Over-ruling the Lap Jar

OVER-RULING THE LAP JAR: Compassion leaves nothing to chance

We have two small jars in our room, one labeled "want -a-lap" and the other labeled "had-a-lap". All of the children have their symbol in the jar and each day at circle we draw two names from the "want-a-lap" jar and then place them in the other jar until it is time to start over - it is our way of making sure that everyone gets a chance for a lap in circle if they want one.

We sometimes have children visit for circle from other rooms and so we have put a couple other children's names in the jars as well.   As it turns out, almost always we end up choosing one of the other children when they are not in our circle that day. The children love this little joke.

But, the best lap-jar story happened today. Today as we were getting ready for circle G became very sad and said that she missed her mom. We were just about to draw from the jar when, seeing how sad she was, one, then another, then another child said "I hope G gets a lap today". So we told the children that we did not have to use the jar at all, that we could just all decide together that today G should have a lap. So all of the children, each and every one, said that was how it should be. G got Robyn's lap and we all settled in for circle.

 

It is beyond words how touching their empathy and compassion is; each child knowing, of course, what it is like to miss their mom.