Friday, July 25, 2008

my morning at work

So, as most of you know I am a kindergarden teacher. I work with kids in the ages between 1-3. And yes, it is kindergarden, not daycare. Atleast I see it as that :) I work in a kindergarden where we use inspiration from Reggio Emilia which really is a region in Italy and an educational philosophy which follows these principles:
Children must have some control over the direction of their learning;

children must be able to learn through experiences of touching, moving, listening, seeing, and hearing;

children have a relationship with other children and with material items in the world that children must be allowed to explore;

and children must have endless ways and opportunities to express themselves.

We also have longterm projects with lots and lots of creativity! Hense why i love my job :)

Anyway, the other morning i thought of taking some photos showcasing how good of a morning i did have! Let me set up the picture:

These photos were taken between 6 and 7 am. The sun was already shining and the grass was slightly wet still from the night. I lit candles (as i often do when i work with my kids) and put on some Bach.


(check here for my flickr version of the above photo if you want to read some notes...)

After about 5 minutes two kids arrived and they cuddled with me on the couch for a little while since they were tired. Then the little boy (3.5 years) started this awesome conversation about lawn mowers. He ♥ everything lawn mowers! That conversation lasted for about 15 minutes! I found myself sitting there and thinking wow how incredibly humble i am to his knowledge! He then proceeded with his playing :)



As we do have all materials showcased and in the childrens hight for them to pick and choose themselves, both kids wanted to do some morning painting. Perfect, i thought, because that is one of my favorite things! So, while listening to Bach on the CD, candles lite they had a nice quite time painting.




This, my friends, is true art!



While they were painting i stood and cleaned some brushes and paint cans, and listening to their sweet conversation. Yet another favorite for me. Ah, the conversation between children!



So, the clock is ticking and while the kids get cleaned up i put on some eggs for breakfast (we usually don´t cook but the lady that does is on vacation so we all help out).
The atmospher was so calm and made good things for my soul...i always want the kids
to have a calm and nice morning, so that they are ready for the day. And frankly i can need it too :)



I wish you a nice, calm and creative morning!

6 comments:

alittlebitofscrap said...

sounds delightful. I used to work in a similar setting with a group with similar philosophy. I loved it! It was the absolute best job I've ever had.

Katy said...

I went to a Montessori school when I was little, so I find so much of this comforting. I follow both philosophies when parenting MY children. :) Children are sooo smart, we (the world) doesn't give them nearly enough credit.

Heather said...

awesome blog today. sounds like you got the day started off right. i love the pictures you took also.

Anonymous said...

what a great peek into your day :)

Karoline Sigoldson said...

Vilken underbar morgon!
:-)

Aimee Ann said...

what a lovely way to start the day. i wish i had such things in my life :)