An overwhelmed child chose to cry it out in my arms. I'm a kindergarten intern and still can't believe this happened.
A five year old in our class is a very social animal and helps everyone. She's very verbal and developmentally ahead in meta-cognition, always being a very good child in class. She might be gifted but lacks the drive to learn ahead and is more social. But she can get overwhelmed and then sometimes cry on longer days. Afterward she feels bad about it as she doesn't want to cry and the teacher wants her to "get out of the emotion". But i noticed that after a short cry she actually feels better and can proceed independently.
So one day I noticed her tucked in a corner, during a group game, being hardly involved. After the game was over I told the others to go back to class and talked to her for a bit.
So I asked: "How does your head feel?"
Her: "Buzzing and it hurts. I feel tears."
I asked: "Do you think you need to cry? Would that feel good?"
She made this very wide nodding motion with her head as her face got tense. I offered her my lap and she got on, laying against my shoulder in the fetal position, and the tears came quickly. So I told her: "Just let it out. You'll be okay." It was a very soft and quiet cry, with some sobbing and mostly a lot of tears.
After about three minutes she said she wanted to go back to class. She got up and slid off my lap, dried her tears and went on with her day.
For most kindergarteners tears mean they need help to deal with the emotion, but sometimes it's a pressure valve. And a very damn healthy one as well. If anything, I mostly wanted to share this experience here to show in how many ways kids can behave and how possibilities can be missed. Kindergarteners learn about emotion daily and it's about finding what works for them in my opinion.
Thanks for reading <3