Babies

Babies happen around the preschool. We’re a little lighter than usual this year on the pregnant mommy/infant front, but there are still at least twenty younger siblings popping in and out of our classroom this year, both on their own two wobbly legs as well as in vitro. It’s not uncommon for a third of the moms in our Pre-3 class to be pregnant at the same time. I’ve often said, “I assume that all ya’ll are pregnant. Just let me know when you’re not.”

It’s life-affirming to be surrounded by all this fertility.

That said, I’m not a true baby enthusiast. They’re cute and perfect and sweet and wonderful, of course, but I get far more interested in them once they start to walk and talk. At the same time there is nothing I enjoy more than talking to preschoolers about their new babies.

Some of them are proud. Charlie M. announced his new baby to me even before his parents did by saying, “I a big brother now.” I swear his chest was puffed up as he said it.

Last year, Ella wasn’t quite as sure about her new sister, finally dismissing me with, “Whatever!” when I pressed her too far.

Cora’s baby is only a few days old as I write this and she’s already quite expert. According to her, the baby cannot walk or talk yet, but he can sleep, cry, poop, and drink milk.

I can almost always tell when little brother or sister starts to crawl, often to the day, simply by the behavior of their older siblings in class. That’s because mobility means that baby can get into the big kid’s stuff. This is particularly evident in the case of formerly single kids, who have never before had to “defend” their possessions. It almost always comes into the classroom in the form of hoarding or guarding toys, and over-reacting to the encroachments of others.

Some children really get into describing how they, as big kids, are superior to babies in every way. I like to use this attitude as a jumping off point for looking back at our own lives and talking about all the things we can do that babies can’t. It is truly amazing, even when the retrospective only covers 2 or 3 years, how far they’ve come, and once they have a baby in their lives they can really see it. Big kids can walk, talk, eat food, go to school, play with toys, be gentle, ride bikes, sing songs, paint . . . the list is endless.

We have several “baby” songs we sing at circle time, but I’m particularly fond of this Bev Bos version of the Sally Rogers song Circle Of The Sun:

A baby is born in the circle of the sun,
In the circle of the sun
On a birthin’ day.
Clouds to the north
Clouds to the south
Wind and the rain
To the east and the west.
A baby is born in the circle of the sun
In the circle of the sun
On a birthin’ day.

I then ask, “What is something a baby needs to learn?” and the children raise their hands to suggest things a baby needs to learn. We then make those suggestions into new verses:

A baby learns to walk in the circle of the sun
In the circle of the sun
On a walking day . . .

A baby learns to eat in the circle of the sun
In the circle of the sun
On an eating day . . .

A baby learns to ride bikes in the circle of the sun
In the circle of the sun
On an bike riding day . . .

And while it’s true that I find myself mostly interested in babies as viewed through the eyes of their big brothers and sisters, I did come across this movie trailer over at Urban Preschool that I wanted to share with you:

And even though it’s about babies, I can’t wait to see it.