For those of you who don't know, and almost all of you do, I love kids. Why else would I choose to spend my days with them? I got in the habit of calling the small ones "kinder" after going on my final Hope College Symphonette Tour in May 2007. We went to Germany, Austria, and the Czek Republic, and we had a grand old time! While we were in Germany, however, we noticed that there were certain words that are just so much more fun to say in German than in English. For instance, the German word for children is "kinder." If you put a sweet smile on your face and look at an adorable child, and think the word "kinder", it's better then just thinking, oh there's a kid. By the end of the tour, we were seeing groups of children and so some of us started taking pictures of them, and calling them "kinder." This was just a rather long explanation of why I call all of my students "kinder." The German word for asparagus is also much more amusing: spragel. (Or, is it spargel?)...
Anyway, fastforward to today. It was my second music lesson with one of the KG2 classes, and sure enough, the same little boy that was crying for the whole period last week was crying today. The poor kid just wants his dad. Anyway, by the end of the period, I had the other 20 some kids playing this awesome music game with a volleyball and we were all totally into! But, this poor little one had just exhausted himself by crying for the whole period. So, he fell asleep on the floor in the corner. As we were all lining up to go to recess, he ended up being in the way of the door. So, gently, I picked him up and carried him down the stairs while the other kinder followed behind.
I can't tell you what an amazing feeling it is to hold a little child and have him sleep on your shoulder. I felt so glad that the poor little kiddo was finally at peace, and happy to have him resting. And, it also made me hope that I had built up enough trust with the guy so that next week, he won't scream through music time. I guess we'll find out, won't we?
It's just one more reason why I love the kinder!
2 comments:
TEARS!!! Tears flowing down my face! Into my drink and on my food. Staining my carpet. So many tears.
Oh kinder. I thought 'kinder' came from Oman? Oh snap. Su-KERITY!! SUH-curity.
Kinder! Oh I remember those happy days in Germany, I just love those kinder!
I also think it's amusing that one of those kinder would scream and cry through music class, and by the end of class he warmed your heart! There was a child in one of my classes that misbehaved the whole time but at the end, he apologized - sincerely! It made my day, it erased all the trouble! So, I understand :)
CB
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