Every teacher of early childhood music has experienced an occsaional exasperating moment in the classroom. Perhaps the children didn’t want to share a single prop, didn’t understand the game, or were too noisy or disinterested. It is common for teachers to blame the children for not cooperating, not paying attention, not, not, not. It is not the children! We can charm children into doing most anything, if we take into consideration the nature of little children, and use age-appropriate techniques to allure them.

Very young children don’t understand sharing. They want to touch, feel, and chew on anything they see, so to expect sharing creates a problem, not the children. Playing an organized game as part of an activity is way beyond very small children, who don’t begin to understand the concept that games have rules. Again, the problem is not the children. A class can become noisy and disinterested when we do not engage the musical mind. If our focus is on props or words to songs, we lose the musical mind and the children as well. Again, the problem is not the children.

This is not to say that factors like the weather, holidays, and time of day cannot affect children’s behavior. Nor does it disregard the occasional behavioral disability. It does, however, maintain that most difficult classroom situations with young children are not at all the fault of the children, but rather, inadequate lesson planning or teaching technique.

Make it a practice to later reflect on any exasperating moments in the classroom; ask yourself how you could better design the activity to make it work, and then try again. Perhaps you can use homemade props so every child can have one. Perhaps you can collect the props as part of the activity so each child is willing to part with it. Perhaps you can create a game in which each child can participate in his own way. Take another look at the musical material you have chosen and your ordering of activities. If you know that it is all appropriate, then explore different techniques for implementation. The problem is not the children.