They swarmed around me like bees in a hive.  “We missed you Mrs. Bush!””.  “Where were you Mrs. Bush?”.  I explained that I had been to New York at a conference.  “Were you learning things for us?”  Well, yes I was.  “Did you see the Eiffel Tower while you were there?” ” No silly, that’s in France”.  “Did you see the statue of Liberty?”  No not this time.  “My grandma lives in New York”.  Yes, eventually, we did start to learn some music.

With Kindergarten, it’s all about hugs and snuggles.  One little boy in particular, who calls me over every morning while he’s waiting in the gym to go to class, insists on a morning hug and one when he comes to my classroom.  Today he wanted several hugs.  I’m in the middle of playing a song for them on the piano and he walks up and asks, “can I have a hug?”  Not right now.  Later on, he pops up again and says “you smell good.  You smell like Froot Loops”.  A little girl who hugged me on the way out of my class said with a big smile, “you feel warm and fuzzy”.  I hope she was talking about my sweater and not me personally.

This is the joy of teaching children.  You never know what they’re going to say or do.  For instance, we were sitting on the floor the other day and I asked the kids to get up so we could do some movement.  One of the little boys didn’t get up so I asked him again, and he looked up at me with a slight panic on his face and said, “my finger is stuck”.  Stuck on what?  He was sitting on the floor.  So I walked over and part of his fingernail was caught in the carpet and he couldn’t move his hand without pulling the fingernail.  I asked one of the kids to get my scissors for me (one I could trust) and I got down on the floor to snip the carpet.  The little boy now looked frightened, like I was going to cut off his finger until I explained what I was doing.  With a quick snip, the panic turned to relief and I had saved the day.  It doesn’t take much to be a kid’s hero.

Even my big kids stopped me today and said they felt they hadn’t seen me in a long time. Yes, I’ve been doing some traveling lately, but I always assume they’ll enjoy my sub more than me because at the very least, it’s something new and chances are they’ll have the opportunity to hear and do something different.   And yes, so far they LOVE my sub, but I think they really missed me too.  Kind of nice actually.  Even if their behavior doesn’t always show it.

That’s the great thing about kids.  You always know where you stand.  If they miss you or are mad at you or are scared you know right away.  They share everything from lost teeth to their latest boo boo to the fact that mom is expecting a baby.  They have no problem telling you what they think of you – I was once told I looked like a big green muffin.  Still not sure how to take that one.  They ask me about my hair when I color it, ask me why, how old I am and if my husband and I kiss.  I usually answer things honestly because if they’re old enough to ask it, they’re old enough for an answer.  Of course there are those discussions they need to have with mom and dad, and I’ll send them in that direction if needed.

That’s why teaching will never really be routine because the unknown factor is the kids.  That’s also why it’s impossible to treat education like a company with our kids being a product.  Most products on an assembly line won’t tell you you smell like Froot Loops and feel soft and fuzzy.