What 1 week as a teacher in kindergarten taught me about children AND their parents.

I've gone back to teaching for a short while to substitute a teacher (and because I wanted to know if I still wanted to teach). It had been years since I last was in a classroom and being a parent changes so much in my teacher perspective.Kids imitate you, they imitate your behavior, they watch you and you are their role model. If you lose your patience, they notice it. If you are loving, they notice it, if you're upset, they sense it. If you're excited, they can tell.They're young, but they're curious and bright and, more than all, even if they're not directly looking at you, they are always aware of what you talk about, or who you talk about and how you react. They understand and capture more than you could imagine.Within a week, I knew whose parents were together, which weren't, who got along and who didn't. I also knew some of the issues families were going through- specially around the Holidays- and how worried some of these kids were.I could also witness how different kids reacted to a simple situation. Spilling milk could cause a child to go into an hysterical "IT WASN'T MY FAULT MISS CARLINHA1289, IT WAS AN ACCIDENT" to simply saying "Oopsie Daisy! let me clean this, can you help me?"I remembered why teaching young children was so difficult. On top of teaching, you also kind of live their lives through them, you know what's going on with them and how they're handling it but you're pretty powerless. The best you can do is create a healthy classroom environment and tell them not to worry too much about "daddy who thinks mommy is a cow."Be kind to yourself and to your kids. If your kid is nearby, it's just best to wait till they're gone to bed or to another room to talk about anything negative. I know that at 4-6 years old they don't talk about what they hear or ask question but they sure retain the information and understand more than enough. Also remember that how you react at home is how they'll react at school. If you yell at your kid often, he will yell at his classmates, if you get annoyed easily, your kid will get annoyed, if you're kind of adopt a positive attitude, your kid will usually show up to class happy and be positive even if it's sometimes challenging for him. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2iimehR