Three and Four year olds

Washington DC

Hello,

Even though I was just with two girls in Utah who are three and four years old, I realize I know little about such an age now. I went on a field trip at Lexi’s school. Her class is composed of just those ages.

Our destination was a park that was perhaps four or five blocks from the school. Sounds simple right? Multiply 2 children by ten and you might get a different picture in your mind of the proceedings. First, after I got there, it was time for snack, clean up, wash hands, go to the bathroom (a bit lengthy with only three stalls for girls), wash hands again, review rules for moving in the halls, assign partners, go out of the building, review rules for walking on the sidewalk, stop at the first cross walk, wait for all to get there, review rules for crossing the street, go to next cross walk, gather, cross in the same orderly fashion, go to next cross walk, repeat the process, arrive at playground, review rules for playground conduct, note the one small girl already on the playground, finally run and play.

Before we left another daycare/preschool group came, then another, and another group. To my mind this was not a big playground, but with only the mildest of concerns this was a successful outing. These teachers do not get enough credit from the rest of the world for handling so well this very important job. Seems to me it is more necessary than running any big company. There were three school adults and I was one of two volunteers.

Lexi was sad because one of her friends wanted to hold hands with someone else and not her. Then she wanted her mother who is in the hospital this morning for her appointment to be induced. At our latest call all is still ok, maybe progressing, but certainly not serious yet. Lexi also did not want me to leave after the field trip. Learning that I was leaving, she wanted to come with me. There were some more tears, but I thought her teacher dealt well with her earlier tears so I left Lexi in the teacher’s care.

Paula