Things I have learned on the job...

(In no particular order.)

• Art and Crafts time comes a lot less often when  you throw a 4 month old into the mix of preschoolers.
• Kids are okay with missing Arts & Crafts time once in a while.
• Having a baby in the house makes my job easier, not harder.
• Sanitizing toys is fun for everyone (more fun for me when I get to delegate the job to others!)
• Pouring lakes of Elmer's glue on regular printer paper can actually make the paper stick to the table, even though there was no glue on the table until after the project dried.
• Glue sticks aren't so bad! (I used to refuse to use glue sticks, adamant about teaching children to use bottled glue correctly without the expensive, wasteful convenience of glue sicks.)
• Scissor practice can entertain a group of 2-3 year olds for almost a whole hour at a time.
• If you teach 2-3 year olds how to properly and safely carry scissors from the drawer to the table (and vice versa), the children will practice this with diligence and will demand almost as much positive affirmation from such an exercise as from potty training.
• Paint washes out of everything - even the t-shirts we created that were supposed to stay that way forever.
• Generic fabric medium doesn't really work. Buy the good stuff.
• Peeling the paper from the crayons is sometimes more fun than coloring with them.
• The PBS TV show "Between the Lions" makes for a great babysitter when lunch requires complex cooking and leaves little time for direct supervision. 
• The show "Between the Lions" comes on at precisely at 11am every weekday. Reminding children of this will help them get motivated to clean up the playroom quickly at clean up time.
• It is possible to have a successful nap time with a 4 month old, 2 two year olds, a 3 year old and a 5 year old all under the same roof. (Hallelujah!)
• It is possible to work on our gross motor skills during freezing weather - if running in the house counts (and yes, I do completely and totally allow this... sometimes).
• Hide and seek with this age range of kids is more fun than duck duck goose.
• Cooking projects can be lots of fun and stress free if you keep it simple. Kids are very happy just stirring in a cup of sugar - they don't need to feel involved with the whole entire process to feel some ownership in the final product.
• Home-made play-doh is way more popular with the kids than the store bought crap.
• When making home-made play-doh, never skip the Cream of Tarter ingredient - thats what keeps it fresh for longer.  
• When serving a new fruit or vegetable to children, it's smart to let them try it raw before cooking it. (I was really surprised at how well the kids will eat raw broccoli, as opposed to cooked!)
• Vinegar and water is not only a cheaper cleaning solution, it's also more effective than a lot of the store bought crap.
• Song and Dance play is so much more fun when there's a camera in the room too.
• The train set I bought 5 years ago on clearance is the most popular item in the house, and must be kept away at all times when 3 or more children are present. (I'm shopping around for another one just like it so we can better share!)
• Watching for the trash truck to come on Thursdays is exciting when there are 2-3 year old boys watching for it too.
• Little kids can hear sirens outside, even when the sirens are miles away and we are in a closed playroom dancing to music.
• A princess can play superhero's almost better than the boys can - she helps the heroes rescue and save each other, whereas the boys like to find trouble for the heroes to get into.
• Learning never ends on the job. Every single day, it's something new. I could never capture it all - but it's fun to try!!

Monkeys doing Somersaults - Super cute!