Barnacles and Other Crustations

I love working with young children.  For the past 10 years or so I have been working as an Early Intervention Director, Family Service Coordinator, Early Childhood Director and now as a Child Care Specialist (read Behavior Consultant for early childhood programs).  Kids who struggle with fitting in are my favorite.  This makes for a lot of funny situations.

Today let's focus on barnacles, etc.

Barnacles I

Once upon a time, I was consulting in a school district preschool regarding a very, VERY active four year old kiddo.  One morning we were focused on transitions, specifically from center time to circle time.  Said child was working with the dry erase boards.  It is important to note that preschool teachers know how to save money. Often tube socks are used as erasers for dry erase boards, as was true here.  When the teacher announced that it was clean up time, dear child dropped the board and ran around the room laughing hysterically as teachers gave chase.  He had a sock up to his armpit on his left hand and a red dry erase pen in his right hand.  They were waving feverishly in the air.  I suggested that the chasing stop (I don't chase children unless its for fun.)

When it was obvious that no one was going to chase him, the boy managed to wedge himself between the 4-drawer file cabinet and the desk.  He began waving his arms (with sock and dry erase pen still in place) ....which was all we could see at this point.  From the file cabinet we began to hear shouting "Barnacles! You're all Barnacles! Barnacles, I say!"  It truly looked like a sock puppet was waging a cu de tah. 

(He did eventually join circle time, but I have to admit that rather than getting mad, I laughed and laughed and laughed.)

Barnacles 2

In a strange turn of events I had a second barnacle event recently, which brought on flashbacks to the cu waging sock puppet.  I was observing another fellow.  Well, he was quite excited about the quality of work he had done sorting gingerbread men.  "Dang!" he declared "Dang, I'm good!"  "Dang!"  Which was followed by this conversation:

Child:  "Ms....., is 'dang' a bad word."

Teacher:  "It's not a bad word, but it isn't a word we use at preschool."

Child:  "Dang, now what am I going to say?"

Teacher:  "How about 'rats'?"

Child: "nah"

Teacher: "Here's a good one, how about 'barnacle'?"

Child:  "Barnacle?! Barnacle! Yeah, that's good."

Child:  "Barnacle, I'm good!"

Other Crustations

Warning: I work with small children who have behavior issues.  Sometimes we get a little gross.

You've been forwarned.  I was asked to observe a three year old who was unusually grouchy this particular day.  The teachers were really frustrated.  After watching him wander around shoving people and crying intermittenly, I decided to engage the child in a conversation and see where it led.  If only I had known:

Me: "____, you seem a little frustrated today.  Do  you want to talk about it?"

Child:  "Yeah, I got a problem"

Me: "What's the matter buddy?"

Child (with tears streaming down his face):  "Ms. Nickie, my butt itches.  Can you fix it?"

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm................is this a multiple choice question?

I swiftly sent the child and a teacher to the bathroom with a box of wipes. 

Poopy Heads

I have been called many names over the years, including some pretty colorful profanity with amazingly quality voice inflection and enunciation for a four year old.  But, my all time favorite is "poopyhead".  I had just started one of my many jobs in EC.  I was typing a report in my office and could here the teacher and child coming down the hallway and knew I was in for a dosy.  It was a three year old yelling "poopyhead" over and over and over and over and over. ..only interrupted by hysterical giggling (not from the teacher.)

He was deposited in my office and I informed him that we could start talking when he was using kind words.  In an effort to get me to chase him, he began running around my office.  I calmly walked to the door and closed it.  He took this moment to dart under my desk and yell, "You ca-an't get me, poopyhead."  I repeated my conversation offer, sat in my chair and continued my work.  He continued to yell "poopyhead" from under my desk.  I had several staff scheduled to meet with me.  I managed to conduct several meetings all with a three year old yelling "poopyhead".  He eventually got tired and rejoined his classroom.

The really funny part of the story is that my very conservative parents found these stories so amusing that they have adopted a new phrase for people that frustrate them: "Poopyheaded barnacles."  I hear this often when I visit them.

Gosh, I love what I do.  I really do.