Pre-K Reading 9/17/25 – Some days it’s not about the reading

Today was a rough day at Pre-K. The teacher’s assistant was out sick because she’d been up all night tossing her cookies. The teacher was also sick, having gone thru the same experience the day before. She said that “as long as I don’t eat, I’m ok”, but she wanted to save her paid time off for when her own kids were sick and needed her. The substitute assistant was doing the best she could, but the kids were acting up, carrying on, and taking turns having crying fits.

Some days that just how it is. So, the first thing to do as a volunteer is not judge. You never know what may be going on behind the scenes. The next thing to do is stay calm. A calming presence can make all the difference - it can help to calm those around you. While all mayhem may have been breaking out in the rest of the classroom, the students reading with me had a little respite from the heightened energy. Who knows, maybe when the stress level is up at home, a child might remember that they can pick up a book and get lost in their own peaceful little world for a while – a very powerful and helpful coping mechanism (speaking from experience).

Another technique to handle the rough days… go with the flow. One child today whose turn it was to read, said that he didn’t want to. I told him that’s OK, to let me know if he changed his mind. A few minutes later he came up to me and told me he was ready. We had a great session. I never force a child to sit and read if they are not in the mood because I want them to associate reading with peace and fun - something they ‘get’ to do and not something they ‘have’ to do.

Another child today wasn’t so interested in reading books as he was in counting the pages of the books. So that’s what we did… we counted all the pages in 3 different books. That was great practice for him. He was working on his ‘teens’ and I could see the progress he was making.

The most valuable things I did today were offering a calm presence and listening to people (both big and small).