Pencils. Water. Pencils. Colored pencils. Bathroom. Chair. Water. Hug. Paper. Pencils.
Four year olds are needy.
This month in Malaysia, my team is working in a kindergarten. 55 little 4-7 year olds, spazzing out every morning from 8am to noon. And while these kiddos are are absolutely precious and adorable and sweet and funny…they’re not always angels. Not even close.
Allison and I have the immense privilege to help out in the four year old room…aka Chaos Central. Picture 20 Energizer bunnies, learning how to sit still for the first time ever, add in the fact that most of them are just learning English (having come from not only Malaysia, but also Africa and the Middle East), and you have the backdrop for insanity.
Our general conversations in the four year old room go something like this:
Allison: “Leah, can you pick up that cookie Akram just threw across the room?”
Leah: “Got it. Only if you can mop up the water Jenan just spilled behind me.”
Allison: “Why did you just send Nisa to time out?”
Leah: “Because she sat on Samuel.”
And that was at 8:30.
But at the end of the day, the blessings of this month are endless. We have awesome Spirit-filled contacts, we live in a house with two of said contacts and their newborn (read: 15-day old) son, and we truly appreciate living in a small town, 15 minutes away from wifi.
And truly, our days in the kindergarten are precious. I have learned so much from my little nuggets. The lessons in patience, gentleness, perseverance, and forgiveness are tangible.
I see patience in the teachers, who ask the same question (“what day comes after Monday?” “SEVEN!”) over and over until the kids can work out the answer.
I see gentleness in the way 4-year old Adam helps 3-year old Bilal with his backpack every morning, taking it off his back so nicely and placing it on the shelf for him.
I see perseverance in the way Samuel keeps working on tracing his letters, even though LOWERCASE G’S ARE HARD. I’m with ya, buddy.
I see forgiveness in the way Nisa always runs up to me and hugs my neck and kisses me on the cheek, regardless of whether or not I had just put her in time out or told her to “stop that” for the millionth time that day. (It’s either forgiveness or short-term memory loss…)
Kindergarten. Who knew.
In a few days we take a bus to a week-long debrief in Penang, and then it’s off to the Philippines for month 8 (WHAT). But for now, we have two more days of teaching our little nuggets. Two more days of sharpening pencils, sweeping up broken cookies, and handing out workbooks.
I wouldn’t trade a second of it.
p.s. In case you were wondering, nothing gets a group of 4-year olds excited like a music video to a song that sings (over and over, for 4 minutes) “I’ve got a ponytail! I’ve got a ponytail! I’ve got a p-p-p-p-p-p-p-ponytail!” Pray for us.
