During an afternoon appointment, some children from the West and East Wing joined together in the Paper House.
Mila: This is the worst disappointment after nap ever and I don’t like this appointment ever.
Teacher Jennifer: Why?
Mila: Because I don’t like the Front Yard.
Isla: Why?
Mila: Because of the purple.
Sammy Lou: Of the Paper House?
Isla: You just don’t like the color?
Mila: I wanted to work in the Communication Center. Because I wanted to draw something for my mama.
Teacher Jennifer: Can you do that in the Paper House?
Mila begins drawing: Yes.
Teacher Jennifer: How do you feel?
Mila: Sad
Emmaline: You mean this is the worstest school?
Mila: No, the worstest day! I’m working really hard on my mama’s drawing.
Emmaline: I never have a worstest day ever. I love the weekends.
Mila: I like Saturdays but my mommy doesn’t let me watch TV on Fridays, only weekends and that’s not fair.
Emmaline: Me too.
Sammy Lou: I get to watch TV everyday, just one show.
Mila: I get to watch two shows. The worstest.
Teacher Jennifer: I know someone who had a day like that. A boy named Alexander.
Sammy Lou: I know that.
Teacher Jennifer: He had a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day.
Mila: Who’s Alexander?
Emmaline: He’s the guy that gets gum in his hair at night.
Sammy Lou: (Laughs)
Emmaline: Has anyone had a paper cut?
Sammy Lou: I did.
Mila: When I closed the marker, my finger hurted and I needed an ice pack.
This was a moment where Mila had an emotion that she needed to process at her own pace. She was disappointed and sad. Sometimes the children have big emotions and one of our ways of supporting them is giving them space to feel them. It can be very tempting at times to want to help make a child “feel better” but sometimes in order for the emotion to pass we have to allow the child the space to express it. The East Wing children were empathetic to Mila and very curious about what was contributing to her feeling that way. In the end, they began to connect with her by relating to her with things in their lives that were seen as not as “good.” After this discussion, Mila seemed lighter and was able to enjoy her time playing in the Front Yard.