Quilting Bee #22

You will find this darling quilt here!

Good morning all!!! So very glad you could join me this morning. It is chilly and wet here this morning!! Not our usual warm Labor Day weekend!! The leaves are already turning and there is a bite in the air at night. I am wondering if we will have another winter like the last couple - seven feet of snow by December...we shall see. So I thought it was time to break out my quick bread recipes again..can ya smell the cinnamon. Oh and the Kona coffee is brewing and there is half and half if you would like this morning..Jim is spoiling us!!! So let us see..there is classic banana bread with and without nuts, pumpkin spice, zucchini orange spice, lemon poppy seed, maple nut, blueberry and cinnamon streusel bread. I have also sliced some delicious Washington apples..right out of the orchard. There is a creamy caramel dip for them if you would like. Thank you for joining me this morning! Please pull up a chair!

I have had an unusual challenge this week. I have been suffering from a lack of patience. Not a normal state of being for me. I am still waiting for the website to be available and Etsy to get back with me. But generally, if I am anything it is patient. You can't teach 2 year old for 24 years without having a little bit of that. But this week, not so much. I am breathing and trying to be like my preschoolers.

I am often asked how I teach preschoolers..not so much how as how I stay sane. This makes me smile because..really it is a joy to me. Where can you get paid to get hugs, be told you are loved, play finger paints and playdoh, watch a Disney movie in the middle of the day..with popcorn? More than that...where do you get to create curriculum that when offered up to children makes them glow with that joy of learning. Preschoolers are unjaded, everything is new and exciting. I looooove that. Preschoolers are straight up!! Here are a couple things I have learned from my little guys over the years.

Preschoolers don't game play with their words & emotions. They put it out there and say what they mean not what someone wants to hear. When they are angry they say so. When they are joyful, they do a dance. When they are sad.. they cry or take a minute to breathe. They are honest with their emotions. Preschoolers are straight up.

When things go wrong and emotions get out of hand.. empathy is the best answer. Look at the other person's point of view. How did this feel to them? Would you like it done to you? How would that feel? Empathy is huge with preschoolers.

Preschoolers do not care what you look like, sound like, what color you are, if you are young, old, skinny or fat or what your belief system is. If you love them they know and that is all that matters to them. I once worked with a young teacher who had been burned over a large portion of her body. Her face and hands were especially scared. Not one child turned away from her, even the new ones. They were curious about her scars, but never hurtful. She was what she was, she loved them and that is all that mattered. They look beyond the exterior stuff and only see the heart. Preschoolers are open minded.

Preschoolers do not make jokes with barbs attached. Those jokes that adults make that come with an attached nasty poke, but when called on it, claim...IT was only a joke - geesh! Preschoolers do not make jokes at others expenses. Jokes are for laughing and fun..not for making someone feel foolish or bad. Preschoolers have not learned to manipulate people in hurtful ways.

Preschoolers Let Fly..they will try new things, they will dance and be silly, sing at the top of their off key little voices, draw anything and beam with pride. They can do anything and will try anything..they feel huge joy!! Preschoolers Let Fly with little fear!

They Let Fly with their emotions..no stifling those. Sometimes we need to work on calming down a bit quicker..hugs and a cuddle usually do the trick. Can you imagine how much faster adult fights would be over if we could count on our partner to offer a cuddle and a hug - and our partner would accept one?? Preschoolers get over things very quickly.

There is nothing I love more at school than an unexpected leg hug. Big knee squeeze and they are off across the playground! Out of the blue for no reason..there it is. How do we forget to do that as adults? Give attention to those we care about. Give praise..give of ourselves for no other reason than.. at that moment we feel it. Telling a stranger they have beautiful hair, or what a great pair of shoes...etc. Kids do that. We love it!! So do they. Preschooler never hold back on saying something that makes you feel good!

I know you are thinking...but every day is not joy and sunshine. No..we have those days that all have stayed up late the night before and are cranky and in serious need of a nap. I have kiddos now and again that challenge me, behaviour issues, autism, ADHD, etc... but ya know..over all I have never found a child I could not find something amazing in...even the ones who made me exhausted and cranky myself. There is always something. There are weeks that the weekend is way to far away. But ya know those are the days that one of my kiddos will climb up in my lap, wrap their little arms around my neck and say, "I love you Miss Sarah, you are my favorite teacher!" How can you beat that on a bad day????

So what have the little guys taught you over the years? Would you like to share?
So very glad you joined me again today. I think I will have some banana bread with walnuts and a Kona coffee..skim milk please. What would you like this morning?
Namaste, Sarah