Working with wee ones

I subbed as an Assistentin in a German class for younger children this past week. It was my first time working in that capacity & I was both thrilled and nervous at the prospect.

Fortunately, the class was taught by a seasoned teacher who had a fairly tight lesson plan to carry us through the day. My only challenge was when it came to 'game time'. I was slated to play a couple of different games with the children. I should have taken time during the lunch break to read over the games' rules, but hadn't thought to do so until it was too late. One of the games played is, I think, found only in the German language game market (so wholly unfamiliar to me), and the other was a version of Bingo geared toward little'uns. All went fairly well with the first game. I did have to sort of periodically have the kiddies move back into sitting in a circle as they kept scootching toward the board, knees & hands covering the bits we needed to play on. The two boys in the group, both a bit challenged by all the German, vied for who could be Lord of The Games. That was a little tough to manage. Driven by upset, those two devolved into speaking English which I tried to handle with humor: Wie bitte? Ich verstehe dein komisches Deutsch nicht. I finally resorted to trying to calm them both down in English. It went somewhat poorly.

I don't have kids, never baby-sat & am the youngest in my own family. To say that I don't know kids from my elbow is pretty spot on. I did, however, work with teens in German Switzerland for a little over a year before moving back to the states a couple of years ago, so that experience was sort of a good foundation for the Kinder class. I am able to guide the kiddies in book work, be encouraging & be somewhat spontaneous. Spontaneity is key when working with wee ones.

I have one more fill-in gig slated for next week. I hope to be better prepared if given 'game duty' again.