Tuesday morning means another day of teaching kindergarten kids fundamental movement skills.
While I dun like getting up b4 7am for it, I absolutely love everything else abt it. Wats not to enjoy abt teaching kids to hop on “lilypads” (spot markers) to run away from the big “tiger” (me or the other coach) dats chasing them thru the “jungle” (playground). I luv dat kids’ imaginations go wild 🥰
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My stomach felt a lil funny dat morning. I ate some sus meat the night b4 so it’s probably linked to dat…
But I still felt alrite enough to go.
Anyways, dis being a small group of kids, I think I’ve grown more bonded wif them than I’m intended to be. I’m supposed to only be teaching them the lesson plan for 2 hours then GTFO.
But now they’re excitedly showing me their new Spiderman water bottles, new Manchester United socks they’re wearing (becos they noe I like football), funny words and terms they’ve picked up. They oso always want my attention and high fives at the end. As much as it makes me go:
It’s oso a tad bit overwhelming trying to entertain 6-7 kids dat have surrounded u and are talking at once. All while trynna maintain professionalism and keeping under the tight time limit.
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So there dis one kid (let’s call him K) who’s ummm…. abit of a brat. As much as I hate putting negative labels, it’s pretty damn obvious when someone is being the dis guy:
The dynamic is clear as day. He thinks it’s funny to annoy ppl. Other kids dun like dat. As such, nobody rlly likes him, and tend to not wanna be physically close.
Oso, as much as I’d like to say dat sorta childish behaviour only applies to kids… ye, u noe us adults aren’t much better… 🙃
Anyways, I noe for a fact dat while dis issue seems trivial, it probably plays a significant part in the other children’s day to day minds. I mean, kindergarten is essentially their job (dats a funny thing to say, lol). So they’d probably spend a decent amount of time thinking abt it. Dis oso means worrying abt their problems there, which probably includes K…
Like today, I witnessed the not-so-pleasant interactions right in front of me. K harassing other kids, while they either stay silent or talk back. Talking back leads to K doing, u noe, dis shit:
I was not happy wif it. But unfortunately, I have no power to do anything besides uttering a gentle and futile “stop doing dat”. As previously mentioned, we only coach and then GTFO. No handling issues of discipline like dis.
Dat rlly tests ur patience, especially today when K made another boy cry after getting them both scolded by their teacher becos of his own actions. I witnessed the injustice happen rite in front of my eyes.
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So K got a time out (which I low-key think the other kids were used to), and the other boi thankfully stayed positive afterwards.
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Times like dis I deliberately start being extra smiley and speaking rlly positively, which rlly juxtaposes the situation. But I think dats sorta my intention, to show them dat ur experience shldnt be ruined just becos of one negative incident…
As much as I wish I cld do more, I’m glad the other kids dun think too much, and are willing to join me in maintaining the positivity 99% of the time.
As for K, all I have to do is pay more attention to him (partnering up wif him during pair work, grouping him wif ppl he doesn’t enjoy tormenting).
While dis leads to opportunity costs in which I wld spend less time wif the better-behaved ones, I guess it is wat it is…
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Unfortunately, straining myself to maintain happy during dis adolescent drama, backfired a lil bit… sorta literally.
Like I said, my stomach wasn’t feeling all dat great in the morning. I didn’t realise it was gonna get worse…
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23.02.2026
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