Life With Toddle Tots...

A couple of years ago, the word 'teacher' was like an epic sign of a bad omen and sometimes I had the image of an evil koboko sleighing demon yapping at children. it was DREADFUL to say the least. I remember crying a lot when someone said "You will be a teacher when you grow up". It was extremely depressing to say the least. My mom was a teacher but it didn't make that profession seem cool. In fact, my mom being a teacher solidified my 'hatred' for teaching cos she didn't hesitate to whoop the hell out of me when I did something wrong.

Now fast forward to September 2014. After job hunting for approximately three years, I landed in a classroom. Everything was kinda weird seeing that I studied Mass Communication and not Education. Like I was used to teachers whooping naughty children but the number one rule in this school was that as soon as you're found whooping, you'd hop out of the school premises with your sack letter in hand. So I trained under an amazing teacher for about a year. After the session, I was moved to another class. Ever heard the phrase "Terrible Twos"? Yup. I became the toddler class teacher. At first I thought "Jeez, these children can't talk... how do I get through to them"? I started researching and researching, learnt baby sign language and downloaded a gazillion nursery rhyme videos.

Now after this summer term, my kids are moving on to Play group and courtesy these amazing 13 kids, I have discovered that toddlers have an amazing way through which they get things done. Most times though, they just want to have their way and there's nothing you can actually do about it. Just thinking about it makes me laugh. you know potty training them has been an amazing experience. Most times they go ' Ms Chechul (Racheal) I wan to go wee wee', and I take them to the loo. some of them go at once, others will sit on the loo and stare at you, others will give a big grin and start telling you stories that you can't understand. Others will even sleep on the toilet. Turn your back for a second and some of the things you'd see as soon as you turn back round are so hilarious. See Samples below:

Sadly I cant use my children's pictures for this blog post but I hope these images give you a vivid picture of what I'm trying to say. Now lets move to feeding. you know, most times you think these cute little angels can't feed themselves, but you're wrong. They can I tell you. They are pros....

Messy right? Trust me, somehow somehow, the food ends up in the right place. OK so, I believe toddlers love to share. I struggled initially with getting my kids to play cooperatively with each other and share toys with one another. Some of them snatch from others and if the child they are snatching from doesn't react, they think its OK. Then they move on to another child to snatch from him or her and then they receive slaps in between sentences like 'don't do that', 'nooo... gooo', 'my own', 'I will tell' and then the child doing the snatching will run to me and say 'Ms Checul (Racheal) He beat me', and when I ask, 'What did you do'? He/She gives me a hug to avoid being scolded. Like I said earlier, there seems to be an improvement. this is how we share these days:

They must have a piece of what you're asking for before giving it to you. You know kids love to explore with shoes, toys, clothes, dolls, building blocks, and the likes. My kids love handing shoes over to adults whenever we are going outdoors to play or for a lesson. Sometimes they cry if they don't find shoes in the cubby to give to a familiar adult. Sometimes again they fight over these shoes so I've learnt to share three pairs of shoes between them. One leg per child. It doesn't work most of the time cos a particular child likes holding a pair of shoes especially mine. If another child gets it before him, he cries. So one time we had a lesson on dressing. I'd say 99% of the kids did this to the adult shoes they had in their possession:

I can go on and on about how adorable these toddler kids are and how much innocence they exhume daily.... It teaches me that the purity in a child brings smiles on God's face. Harming them is like harming God directly. I have learnt patience, I have learnt to love, I have learnt new styles of sharing, I have learnt how to stick together as a team cos my Kids are so used to each other that they stick together all the time. PS: Jesus was right when he said, you must be like a little child before you can enter into the kingdom of Heaven. My toddle tots have helped me see things clearly and I love them.... Their names are.....
David, Mahmud, Halima, Amina, Christine, Chimoma, Anisa, Ayebaala, Aman, Abdallah, Ahmad, Iman, and Salees.