Ms. Agnes's classroom

  Hugs—giving my little friends individual attention  One of the challenging for me while working with the little ones is to acknowledge their emotions and provide individual comfort while balancing the structure and boundaries they need. I believe once the young children start daycare or preschool programs, it is an essential stage of developing the social skills that connect themselves to others, creating a sense of belonging and participating in the small group setting. Therefore, I do set up routines and expectations on them and am pretty firm while putting them in practice in the classroom. However, it does not mean I do not see their emotions, needs, anxiety, controlling issues or insecurity beneath their tantrums while being asked to cooperate with the “rules.” Sometimes, changes in the family also bring uncertainty to the young children. It could be a new family member coming or one of the parents is away for a few days. Young children need emotional support for differ...

When I have a little friend who is bilingual or multilingual in the classroom at the daycare…….. This September, I welcomed a new group of 3 year-olds in the classroom at the daycare. Two of them are from China, with no or little English exposure at home. Luckily, Mandarin is my first language so they have been told if they need help, they could come to me. It actually eased the anxiety from their parents. Interestingly, it does not seem to matter to these two new kids. When they experienced the anxiety of separation, they didn’t run to me or ask help from me. Even though I spoke the same language as they do, it still took a few weeks for them to settle down. A month later, I had another boy who has been raising in three languages at home joining the program. He does have a very limited English foundation but not enough to express his needs.  What are the barriers? Having young children from not only different cultural backgrounds but also the language barriers has brought me some ...