Teaching young students requires more than just learning about child development -- it requires understanding children and their experiences. Teacher educators have seen a lack of such authentic understanding among future and current early childhood educators. The authors set out to change that in a bachelor of education degree program in northern Ontario, Canada. After co-teaching the first offering of a six-week elective course premised on an asset-oriented view of young children as capable learners, the authors found ourselves deep in conversation about teacher candidates' understandings of teaching and learning in the early years. The authors noticed teacher candidates naming shifts in their personal and professional thinking as they reflected on and revisited key pedagogical understandings. The inquiry led the authors to uncover four key shifts, which they continue to see each time they teach this course. They find these shifts to be particularly pronounced for those who have little experience with young children and are coming to understand them in new and powerful ways. These shifts offer pedagogical leaders a starting place to encourage educators of all levels and settings to explore their own mindsets about young children. In this article, the authors share key quotes from teacher candidates that explain these shifts, drawing on data collected during a collaborative inquiry with nine teacher candidates (five preparing to work in K-6 and four preparing to work in grades 7-12).