Why Mitchell Belongs in Preschool

By Maddox Donovan, High School Volunteer

So I've been volunteering at Shepherd's Daycare after school for my community service hours, and there's this situation with Mitchell that I wanted to write about. He's this two-year-old kid (at least that's what Mr. Kovács tells everyone) in the toddler room, but honestly, he stands out like crazy compared to the other kids.

When Mr. Kovács (the director with the cool accent) mentioned maybe moving Mitchell to the preschool room instead of keeping him with the other toddlers, I was like, yeah, that makes total sense. After watching him during my shifts for the past month and a half, I'm 100% convinced that's where he belongs.

First off, Mitchell is seriously advanced with how he interacts with other kids. While the typical toddlers are doing their own thing and basically ignoring each other, Mitchell actively tries to get them to play actual games together. It's kind of fascinating to watch—he'll try to explain his ideas to kids who just stare at him blankly. In the preschool room, he'd finally have kids who could keep up with him socially.

His focus is insane for a two-year-old (or whatever age he actually is). During story time, when most toddlers are crawling under tables or trying to eat crayons after like two minutes, Mitchell sits there completely absorbed. He asks Mr. Schmidt questions about the story that sometimes even make me think. Last week during my Thursday shift, he spent almost half an hour at the water table doing this whole experiment about what floats and what doesn't, testing different theories. What two-year-old does that?

The way he talks is definitely not typical toddler-speak. He uses complete sentences with proper grammar and vocabulary that surprises even Mr. Schmidt, who's been working with kids forever. The other day, Mitchell correctly called the toy medical tool a "stethoscope" while the other kids were just grabbing for the "doctor thing." He needs the more advanced language activities they do in the preschool room before he gets bored out of his mind.

Physically, Mitchell towers over the other toddlers. During outdoor time, he's scaling the climbing structure designed for older kids while the toddlers are still figuring out how to climb the three steps to the baby slide. At field day, he crushed the obstacle course meant for the older kids without any help. The preschool playground would give him the physical challenges he clearly needs.

I get that some might worry about putting him with older kids, but from what I've seen during my volunteer hours, Mitchell is already frustrated by being held back. When they're building with blocks, the other toddlers are celebrating stacking three blocks while Mitchell is constructing elaborate castles with moats and bridges. During art time, he's drawing recognizable shapes and people while the others are still in the random scribble phase.

Mr. Schmidt and I were talking about it last week, and he mentioned that Mitchell's emotional development seems on par with the preschoolers too. He handles disappointment better than some of the four-year-olds I've seen. When another kid knocked over his tower yesterday, instead of melting down, he just sighed and said, "I guess I'll make it stronger next time." That's surprisingly mature.

Based on everything I've observed during my volunteer time, Mitchell is definitely ready for the preschool room. His language skills, social abilities, and cognitive development would fit in perfectly with kids who are technically older than him. Mr. Kovács is smart to consider this move instead of just keeping him with the toddlers because of some number on his registration form.

Mitchell deserves to be in a classroom that challenges him. From everything I've learned in my Child Development class and seen firsthand, moving him to the preschool room is 100% the right call, even if he is technically only "two" according to whatever paperwork says so.