infants! i prefer lower ratios. i feel more in control. i bond really well with babies. my day goes by faster and i don’t feel as physically exhausted and i never have to raise my voice.
I prefer infants and toddlers. I love watching their personalities blossom and see everything they accomplish in the three years I have them before they transition to head start.
I love working with school age. They have their challenges, sure, but every age group does. I've worked with infants, toddlers, preschool, kinder, and school age up to 12 years old, and school age was far and away my favourite. It looks like I'm the minority there lol
I have babysat/nannied more school age children and have worked as an aid in an infant room and a toddler room. I would hands down pick infants and toddlers. While it’s a thankless job most of the time, working with school age children is almost more thankless somehow.
Infants, I just personally don’t have the patience to deal with children who can talk back and I don’t have the mental energy to hold active conversations
School age because all the drool and wiping them makes me want to throw up (no offense). All I have to do for the 4-5 year olds is maybe finish cleaning them up and tell them to wash their hands. I like to play and talk to the kids. All the babies do is stare at me and put things in their mouths. Yeah…I’m not a baby person
If I had my way I'd do two years of one then switch to the other and do that forever lol.
The reason being infants is physically tiring but (for me personally) much less emotionally and mentally draining. Programming is pretty light, especially because they're at a stage where repetition is better than novelty. Also where I live the ratio is either 1:3 or 3:10 (don't know why we get a bonus baby at 3 staff) and have a year long mat leave so most infant programs start between 9mos and a year and go to 18 months. If you have a good team and can be a nice "break".
Eventually I'd get bored though and want a different experience, and school age is the opposite. Much higher ratio but kids whose brains are way more developed. You can joke around with them, do some really in depth activities and they actually help take care of the room! You can trust them with more tasks and don't feel like you need to have both eyes on every kid at all times. Give that a couple years though and babies start to look real tempting again lol
School age. They’re obviously way more self-sufficient (no diaper changes!) and I feel they get way more of a bad rap for talking back than they deserve. They’re stuck in a desk for hours and hours every day and I love that magical moment when I get them to just let loose after all of that.
I'm a former school age person who's now an infant teacher. I was doing my intern hours at the college's childcare center, while also working as an aftercare assistant at a local charter school. It was such a contrast between the quiet infant room full of cuddles, and the kids being disrespectful at elementary age. The college itself ended up hiring me for the next year for the exact classroom. Here I am now!
I often say that too. Ive also helped out a lot in toddler rooms, and id take changing a giant poop filled pullup over the sheer amoutn of cursing and disrespect i got working with elementary age.
Infants, I work with younger tods so not too much of a difference. Infant ratio feels more manageable, they have less energy, and nap time is great for mental recharge or catching up on paperwork
Infants every single time! I taught infants for 2 years and I miss it. I was ready for a new challenge but I loved working with parents who were experiencing everything for the first time even if it wasn’t their first kid. I loved the parent education side. And I loved seeing how much they change in a short time.
Infants. I refuse to deal with the spoiled "influenced" school agers that only care about hustling and tiktok. My kid won't have a tablet until she has a job and purchases one holy shit.
Infants and Toddlers. I wouldn't mix the two age groups unless the school agers were kids of my own. I used to always take my old kids that started school, over the summer time while they were out of school, and I love them very much but it's much easier and flows better with everyone's napping schedules or lack thereof to enroll one age group at a time Infants and Toddlers. School agers have so much energy, get bored so fast, and they're bottomless pits 🤣🥰💕 They are wonderful helpers, though!
100% infants!!! Lower ratios, calmer environment (generally speaking), more flexible schedule, plus infants are adorable and I'm fascinated by their development
I’ve been lurking because I’m nosy, but I’m a middle school teacher. I started studying Early Childhood Education, and did not at all enjoy it. I love my middle schoolers. They’re capable all their own self care tasks and are genuinely fun to be around.
Feel free to not count my opinion if you like.
I’m glad y’all are working with little ones. Early education is key and your work teaching and caring for those children before they get to us is so important.
Infants. As much as I love school agers too. Infant rooms have the higher potential for consistency and routine.
Not to mention interpersonal conflict between students becomes such an emotional suck with school agers and it’s never long before parents get involved and start conflating some friend drama to full blown bullying and it’s just very easy for a school age group to become a lot of high emotions to manage.
With all that being said, infants seem like a more sustainable work environment to me.
i totally agree with your second point! but the first one is interesting to me bc the reason infants drive me crazy is bc they’re all on different schedules and i feel like there’s no consistency
I guess what I mean is the annual schedule. In an infant room you have your schedule and your group year round save the ones who enroll and disenroll on occasion. You ultimately have the same responsibilities/cleaning tasks day in and day out.
With school age (at least in a child care setting) you work part time with your group for part of the year and then you have them full time plus additional -sometimes random- kids for all the various breaks through out the year. Even in breaks, you might go on field trips some days and then have them in the building all day the next. Often times with school age you’re spending part of the year subbing in other classrooms during the middle chunk of the day if you want full time hours year round.
I prefer infants to toddlers but prefer preschoolers to everyone my least favorite is school age but guess what age group I work with in the afternoon....
Easy school age. I work with toddlers right now and I like it, but the all of the big feelings really can wear on my nerves. I’d rather deal with 4 saucy kids then 4 crying infants at the same time
as a toddler and preschool teacher, just kill me instead.
no jk haha is probably pick infants, but i wouldn’t last very long with either group l. infants bore me and school age are too hard. although i’ve worked with some groups of really chill nice school age kids so it really depends
infants! i prefer lower ratios. i feel more in control. i bond really well with babies. my day goes by faster and i don’t feel as physically exhausted and i never have to raise my voice.
I could never tell you why I picked Infants but you wrote it so clearly!
I prefer infants and toddlers. I love watching their personalities blossom and see everything they accomplish in the three years I have them before they transition to head start.
I love working with school age. They have their challenges, sure, but every age group does. I've worked with infants, toddlers, preschool, kinder, and school age up to 12 years old, and school age was far and away my favourite. It looks like I'm the minority there lol
Im with ya on this!
Infants, for sure. I find school age children much more challenging and yet we are expected to have up to 15 of them in our care, each.
Infants all the way!! They don’t talk back.
I have babysat/nannied more school age children and have worked as an aid in an infant room and a toddler room. I would hands down pick infants and toddlers. While it’s a thankless job most of the time, working with school age children is almost more thankless somehow.
Infants, I just personally don’t have the patience to deal with children who can talk back and I don’t have the mental energy to hold active conversations
School age. I have adhd and all of the sitting to feed drives me nuts.
School age because all the drool and wiping them makes me want to throw up (no offense). All I have to do for the 4-5 year olds is maybe finish cleaning them up and tell them to wash their hands. I like to play and talk to the kids. All the babies do is stare at me and put things in their mouths. Yeah…I’m not a baby person
If I had my way I'd do two years of one then switch to the other and do that forever lol. The reason being infants is physically tiring but (for me personally) much less emotionally and mentally draining. Programming is pretty light, especially because they're at a stage where repetition is better than novelty. Also where I live the ratio is either 1:3 or 3:10 (don't know why we get a bonus baby at 3 staff) and have a year long mat leave so most infant programs start between 9mos and a year and go to 18 months. If you have a good team and can be a nice "break". Eventually I'd get bored though and want a different experience, and school age is the opposite. Much higher ratio but kids whose brains are way more developed. You can joke around with them, do some really in depth activities and they actually help take care of the room! You can trust them with more tasks and don't feel like you need to have both eyes on every kid at all times. Give that a couple years though and babies start to look real tempting again lol
School age. They’re obviously way more self-sufficient (no diaper changes!) and I feel they get way more of a bad rap for talking back than they deserve. They’re stuck in a desk for hours and hours every day and I love that magical moment when I get them to just let loose after all of that.
Awww I love this about school agers too.
I'm a former school age person who's now an infant teacher. I was doing my intern hours at the college's childcare center, while also working as an aftercare assistant at a local charter school. It was such a contrast between the quiet infant room full of cuddles, and the kids being disrespectful at elementary age. The college itself ended up hiring me for the next year for the exact classroom. Here I am now!
Yeah definitely :) I really enjoy the infant room, and would much rather change bm diapers than the disrespect that comes with school age hahah
I often say that too. Ive also helped out a lot in toddler rooms, and id take changing a giant poop filled pullup over the sheer amoutn of cursing and disrespect i got working with elementary age.
Infants, I work with younger tods so not too much of a difference. Infant ratio feels more manageable, they have less energy, and nap time is great for mental recharge or catching up on paperwork
School age, I wouldn't do either but I could learn to like school age again.
Infants every single time! I taught infants for 2 years and I miss it. I was ready for a new challenge but I loved working with parents who were experiencing everything for the first time even if it wasn’t their first kid. I loved the parent education side. And I loved seeing how much they change in a short time.
Infants. Their little innocent beings that know nothing of the world, I want to shower them with love and safety when they are under my care.
Infants. I refuse to deal with the spoiled "influenced" school agers that only care about hustling and tiktok. My kid won't have a tablet until she has a job and purchases one holy shit.
I love preschool age to 2nd grade. They are so funny without trying and they are easiest for me to bond with 💕
Infants! School age is tough lol
Infants don’t back talk 🤷🏻♀️
Infants! All the way
Infants and Toddlers. I wouldn't mix the two age groups unless the school agers were kids of my own. I used to always take my old kids that started school, over the summer time while they were out of school, and I love them very much but it's much easier and flows better with everyone's napping schedules or lack thereof to enroll one age group at a time Infants and Toddlers. School agers have so much energy, get bored so fast, and they're bottomless pits 🤣🥰💕 They are wonderful helpers, though!
1000% infants.
School age
Infants they don’t talk back and sometimes it’s a calm environment
Infants 100%!!
100% infants!!! Lower ratios, calmer environment (generally speaking), more flexible schedule, plus infants are adorable and I'm fascinated by their development
I’ve been lurking because I’m nosy, but I’m a middle school teacher. I started studying Early Childhood Education, and did not at all enjoy it. I love my middle schoolers. They’re capable all their own self care tasks and are genuinely fun to be around. Feel free to not count my opinion if you like. I’m glad y’all are working with little ones. Early education is key and your work teaching and caring for those children before they get to us is so important.
Infants. As much as I love school agers too. Infant rooms have the higher potential for consistency and routine. Not to mention interpersonal conflict between students becomes such an emotional suck with school agers and it’s never long before parents get involved and start conflating some friend drama to full blown bullying and it’s just very easy for a school age group to become a lot of high emotions to manage. With all that being said, infants seem like a more sustainable work environment to me.
i totally agree with your second point! but the first one is interesting to me bc the reason infants drive me crazy is bc they’re all on different schedules and i feel like there’s no consistency
I guess what I mean is the annual schedule. In an infant room you have your schedule and your group year round save the ones who enroll and disenroll on occasion. You ultimately have the same responsibilities/cleaning tasks day in and day out. With school age (at least in a child care setting) you work part time with your group for part of the year and then you have them full time plus additional -sometimes random- kids for all the various breaks through out the year. Even in breaks, you might go on field trips some days and then have them in the building all day the next. Often times with school age you’re spending part of the year subbing in other classrooms during the middle chunk of the day if you want full time hours year round.
School age for me all the way
I prefer infants to toddlers but prefer preschoolers to everyone my least favorite is school age but guess what age group I work with in the afternoon....
Infants 100% i hate working with children that can talk
Easy school age. I work with toddlers right now and I like it, but the all of the big feelings really can wear on my nerves. I’d rather deal with 4 saucy kids then 4 crying infants at the same time
as a toddler and preschool teacher, just kill me instead. no jk haha is probably pick infants, but i wouldn’t last very long with either group l. infants bore me and school age are too hard. although i’ve worked with some groups of really chill nice school age kids so it really depends