How to speak 'preschooler'

I do have to admit that every once in a while I find my students a little hard to understand. If you ever have any difficulties trying to figure out what a three-year-old is trying to tell you, perhaps this post can help you out a little bit.

Cafe (Caif)-Cape
Cazoopie-Pizookie
Chinemy-Chimney
Copcorn, Pompom-Popcorn
Coperate (as in: "don't coperate me")-Copy
Favorite (as in: "can you do me a favorite?")-Favor
Ghost-es- More than one ghost
Hanitizer-Hand sanitizer
Hangamer- Hamburger
Imporpant-Important
Lawen, Wauren, Wawen, Yauren, Yawen, Lawnen-Lauren
Lellow*-Yellow
Nana, Bwana-Banana
Packpack-Backpack
Penny-Any metal coin
Roobot-Robot
Squish-Squash
Tangled-Rapunzel

This is not a definitive list, though I do intend to add to it. There are also a number of other words my darling three-year-olds butcher on a daily basis and most, due to several speech impediments, need to be translated on a case-to-case basis. For some of my students, I am still working on speaking the specific dialect of that particular student.

*'Lellow' was the first word that opened my mind to the language of preschool aged children. I was talking with a boy I was babysitting and asking his favorite color. His response was 'lellow' and I (stupidly) responded 'oh, you like lellow?'. He then tried to correct me by telling me he liked 'llllellow'. As he tried to emphasize the first letter of the word, I realized that when he said 'lello' he heard himself saying 'yellow'. When I said 'lello', he truly heard the word 'lello'. 

"Hey teacher, look!"

My students have so much fun out on the playground. There are slides to ride, monkey bars to climb on, tunnels to crawl through and sand boxes to dig in. Not only are our sandboxes full of magic, wonder and imagination...they are also full of junk. They're like the island of lost pocket-sized toys and other stuff. Until recently, I actually had a small collection of things my students have called me over to look at over the past couple months:

As you can see there is a marble, a penny, part of a watch buckle, some weird orange toy thing, a hex-nut, and of course, every preschooler's favorite plaything: a nail. 

I love that when they discover something new, their excitement bubbles over and they just HAVE to show it to me. Like today for instance, I was supervising the playground, making sure all the little kiddos were safe and I hear the yell "Hey miss Lauren, we found something...come look!" Right about now, you're probably thinking, 'hmm I wonder what they found' (don't lie...you're curious). Well, it was a dead bird. A very, very dead bird. With ants crawling all over it's poor, dead bird carcass. It was gross. They don't teach you how to deal with stuff like this in preschool teacher school...

Working Girl

Four months have gone by and I still haven't found a job, which is really a bummer. However, a couple years ago when I was in a similar situation, I was able to pick up a few subbing jobs at a preschool. I got to play with cute little kids for a few hours and get a nice little check at the end of the month. Well...a call from the preschool director and a re-instating of my fingerprints and I've got my 'gig' back as an on-call preschool aide.

I get to work about 30 or so hours this month. Yeah, not a TON, but way better than nothing at all! I get opportunities to leave the house. I get a few dollars for my bank account. And possibly the best part, is the preschoolers themselves. I love how these little three and four year olds can tell that you're there to care for them and care about them. If you love them, they will love you back. They will crawl into your lap and then ask your name. These little sweethearts feel so comfortable with you that they will even use your arm to wipe their nose. Yes...that happened to me today.

And the crazy thing is...I still want to be a preschool teacher. I have decided that that's what I want to be when I 'grow-up'. Starting this spring I'm going to be taking Early Childhood Education classes. I just wish I'd realized this before. Like when I was still in college. So I wouldn't have to spend more money on my education...especially since I haven't finished paying for my first diploma yet.

Oh well...