I notice my kids take forever in the bathroom. One of the kids informed us, me, the aid, and the teacher, she wasn't going to leave the bathroom. When the teacher opened the door, I noticed her playing with the mirror. We have a full lenght mirror in the bathroom. Is this standard for a prek?
princess complex is what we call it--- they are very into self discovery and love to watch themselves in the mirror. I had to move one girls seat in the classroom because I finally realized the reason she wasn't paying attention was because she was staring at her reflection in the microwave door!
Put a mirror in your dress up area. Their fascination with themselves is totally developmentally appropriate.
When I realized the mirror was there I was all "that's why they take forever in there". Is it normal, though, to have a full legnth mirror in the bathroom?
I'm not sure why you would question why it wouldn't be 'normal'. Mirrors in bathrooms are commonplace. We should encourage students to take pride in their appearance- why not mirrors?
Plus, at the size of a preschooler, full length mirrors are the only practical size to use. Those mirrors over the sink are of no use to someone too short to reach the sink.
In our minimum standards we have to have a non-breakable full length mirror in our classrooms. I have always requested two so one I could turn horizontally and mount on the wall so more than one child can stand at that mirror at one time.
It just seems like a reason to keep them in there longer. lol I feel so bad when someone's in there forever and someone else has to go.
Bathroom expectations should be clearly communicated and monitored. This is about classroom management and teacher 'awareness'. Put a mirror in the dress up area/housekeeping center if they are wasting time in the restrooms- seems like an easy enough situation to handle.
My bathroom has absolutely nothing in it except the toilet and the toilet paper dispenser. No posters, mirrors, anything LoL. I am sure if there was a mirror in my bathroom, my kids would be in there for forever, and with only one bathroom there is no way that wouldn't lead to accidents!
My bathroom used to have nice letter/number posters in it, until I was told I had to really limit the use of store-bought materials. Now it's blank concrete walls, toilet, and toilet paper holder. But a mirror? I haven't heard of that in a early childhood classroom. At least not in the bathroom. But I have been asking for a non-breakable mirror for my dramatic play center, because, as the others mentioned, they love to look at themselves.
We have them in our bathroom and they are not a problem. Have you ever gone into a bathroom with no mirror. If so, it was weird right?
When I worked at a daycare we had 3 mirrors in our bathroom, as we had 3 sinks. It is very hard to teach children about hygiene, when they cannot see the mess on their faces that they are supposed to be washing off! We had an "Under the Sea" theme in our bathroom. We hung green crepe paper and fish from the ceiling. We also put a picture on each stall door so we could direct traffic better (you in the red one, you in the blue) or provide choice for reluctant goers (would you like to try in the pink one or the blue one?). Just a note - our doors did not lock, but provided some privacy for the 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds.
don't you have to take them to the bathroom? if you take them there, they won't spend too much time in there.
I like putting on those window cling "things" you can buy - they have them with the alphabet, numbers, etc. I change it up every week so they can identify it as they are washing their hands and admiring themselves which they love to do. Every now and then, we will have to talk about not spraying water or marking them with their fingers, but I just make them clean it up so they generally don't do it more than once.
We moved to a new building and the teachers insited on no mirrors in the bathroom! What a relief! Time in the restroom is cut down. They take care of business and are done. Our preschoolers would sit on the stool and pull the privecy curtain aside and be able to see themselves in the huge mirror over the sinks. I have to admit that it was fun on occasion to peek in and find extremely funny faces being made! We now have the full length dress up mirror in our dramatic play area, and that is it for that room.
my favorite story is when our school put in autosensing toilets that flush by themselves when you stand up. one kid refused to use them. apparently the device made a little creaking sound as the valve automatically opens and when she heard the creak it sounded to her like a witch. She had several sessions with our conselor to be convinced there's no witches in the toilets. I'd have been bad and have told her, no sweetie, we keep the witches in the electric pencil sharpeners!
