How often have you had to sit in a ‘waiting’ chair? Maybe while waiting for appointments with doctors, dentists, hair dressers, airports, the RMV? The number of places are too many to count. There is a big difference between a ‘waiting’ chair and a ‘time out’ chair. Though it isn’t fun to have to wait, a ‘waiting’ chair means your turn is coming, whereas a ‘time out’ chair removes the occupant from the action. The term ‘time out chair’ is not one I have heard used at MWS in my 32 years at the school. When a child is having a difficult time, sometimes he/she sits a bit apart from the ‘circle’ with one of the teachers to help the child, but the child is still present and may engage with the Circle Time activities. Sometimes a child needs to leave the room to settle down, but is not alone. In those cases, a teacher may read a book to the child or they may take a walk around the school in order to leave the difficult behavior behind. Some families use a ‘time out’ chair at home. I imagine no child actually wants to sit in it.

In our classroom, we have a ‘waiting’ chair. In fact, the name of the chair is Waiting Chair. All the children want to sit in the Waiting Chair. Why? What makes the Waiting Chair so appealing? I don’t really know; I think I have to get inside the head of a 3 year old to know the answer. But I will tell you what our Waiting Chair is used for, but first some history about the Waiting Chair.

When I became a classroom teacher in 1999, after 11 years as an assistant teacher, I was given a gift of a nice wooden chair to sit in during Circle Time. I loved that chair. But a few years ago, along with aging, my knees started to give out. It became difficult to use the low seat of my beloved teacher chair and I moved up to a metal, padded folding chair. But I couldn’t let go of my teacher chair. I set it aside, out of the way, next to the door to the bathroom. This is the chair that became the Waiting Chair.

The children must take a turn in the bathroom 2 times each morning (some use it more often). The children take their turn between 9:45 and 10:00am, before our 1st Meeting time. They take a turn again between the Big Room and playground. With 10 children, it needs to be as efficient as possible. There are 2 bathrooms next our our classroom. In order to keep the process moving, when both bathrooms are occupied the next child sits in the Waiting Chair. This way, there are always 3 children in the bathroom rotation. Sometimes, both bathrooms become available at the same time. The child in the Waiting Chair goes in and the next child is told to go straight to the bathroom, bypassing the Waiting Chair. And that’s when a problem occasionally occurs. There are children who get upset if they miss their turn in the Waiting Chair! When that happens, we have to let that child sit in the Waiting Chair and call another child to go straight to the bathroom. This has always been a wonder to me and during the year, we learn who needs their turn in the Waiting Chair and call children to the bathroom accordingly. In fact, during the last couple of non-covid years with 15 children, there was such a demand for the Waiting Chair that we had to line up 3 or 4 chairs next to each other so many children could occupy them.

It would be interesting to hear how the children explain the Waiting Chair to you. Maybe you can find a way to use the Waiting Chair concept at home.