Thank you for making your way to Chats With Children! This site is intended as a gathering place for anyone and everyone whose heart smiles at the sweetness of chatting with children... and for the children who bring us this sweetness.
I am a 30-something (ok, nearly 40-year-old) elementary school teacher. I consider the chance to have conversations with children to be the hidden treasure of teaching. It is a highlight of my days. Sometimes there is laughter and silliness--only magnified through the voice and eyes of a child. Other times there is serious soul-stretching, even pain as the *smallness* of youth runs up against the enormity of life's challenges. Always, there is magic, borne out of the simple fact that relationships are the fuel of life. Teaching and learning are just one mechanism that casts light on the power and importance of relationships. It is why I have chosen teaching as a profession.
I cannot tell you how many times I have shared something I experienced in chatting with a child, and had someone say "Oh! You have to write that down!" And write I have. Many sheets of scrap paper, spare corners of a calendar or plan book, and more recently "emails-to-self" have captured, often in wildly abbreviated form, the content and essence of these moments. Please join me as I collect these moments here on this site.
Come for the humor, come for the tenderness, or come to share from your own chats with children. Children, you are the reason this site exists. Share what's on your minds. Share the thoughts and stories you're bursting to tell. We are bursting to listen!
One last thing before we begin: Let's all work together to keep this site fully kid-friendly and to preserve privacy--no full names, please.
So, let's Chat!
