A Daycare Teacher's Guide to Writing Children

Quotes from children and teachers, stories, any tips I can think of, and answering any specific questions y'all have. As a daycare teacher and a writer I've noticed a lot of inaccuracies in child characters in writing. So I decided to use my still relatively limited knowledge of children (mostly 18 months to 4 years, but the daycare goes up to 13 years so I CAN find out specifics of older children if asked) to spread some more accurate information.

[aluxray97]

Daycare Quote #4

Ok, context for this one, I usually have long hair and ALWAYS have my hair pulled up in a ponytail, I cut it recently so that it's about shoulder length. The kid in this conversation has natural black hair (it will become evident why this is important)

Teacher *takes hair out of ponytail*

4 year old (girl): your hair's still short!

Teacher: yeah, that's because I just got it cut

4 year old (girl): maybe you should straighten it and then it would be longer

Teacher: my hair doesn't work like that, when I straighten it it doesn't really get longer

4 year old (girl) *with a ridiculous amount of sass*: well maybe you should go home and try it

Teacher: ... I already did

4 year old (girl): well that's what happens when my mommy straightens my hair, so maybe you should try again

Teacher *sighing*: okay, I'll try it

[aluxray97]

Daycare Quote #3

Teacher: the quicker we eat snack the quicker we can go outside!

4 year old (girl): I'm done!

Perfect timing!

[aluxray97]

Daycare Quote #2

Teacher *to another teacher*: Ugh, I need a new car I have no idea what to do about it though

4 year old (girl): yes you do

Teacher: I do?

4 year old (girl): yeah, you just have to go to the dollar store and get a new car

😂 Solid plan kid! I love it!

So basically what you can take from this, is that kids have a skewed, and very simple view of the world. You need a new car? Just go buy one from the dollar store, they have everything there and it's only a dollar. You need money to buy a plane ticket? Just go to the bank and get the money "that's what Mommy does when she needs money" (actual quote from me to my Grammy when I was about 5)

[aluxray97]

Complimenting Toddlers

On a similar vein to earlier post, I've noticed that with 3-4 year olds (the age group I work with most of the time) you cannot compliment one child without the other children near them immediately demanding compliments of their own.

Example:

Teacher: your dress is so cute!

3/4 year old two feet away: what about MY shirt!

3/4 year old across the room: I got new shoes!

[aluxray97]

Teacher: *to 4 year old (girl) #1* look at those georgous polkadots!

4 year old (girl) #2: I'm georgous