May 19th

            My favorite thing about University Childrens’ Center has been the variety of tasks I’ve accomplished while still staying anchored with my room, the Milky Way Room, and my adorable group of kids and babies. 

            Typically when I get to work at ten thirty or eleven, the infants are taking their naps and the little one and two-year olds are coming inside from recess. Kids at this age seem so carefree of the things that sometimes bother me and very emotionally invested in things I wish I could understand. For example, a little boy, Forrest, cried his eyes out today because he couldn’t fit a cow into the barn he was playing with.  Yet, when these kids come inside and get ready to eat they have grass in their hair and dirt smeared on their faces and shirts and shoes caked with mud but they do not care one bit and actively resist when a teacher tries to clean them off.

            At around eleven, the kids begin their lunch.  Since the first day, I’ve sat next to the toddlers, as instructed by the other teachers, and reminded and taught them to use their forks when eating and talked to them even though, for the most part, they cannot really talk back to me.  I know they can understand what I’m saying because when I give directions they acknowledge me and can follow, but they only know basic words and phrases. One or two of them even use sign language to indicate “more” or “help.” People often look back on childhood nostalgically as if being a child is so easy, but I can often see the frustration and impatience in their faces when they want something they can’t seem to communicate no matter how loudly they grunt or bang their fists on the table.

            For the next hour we play, my favorite part. For some reason, they love these little reused parmesan cheese containers with popsicle sticks in them. They put the popsicle sticks through the holes at the top and rattle them around to make music, then they pour out all the sticks and do it all again. The Milky Way Room also has about 10-15 big plastic colorful balls to bounce around on the tile floor away from the babies and delicate art projects.  They do not exactly understand how to play catch back and forth yet but some of them will play fetch if you roll the ball really far away and they’ll find it and run back to you. These simple games really tire the one and two year olds out, and soon, after reading a few books to them, we put the older kids to sleep and begin feeding and playing with the babies, who typically wake up at about this time. 

            Sometimes when the babies wake up the teachers in my room will assign me some type of hour-long cleaning task like organizing the craft storage or folding all of the extra clothes that I’ll complete for the remainder of my time at the center, and other times, I’ll just sit with the babies and play until 2 or 2:30. The day winds down slowly and I leave the center happy and relaxed.