Two years ago, these four kids were in my Pre-K class.

They were tiny then—fresh out of lock-down, fresh into the world. They are part of a unique club called, “COVID Kids.”

Most had never been in a classroom before. Some had barely been around other children. The weight of those early pandemic years was still heavy in the air. Their little shoulders didn’t know how to carry it yet.

I remember our first weeks together. We weren’t focused on letters or numbers. We were learning how to be friends. How to say “you can go first” and really mean it. How to lose the game and still clap for someone else. How to notice when someone needed a hand or a hug or just a place to sit and feel safe.

We learned how to say “I’m sorry” and how to mean it. How to laugh without leaving anyone out. How to let someone have a turn even when you wanted to go twice.

“Our classroom is a family.” We say it out loud every day, and we try to live it with our choices.

This didn’t start and stop at the classroom door. I wanted our families to know each other too—to have names and faces and connections that would last.

Most of the children in my classroom will grow up side by side. Thirteen years of hallway waves, cafeteria lunches, and science projects. Their school years will take them from finger paints to finals—together.

My heartfelt desire, my goal, and my dream, is that they carry something valuable from my classroom into their future. It includes not just social skills but the connections and the love nurtured through those skills.

“Our classroom is a family.” We say it out loud every day, and we try to live it with our choices.

Every new school year, I want them to feel they are part of something special. I want their future teachers to nurture them and make them feel loved, just for showing up. Can you imagine how the truancy days would dip if the children were made to feel part of something amazing? A team of learners who need each other to learn successfully; Important in their role as part of a collaboration of successes. Is that not what we, as adults, want in our daily lives?

My idealism gets the best of me sometimes.

The photo above was taken this summer at a local pool/splash pad, two summers after they left my classroom. The friendships formed in those earliest years don’t disappear. Families know the value of these relationships and know they are essential in their growth. Like a plant, the seeds of PreK days grow roots. The plant reaches up. It may be a little wild. It is definitely as messy as life can be, but it’s always reaching toward the sun.

This is what it looks like when a classroom becomes a family. And this is one of my favorite things about being a PreK teacher.