Working with young children and their families has been a calling Susan Niemi has been following for more than 35 years, from earning a degree in child psychology, working as a school counselor and elementary school teacher, to her work as a social worker, a girls’ athletics instructor, or creating a support group for young children of divorced parents.
“If you have ever spent a great deal of time having the privilege to converse, on a daily basis, with 2-, 3- and 4-year-old children, they are the most enjoyable conversations of all. I learn far more from children than they learn from me,” she says. “They are happy, full of life, curious, amazed, unique, and brilliant, and they are great teachers to adults. Spend more time talking and listening to what young children have to say and how they see the world, and you will be in awe.