24 Children. 2 Adults. And Somehow, They Didn’t Need Us That Much.

I have worked in a mixed-age classroom with 24 children and one assistant guide.

Two adults. Twenty-four preschool-aged children.

Someone pees themselves.

One of us has to attend right away before they slip on their own pee, before someone else steps in it, and because, well… you have a little human who needs help getting cleaned up.

So now one adult is in the bathroom.

And one adult is left with 23 children.

One thing I learned very quickly: You cannot turn your back to the ocean. Never.

And a group of 24 preschoolers IS an ocean.

The things they can do in a split second are impressive!

And just to be clear, we took turns. I cleaned up pee, changed soiled clothes, and handled bathroom emergencies too. Nobody was getting a special passes in CH1 ( this was our class)

And whenever I happened to be the adult who stayed in the classroom, I had the pleasure of observing something else.

They figured things out.

They helped each other.

One of the oldest children would help a younger child push down on the apple slicer. Apple slicing was activity number one in my classroom. Very popular. A celebrity, basically.

I watched one child help another slice an apple, tie shoes, put on a jacket, roll a mat, read and count!

I watched an older child redirect a very young child who had just transitioned into the classroom:

“No, actually you have to wait in line. You cannot skip the line.”

They can seem so bossy.

But they are actually establishing order. And, yes, showing off their skills a little.

The eldest ones know stuff.

They've been here.

They were once the youngest ones being redirected by the adults. They watched us. They learned from us. We modeled the behavior again and again, and eventually it became theirs.

Even when both adults were in the classroom, if I was giving a presentation and another child needed me, I would look around for an older child who wasn't busy.

“Can you please help me?”

And off they went, they alwasy liked to help! they liked to be useful and especially if I trusted them with a task that I usually did!

I had children help other children read.

Help them write.

Help them count.

Basically replace me.

And sometimes? They did it better than me. No exaggeration!

The younger children were fascinated by what the older children could do. An adult showing you something is one thing. But a six-year-old showing a four-year-old?

Now THAT is impressive!

And it worked both ways.

The younger child learned. The older child taught and stood about three inches taller afterward.

Confidence. Competence. Belonging.

I loved those dynamics.

My classroom wasn't perfect. Frankly, I didn't care for perfect.

My classroom was lively. Cozy. Some days were really hard. And some days, all that patience, love, repetition and input paid off right in front of me!

I loved my classroom. I believed in the children no matter how much hard time some would give me! I still believed! hope dies last, you know ))

And we talked about that during circle time.

How do we take care of our home?

We keep it clean, we take care of it if it was not us who made the mess. We help each other. We work as a team. We respect the people sharing it with us.

And all those little Grace and Courtesy presentations I gave? We practiced them over and over and over.

How we wait.

How we interrupt.

How we offer help.

How we receive help.

How we move around another person's work.

How we speak to each other.

Again. And again. And again.

Until eventually, they weren't presentations anymore.

The manners, the respect, the grace they became part of us. Parents would tell me stories about their child behaving differently when among other children outside school! I would see my children stand out when classes were combined. Maybe I am a bit subjective here, but I swear I could tell which children were mine! They were like my and my class partner's extension!

And perhaps that's one of the greatest things a mixed-age classroom taught me:

Children don't become independent because adults disappear.

They become independent because we show them how, give them time, trust them enough to try and eventually get out of their way.