Having felt a very strong sense of attachment with the children at my previous setting, I was extremely eager to meet the children at my first work placement. On my first day, I met 11 children aged 1-2, and 5 children aged 0-1.
Two things kept nagging at my brain:
- I just didn’t feel the same warmth and happiness from the children. Perhaps the children were just more independent or simply not old enough yet to properly express themselves, but I didn’t get that joyful feeling of closeness between children and staff that I got from my previous setting.
- I felt that I was unfairly comparing them to the previous children I knew, rather than treating each of them as a unique child. I would keep thinking things like Child A has a similar appearance/name/behaviour as Child X from my previous setting. Rather than focusing more on the individuality of Child A, I would keep looking for more similarities with Child X, and simply set myself for more disappointment.
On the plus side, 2 different staff told me on separate occasions that they were surprised how the children were so at ease with me so quickly.
Moving Forward
As it’s only my first day, it’s unfair to make too many judgments, especially when a lot of it is probably caused by things like anxiety and fatigue on my part. It also obviously takes time to build relationships, and even the children themselves may be new to the setting as a new academic year has barely begun.
2 comments:
What about yoru colleagues?
Running a childcare centre's not just botu kids - but teamwork too, right?
The journal's supposed to be about communication and relationships with the children.
If there's enough interest and I have the time, I might write about my other experiences, but that may get a bit iffy. Wouldn't want to break any policies or offend anyone. =-P
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