The preschool I work at had a unexpected disruption this week. A bad rain storm caused the electricity to go out for around 2 hours. The thunder and lightning were frightening to the preschool children in my class and as their teacher I had to make sure they felt safe and understood there was no danger.

We do have emergency lights in the classroom so it wasn't completely dark but it was still a scary situation for my preschool class. My class had 15 scared children and I had to handle the situation on my own. The children were cringing and shaking and asking me to make the lights come back on. I think some were more scared of the thunder and lightning than the power being off.

In the minds of 4 and 5 year olds another hurricane could happen. Since there was no electrcity I didn't want to upset the children by bringing up what happened during Hurricane Irma or have to explain a hurricane that has already passed is not coming back again. These children have enough on their minds withthe storm going on and my job was to get their minds away from fear by distracting them .

So what do you do when this happens?

You become wonder woman and take control of the situtation.

When young children are scared it is good to talk to them about the situation to help them understand what is going on and explain to them why they shouldn't be frightened. I felt like wonder woman helping my 15 scared children make it throught the power outage and keep calm.

I asked them what about the situation made them scare. Once you find out what they are afraid of a teacher can work on easing their fears and comfort them. It is important to develop trust with your children. So they are comfortable with you even when they are scared.

If my children want me to be Wonder Woman then I guess I will be Wonder Woman.