.
5. Share the things you love with others. After the first day of day camp, I realized that one of the things I loved as a kid (and still love to this day) was being read to. So I decided to make time each day to do just that. I have found so much joy in picking out books that I love to share with them. So far we have read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Corduroy, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, and Where the Wild Things Are. It is probably the only time in the 8 hour day when everyone is quiet, engaged, and content.
6. Don't judge anyone too quickly. The one thing I worried about with read-aloud time was the handful of children who tend to make every activity a bit challenging. I feared those kids who end up ruining the experience for everyone. However, I was pleasantly surprised that even the rowdy kids were paying attention as I read. I was even more surprised when after I finished reading Corduroy, a little boy [who I spend a good deal of time disciplining] came up to me and said, "Teacher, I really liked that book."
7. Speak and pray blessings. A good friend once told me that the words we use to communicate with children are either blessings or curses, and affect how that child grows up thinking about themselves. I have been thinking a lot about that in terms of how I speak when I am trying to communicate with kids when they are doing something wrong. It's been on my heart to just pray over these kids, both when I am at work with them and when I am at home. What a privilege to be able to pray God's promises and truths into the lives of these precious children.
8. God has a plan for all of His children, and I can play a role in fostering that. When we were talking about FAITH, one little girl raised her hand and said "My name means Faith." Later on another girl asked me if I knew what her name meant, to which I replied I didn't know but I would find out. The next day that was the first thing she asked me (and unfortunately I had totally forgotten to find out!). I wasn't about to forget again so that night I looked up her name and found that it meant "pure." The next day I told her what her name meant and explained what "pure" meant. She gave me a huge smile and it made me think how awesome it will be for her to grow into her name- to remain pure as she grows up to be a godly woman. I am in the process of looking up all the kids' names and am excited to be able to pray into some of their meanings! And it would be that the three troublemaker boys all have Biblical names with Hebrew origins.
9. Sing loud, dance proud. One of the kids' favorite things to do is to sing our theme songs and do the hand motions. And let me tell you, they sing loud (whether or not they know the right words!) and they really get into the motions. It is quite fun to watch and there is such a sense of innocence that is beautiful. It just makes me think that is the way we are suppose to praise God- not caring what other people think and just going for it.
10. We all need to be told we are loved. I had just sent a girl to "thinking corner" (I believe for the second or third time that day). I honestly don't remember what she did that particular time, but I do remember she was huddled up in a ball crying in the corner. And she wasn't crying because she was sorry for what she did or upset for getting in trouble- it was something more...something deeper than that. I had a moment when the kids were all happily doing their stations so I walked over to her and sat down next to her. I sat there silently for a minute or two and then I looked at her and said, "Do you know that I love you?" She was quiet for a moment, and then she nodded and looked at me and said "Yes." I then said, "And do you know that Jesus loves you even more than I do?" I proceeded to say that even though we do the wrong thing and we get in trouble over and over again, me included, how much Jesus loves us never changes. I realized in that moment that I was speaking to myself as much as I was speaking to her. I hugged her and thanked God for that moment.
