There is no stranger place to work than in a preschool. This summer once again, I worked as a "floating" teachers assistant in a daycare/ nursery/ preschool/ school age summer camp. Being a float meant that I would go into what ever age room I was needed in. Being a teachers assistant, or even a teacher in a preschool is a complete umbrella term.
There are so many more things that go into. You serve food, you change clothes and diapers, you put their wet clothes in the dryer, you are constantly following the tornado of a mess they are making, you scrub the tables when they decide to make picture on the table instead of the paper you gave them and you essentially have to give them a sponge bath with wipes anytime they eat or come in from playing on the playground. But I would not trade my work experience for anything. There are just so many things that happen when working in a preschool that would not happen if you worked anywhere else...
1. "Do you have to go potty?"
When you are working with children who are in the process of being potty trained you have to ask them every 15 minutes if they have to go to the bathroom before they have an accident, and even then, the likelihood that they will have an accident is very high.
2. "Did you poop?"
Anytime a smell arises I would walk up to each child and ask them if they pooped. It took a few days at the beginning to figure out which kids would lie about of they pooped or not so some kids you would have to check their diaper as you were asking if they pooped.
3. Crying.
Inevitably there is going to be crying. Some kids will cry over anything and cry for no reason all day longer. All that matters is that you know the difference between their fake crying and their crying for when something is wrong.
4. Mumbling.
Some kids, just mumble and maybe you'll be able to understand every five words or so. The hardest thing is kids who are learning English as a second language and mumble the few English words they know. I have a very limited knowledge of the Spanish language, but it was enough to understand what they needed.
5. Repetition.
Routines are critical when you are working with children, when you disrupt the routine the whole day is thrown off. Everyday they are going to play with the same toys and play the same made up games. You want to read them the same stories, and it will get to the point where you have "Fox in Sox" by Dr. Seuss, one of the hardest books to read aloud, memorized.
Working with toddlers is a great experience. You get to see their progress of learning and growing right before your eyes. It is the perfect way to learn if you are meant to have kids or if you even want kids. I say it all the time, I never imagined myself working with kids and now, I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else.
