Lessons from Kindergartners

It always seems whenever I'm in a position to teach, I end up being taught. These are a few lessons I've learned from my kindergartners...
Forgiveness takes no more than ten minutes.
Some people say it's impossible to forgive and forget. These kindergartners have taught me its easy. No matter how angry, hurt, or betrayed they feel, a few minutes later they will have forgotten all about it. I've realized that as I've had to firmly discipline students who at first are incredibly angry at me, then ten minutes later they are hugging me and showing me excitedly how good they colored their paper. They do the same with their friends. They forgive, and forget. In less than ten minutes.

Express your feelings.
I am a "bottler". I bottle up all those hurt feelings and think about them to myself. My kids, however, tell how they feel rather easily. Often they will tell me "that hurt my feelings" or "she doesn't want to play with me. I feel lonely." After merely expressing these feelings it seems to make them feel better. Sometimes that's what we all need to do. Let someone know if something hurts your feelings and you'll find usually it is unintentional. It feels good to get it out.

Love unconditionally.
After one day of working at the school I work at, anytime I would see one of the kids in the hall they would excitedly say my name and would wave until their hands nearly fell off. When I would walk in the classroom I would be attacked with hugs. And they barely knew me. they loved me just because I existed. What if we all loved like that?

Find humor everywhere.
One of my favorite memories in the short time I've been working with them is when we played a quick silent follow the leader game. The stuff I did wasn't that funny, but to them it was HILARIOUS! They made me feel like a million bucks. And I couldn't help but giggle too. They make laughing easy, which is how life should be.

These are just a few...more to come I'm sure.