And We're Off!

I knew halfway through my Seedlings interview that if I was fortunate enough to land the job I would love it. The founders of the school are two fabulous ladies whole-heartedly dedicated to our cause and the passion and compassion oozes out of them. This being said, I must admit that I accepted the position with some discretion. Not having taught tikes littler than first graders I entered Day 1 cautiously. I never would have thought that at 28 I'd still be approaching the first day of school wondering, "Will anyone like me?"

Two weeks down and it turns out we all like each other a lot. (Big smile.) We spend our mornings working hard to build inventive train tracks, creating inspired art projects, and singing and dancing all over the room. Until now I have not had the opportunity to work with such a small group of little people and working side-by-side with them for hours at a time is too fun to describe.

I'm sure you'll notice I cleaned up a bit before taking these photos.



Yep, that's a real kiddo back there amongst all the fun.



An appropriate tagline may be, "It's Christmas every day at Seedlings!"



Our fifteen cuties come from seven different countries and my co-workers and I come from three different continents. All parents speak English and many of the students do as well. (Many as in not all.) I've had to rely on my classroom Spanish quite a bit and have discovered that I retained some things that I don't remember learning. (Even though this baffles me I don't question it because it's proven to be tremendously helpful.)

As someone passionate (or obsessed, rather) about learning about cultures, I came into this great new place giddy to be surrounded by such an influx of culture variation. I was prepared for culture shock. However, I've learned a lot about this in my short time in Europe. What I now know for sure is that we are all much more the same than we are different, and this applies to children more than anything. Our Canadian students love playing with cars, trucks, and trains as much as our student from Venezuela and our student from Russia loves hearing a story as much as our American, German, and English students. Sharing is hard--and sometimes impossible--for everyone. When they're sad they want a hug and when they're happy they scream at the top of their lungs (but not only when they're happy, of course...)--no matter their native tongue. Many of my former fellow-teachers and I have worked hard to educate our students about cultures other than our own. I believe this is a necessity, but I believe in the importance of highlighting the similarities just as much. It is comforting to have discovered that kids are their funny, enchanting selves no matter where their home is.

Taking the risk to try something totally new paid off. But I really should've known, how could I go wrong with train sets and crayons at my disposal?