Author: Guo Enmei, teacher of Laowu Village Preschool, Qiaojia County

The noise of children in the preschool seemed frustrating. But after getting along with them for a while, I felt that their voices were so beautiful.

In class, lively conversations went on with every kid joining in. They asked me why the plane could fly in the sky, why I was called this name, etc. Some of them called me then wept out that his or her pen was taken, and some children even cried for missing their moms. What's more, some children just cried without a word.

After class, the situation remained substantially unchanged. “Teacher, can I play outside the school? Teacher, he beats me; teacher, he doesn’t play with me; teacher, he doesn’t share the tricycle with me; teacher, I want to go to the toilet; teacher, I have leftovers again...”

So many curiosities and whys, all kinds of complaints and trifles are repeated in the preschool every day. Perhaps many people would think those who get along with these restless and curious children, either are tempered in such an environment for a long time, or have a heart of universal love.

Maybe both.

But for me, I gradually love these children by hearing their stories and heartfelt wishes behind these little voices.

Not long after the semester started, the preschool had lunch with the primary school. It was a thorny problem to take care of the children's meals.

Some children often wailed when having dinner, refusing to be pacified. This situation had lasted for two weeks. Later, when I communicated with her, I realized that she ate slowly and always worried that she would be the last one to finish eating. So from then on, I let her be the first to eat, and as expected, she never cried again.

The school has emphasized repeatedly that leftovers are not acceptable and you should take only the food you can eat up, but the children in the preschool has the most leftovers every time. In the beginning, I was also very angry. I stressed time and again that there should be no leftovers, but there was always food left in the bowl. 

Later, I asked the children why they had leftovers every time. There were many children worrying that the meal would be finished by other children, so they filled it up for themselves. Finally they couldn't finish it. By observation, I also found that children do not like all the dishes, they only eat what they like.

So I came up with a way to separate the children's lunch from the primary school, they were served meat and vegetables to give them their favorite dishes. In this way, they didn’t need to worry about not having enough meals or having dishes they don't like.

Listen more and communicate more with these children. You will always find that children's childlike interest, innocence, and inner true thoughts lie behind the noisiness.

Through this door, all seemingly troublesome problems will be solved, and children will be on intimate terms.

"Teacher, I accidentally hurt Aron while I was playing with toys, but I have apologized to him."

"Teacher, I don't have any leftovers today."

"Teacher, I want to play with you."

...

Where there are children, how can there be no sound? Listening to them and communicating with them, you will find that these chirping voices are exactly children telling about their colorful childhood.

Project introduction:

Funded by Germany Lipoid Foundation, “HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE’s Preschools of The Future in Anju and Laowu Village of Qiaojia County” is implemented in cooperation with the Federation for Associations connected to the International HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE Movement (Switzerland) Yunnan Office and the Yunnan Youth Development Foundation.

The project takes pre-school education as the breakthrough point, to establish standardized preschools in poor rural areas. The project renovates and decorates idle rooms in the village and uses them as classrooms to provide a safe and comfortable learning and playing environment for children. The curriculum focuses on the knowledge of nature, animals, nutrition and health, as well as how to express themselves through art and music, so that preschool-age children living in rural areas can also get all-round development in morality, intelligence, physique and arts. Enrolling children aged 3-6 in classes with different ages, the project starts from two modules: teaching hardware upgrade and teacher development. At the same time, the project supervises and manages the daily operation of the preschool, assists teachers in training parents, creates a safe and healthy learning and living environment for those children, allows them to enjoy a quality pre-school education, enables them to obtain diversified opportunities for healthy growth, and make full preparations for entering primary school.

The article only represents the author's personal views, and is not related to the funder.