Preschool to 4th grade

            What do I say about children when I have done all of the ages, Preschool through 4th grade. What do I say when I am around every grade throughout one day? That is my life right now when I sub but I love it and fun too. I sub for a preschool and then my real job is with Kindergarten through 4th grade. You learn a lot of things when you are around all the grades. You could probably tell that children are my passion since I am around every grade.
           Being around every grade does make me sleepy but it makes my day go by faster too. It gives me a lot more experience for later in life. I don't know what I am doing permeantly but it is good that I am doing this. It also gives me a lot of networks to go through for later in life. I also love picking my own times and I know I said that before.
           Preschool is very more active then the elementary aged children. They also are very needed and that is expected of them. You have to have a lot of energy to be with them and not scared to do silly things with them. It is a good place to start out when you are young but it takes a lot of energy when you get older and older. It also takes a lot more of your time too. It is also very different from 2 years old to 5 years old. I have also worked with babies so that is really different too. So really I have worked with ages 0 to 4th grade. It is fun seeing the babies learn the simple things like walking and talking. It is also so cute too! You get to see how they develop and how fast they can. It is the best when they are having a hard time and they learn how to do it or if they learn something new and you know that you had a part in that. That is the only good thing about that age. Other then that it is a hard age to deal with if you haven't had any of your own. That age would probably be the best for older people in the daycare field or at least it would be for me once I have my own babies, I think. 

             The problem that I have with the babies is understanding the parents' feelings about things. Parents can be so picky at that age and I can understand why because it is the ages where most of their development happens. The thing is don't take it out on the workers if we missed a slight thing or fed them at the wrong time because it was your choice to put then in a daycare with 11 other kids with 2 teachers most of the time if not 3 teachers. That the part I don't think that the parents get most of the time. Now back to the 2 through 5 years olds. The ways of teaching them are really different. It is mostly playing for the 2 years olds but as they get older the more Kindergarten like things they get taught. You start out with painting, coloring, listening and sitting when they are 2 years of age and then you keep going up to learning numbers and letters and so on. To me, it seems like you have less to do when they get older because they should already know how to sit and things like that. They should learn at least one new things, if not more, each year. 

                  Then the school learning starts when they are 4 and 5 years old. Pre-K and Kindergarten. Now about the elementary grades (K-4th), they are really different and it is strange to see them and have them all in what could be the same week. You really have to program your mind to go with each group. I have the 2nd graders now for most of the time. They are my main group but I have had the Kindergarten and the 3rd and 4th graders so I can see the difference in all of the groups. My 2nd graders are very talkative and outgoing. The 2nd grade boys are very active but being aggressive. The girls could be really mean and bossy to each other too. While they act like they are big kids, there are still some problems that they have like acting out. Some of them will cry or have a little fit if they don't get their way still. They still think that they should get all the attention and don't know any better. This is when you start giving them chores or jobs, if not sooner, so they can learn responsibility. I would start my kids with chores sooner than that but some parents don't. I have some boys that have no idea how to clean the tables after snack. Some of them try but I have to go back over them. 

                Like I said about learning with babies, the grades have different things they learn and should now but that age too. I know some 2nd graders that don't know how to tie their shoes yet. I also have some 2nd graders that has a fit when they get out of a game we are playing. The 2nd graders also fight a lot during gym games about who is really out and how one touched the other. They get very competitive. The 3rd and 4th graders these days act like they are in Jr. High. It is all about them and they want to be the center of attention. They will try to get your attention in all kinds of way even crying if nothing else works. You see them around with their cell phones and with a lot of make up on. They think that are too big to do anything with the younger children. They want to do anything but play. They talk about things that I didn't even talk about until after middle school. They will use bad words like that too if you can catch it among their friends. They have no respect for the teachers or other adults in their lives. The boys are still active by being aggressive though. I don't think that ever changes. 

              These are only some of the things that I have seen working through this age range. I know there is a lot more like with disabilities and things but that is for each person not the group as a whole so I won't go into that at all. It is also hard to remember all of them too. Sometimes they seem just to slide together win my brain since I am working with everyone of them especially on a busy day. It would be neat and I have always wanted to just sit and really observe all these grades to see how right I am about some of these things and learn more because you know as a teacher or a person working with children, you never stop learning. That is another reason I like this field. Once a teacher's kid, always a teacher. :)