How To Handle Holiday Stress and Your Classroom

We are fast approaching the busiest time in our lives as adults.

The holidays come with unrealistic expectations put on us by others and by ourselves.  We plan our ideal holiday season and experience in our mind and judge our season by how we met those ideals.
Children live in the now. They anticipate what is coming but rejoice in what is all around them.  Their excitement and anticipation weighs on our expectations and preconceived notions of what they need to experience the season.
Then we loose control and spiral into frustration, stress and anger because we feel overwhelmed and as if we are accomplishing nothing with too much on our plate.
Too much we need not have dished up.

Let’s look at the wonder of childhood.

Everything is in the now. Sights and sounds are distracting and intriguing, but they beckon “come explore me”.  Any decorations you put up are going to entice touch, handling, exploring and carrying.  All of these things are developmentally appropriate for children.  The smells of the season add to another area of excitement and overstimulation.  Anticipation of cookies warm from the oven, favorite foods and the arrival of special guests.

There is so much to be excited about and to do that little bodies can’t handle the rise of emotions and it comes tumbling out.  It erupts in squeals of joy, outbursts of tears, angry fits and tired yawns.  If you get worn out at your age and you have had how many years to practicing how to handle holiday stress, why are you surprised a child gets caught up in it as fast or faster than you.  They are not being bad, rude or naughty they are being an overwhelmed child.

So let’s take time to evaluate our lives and feelings about the holidays so we can make their holidays meaningful.
How much do you really need to decorate?
Does it all need to go up at once?
Do you need to decorate every cranny of your classroom, your house, your wardrobe?

What is the most important to you?
Start there add slowly, like a Christmas count down add a little each day.

What part of the holidays do you love the most?
How can you add it into your day, your work environment, your lesson plan? Be sure to add it into your home.

Do you like Christmas music, play it when you can, choose what is appropriate for your work environment, totally not allowed Christmas music, pick classical music that reminds you of Christmas, The Nutcracker Suite, Mannheim Steamroller, etc...
Do you like to bake? Cook with your students, stone soup, cookies, bread, popcorn to string, be creative and remember allergies your students might have.

Keep their schedule on track.  As a teacher keep a routine, but pull back where you can.  Provide more exercise and outdoor time.  Add lots of sensory activities that are calming, like clay, play dough, slime. Teach them how to take deep relaxing breaths and do not loose your calm. They are going to take their cues from you and build off your stress.  Most of all find ways to enjoy the moments of the holidays with them.

Morning Reflections on the Past Few Months and What is to Come

I can not believe how we blew through summer and now have rushed through fall.  The leaves have changed color and in the last week been completely blown off the trees.  Halloween is behind us and Thanksgiving is 21 days away as I write this.

Lots of transitions and changes took place in the lives of my students from August 27, 2018 to October 31, 2018:
We welcomed new children in our class as they move up from the toddler room, enroll in the center or return from the summer off.  This is a monumental moment in their lives.  It is a blending of old and new friends, adjustments to transistions and even confusing, especially when they realize some of their friends are no longer in their class. This is a very important developmental milestone as socially they are prepared for school.

I never was in a class with my best friends, they were always in other classrooms and I had to make close friends with classmates I knew, but was not close too. This is an important time for each of us as educators and parents to help our children feel secure in who they are and the fact that change happens. My mom did a good job of helping me learn how to make friends, step out of my comfort zone and realize I could do things with out my closest friends there for support.  Later my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Hayes, helped me in school.  She saw potential in me, and like my mom, made me work in areas I was good at helping others, but where I had to stretch myself socially.

This leads me to today’s thoughts:
We must learn to meet children and families where they are.  We must go outside the prescribed guide created to “help children learn” and teach them as individuals.

We must be the rebel’s in our profession.

You see, I don’t have a class of 20.  I teach 20 kids in my class.  What works for one is not going to work for all, it may not even work for anyone else.  To force a child into a mold that does not fit them only frustrates you both and can harm the child emotionally, socially, cognitively, and creatively.  Making them become something they are not, or do something that is not an interest makes us no better than jailers. Harsh words, yet take the time to reflect how you feel when someone else is telling you what you like, will do, or need to do.
We must not forget, we are working with young minds, that have not been in the world very long.  We are working with individuals that deserve the same respect many of us feel we are owed, yet are you earning it?

 You see respect is earned by proving you are consistent, fair and able to be flexible when necessary.  It is a give and take because you must also give respect if you are expecting it.

No one respects someone who walks into a room and demands it.

We do this by meeting each child and each family as individuals, with value and experiences that enable us to be affective teachers for their children.  This takes work.  It adds to the hours of prep, paper work and regular teaching we do daily.  It means truly observing your class and each child.  It means tailoring your teaching style to meet them where they are at and walk with them beyond that point to their potential.

It means taking a lot of time and energy on our part.  I get that, but I truly feel to be the best I can be for my students I need to consider them over me.  I need to break away from my standard way of teaching and embrace their wonder.  I must put aside my expectations for the class and tailor them to each individual in my class.  I must love and appreciate them and their families for who they are and where they are coming from.  I sometimes must stand up against those who would tell me how to do my job, to protect the rights of those I am teaching.

The next few months will fly by but as we go through them we may feel we are trudging up hill through the holidays, and parties, expectations in our personal as well as professional lives.  Take time each day to see each child for who they are, what they are interested in and where they are growing.

Take care of yourself. Schedule one or two evenings a week at home doing what you like to do.

 Relax, put away the phone, turn off the expectations set by you and others and just be for a few moments.  Rest so you can enjoy the privilege you have in teaching young children.

Be a rebel in their lives and in your own!