I have been teaching for many years. I have found there are many similarities between our children and us.  The difference is they are in the learning stage of developing the skills to handle life challenges.

I have a journal class for 4-7-year-olds. We discuss different emotions and situations through books, games, adventures, and coloring.

This week I presented the challenge of understanding “magnifying.”

It is hard with little kids. Most things that are so small to us are already gigantic to them.

We cannot remove that emotion, but putting it into perspective could give a child the tools to view size and outlook.

The kids sat in a circle, and I gave each a magnifying glass.

I put a tiny pink gem in the middle of the circle. They each had a chance to look through the magnifying glass when I asked what had happened to the treasure. They all screamed, “It got bigger.”

Then I wondered, what about when we pulled the magnifier away? They again shouted, “It got smaller.”

They continued to do this repeatedly.

Most small things don’t need to be bigger than they are because we magnify our problems.

This activity led to a fun talk about “small” things and why we should not fight about them.

We went for a nature walk with our magnifying glasses. To look for little things to make bigger. They found small flowers, rocks, bugs,  and leaves.

In our journals, they drew pictures of their favorite thing they wanted to magnify that made them happy when it was bigger.

When something feels so big, pull away from your magnifying glass and say, “am I making this bigger than it is?”

Enjoy every day, keep the small things small, and make life real big!