Entry #13, 6 November 2009

Cis usually very strong-spirited, but he seemed even more so today. As a result, he got into a lot of trouble with a particular member of staff. She told him off, and tried to put him in time out, but he refused to sit still. She seemed exceptionally cross, and communicated this with a loud tone of voice to C'r, but C'r merely continued to smile and laugh.

On the other hand, Conor seemed deeply upset, with a very distressed face and many, many tears, when someone else had put soap on his hands during washing up. He always insists on doing it himself; it's like his ritual where he'll put the soap on while going "Rub-a-dub-dub, two men in a tub!".

I presented the parent consent letter to B'a's mother today, to get her permission for having B'a as my key child. Despite all my worrying, B'a's mother was very agreeable. I think she signed the letter without even reading it!

I told her that once my placement was done, I could make my observations available to her if she wished. She said that it would be interesting to see, and that she had no idea how B'a's development measured up  to other children.

Moving Forward

The idea of punishing a child is to cause intentional distress/unhappiness to deter the child from repeating unwanted behaviour. But different children will have different levels of distress (or like in C'r's case, none at all) to different punishments. I suppose the punishment system isn't perfect, but it gets the job done... It's not like we should crank up the intensity till the child is reduced to tears.

I wonder if that was a competitive streak showing in B'a's mother? Anyway, I don't expect my observations to intentionally highlight B'a's development level against the other children. Nevertheless, she does seem to be rather "ahead of the class", so I'm wondering what sort of activities I could plan to enhance her learning.

Entry #12, 5 November 2009

In Entry #10, I mentioned how C'r's toilet training at home wasn't going as well as it was at nursery. Today, his dad mentioned that they also used a sticker system at home, to no avail. The room leader suggested taking some of the stickers from nursery to see if it made a difference, but his dad didn't seem keen on the idea.

Interestingly, C'r falsely accused me of something today! I was returning from an EYFS training session, and just reentering the room, when the room leader asked me "Did you hear that?". When I replied no, she said "C'r just said you wet his sleeve! Listen". Conor was going "C'r sleeve wet! Mark did it! Mark did it! Conor sleeve wet!". We were nowhere near water, so it must have been some sort of failure of communication.

Speaking of communication failures, there's a child called A'i in the room, and apparently his parents do not communicate much in English. As such, A'i usually just...hovers around the place, not saying a word and showing very little emotion on his face.

I have not seen him participate in any child-initiated activities, and even at meal times he does not eat his food. I spoke with the nursery chef, who said they've been experimenting with different kinds of foods with him, with little successes here and there. Meanwhile, the staff aren't even sure of his ethnic origin.

Despite his lack of verbal communication though, he seems to like staying close to me, even though we have not spent much time together. Today, he connected more with me. Instead of just loitering around me, he climbed onto me a few times, and also tapped my leg while vocalizing and pointing towards other children who were doing something they were not supposed to.

He even spoke out today, although oddly enough, the only thing he said was "LUKE! LUKE!", which was the name of a child who's usually getting into trouble (and hence having his name yelled out).

Moving Forward

I wonder how come C'r does so well with his toilet training at nursery? It could be because we follow a scheduled structure for the day, so C'r knows what to expect. Or maybe it's because I keep asking him  again and again and again if he needs the toilet, so that we don't have to deal with any "accidents".

A'i's situation is another advantage of baby signing: children can communicate better regardless of their native language. I guess the obvious thing to do would be to find out what language he speaks, and print out a short list of  useful words in his language.

Entry #11, 4 November 2009

I got a visit from my University Mentor today. As my Setting Mentor has been fantasic with her guidance so far, I wasn't very worried about the visit. Until I found out she was going to observe me with the children for  over half an hour!

Just earlier that morning, the children had been ignoring my requests. I felt as though they were intentionally getting back at me:

• M'n usually seems attached to me, but she seemed to be sulking at me and ignoring my instructions. I had refused to give her a toy which another child was already playing with.
• 'n, who had been well-behaved the past several days, ignored me when I tried to talk to him, and threw to the floor anything which I held in front of him. I had refused to give him his favourite green train which another child was holding.
  

Luckily, my University Mentor seemed like a really nice person, and rather than looking for fault in me, she actively gave advice and suggestions on my EYPS course. I still felt like a lab rat under a microscope when I watched her from the corner of my eye scribbling things down though.

 

Moving Forward

My next visit from my University Mentor will be on the 3rd of December. Naturally, I hope to be more on top of things then, hopefully even showing off strong, meaningful relationships with the children.

Entry #10, 3 November 2009

Limited time with the kids today, as I was busy having discussions with my mentor and...cleaning. As though getting poo on me wasn't glamorous enough.

C'r has been toilet training, and is usually rewarded with a sticker for his efforts. As is normally the case with using the reward system, it's come to the point that he expects to automatically get stickers, as once he's done his "job", he immediately asks for a sticker.

And when the stickers aren't around, ie at home? His mother mentioned that he's not doing so great at the toilet training at home. Despite there being potties in every single room of the house, C'r had hidden himself under a table to do a poo on the floor.

Moving Forward

I'd always wondered if I should get stickers too. A lot of staff do it, as it's a great way to get kids to do what you want, in the short term at least. I guess the long term benefits aren't really there, but even the short term benefits often seem tempting after a frustrating period of children not listening...

Entry #9, 2 November 2009

I received several kisses on the cheek from 2 children from the 3-4 room! F'e had randomly kissed me on the cheek before, and he did so again this morning. This time, M't was watching, and she decided to join in. It then became their game to take turns running up to me, kissing me on the cheek, running away, letting the other take a turn, and then repeating the whole process.

E'e, also from the 3-4 room and usually very cheerful and friendly, was strangely unsettled after outdoor play. When we got back into the room, she suddenly started to cry. It was the most distressed crying I have ever heard so far, and nobody could figure what was wrong with her. We got her to calm down for short periods by cuddling her, getting her to lie down, and even getting her to play (she played while she was crying!). I had to leave the room before she was settled.

B'a has adapted to being one-handed due to her finger injury. She used her mouth to open things such as pens and (unfortunately) glue sticks. It's only her second day in nursery since her injury, but she seems to accept that she's not to get her injured hand wet or dirty, particularly during water/sand play and washing hands. 

I did a few handovers today. A handover is basically handing the child back to the parent, while telling the parent about the child's day. This is usually accompanied by a "daily sheet", which lists out things such as food consumption, nappies done, time spent sleeping, general mood and additional comments.

While it may seem a tedious bit of information, as well as being plainly written on the sheet of paper, I found that the parents were especially attentive. If I missed out any single detail, such as how much of their lunch they had, or how long they'd slept during the day, parents were sure to question me about it.

Moving Forward

I'd like to ask the member of staff who did E'e's handover if her mother had any idea what was upsetting her. Maybe Ellie had been unwell over the weekend, or had some sort of unsettling experience.

I'll also have to keep in mind to be thorough each time I do a handover, and not assume that parents won't be interested in hearing the same sort of information day after day.

Reflecting On My Reflective Journal

 I showed the first 3 entries of my reflective journal to my EYPS lecturer, and she told me:

"You make some assumptions about the children and the setting (and some negative remarks) - I would try to avoid that in a reflective journal."

I'm not really sure how to go about things now, as:

• Writing what I think would surely involve a lot of assumptions, as I'm hardly correct or know everything 100% of the time.
• Negative remarks are even more unavoidable, for obvious reasons.

Moving Forward

For now, I'm thinking I should write less instead of just rambling on about whatever enters my mind. I guess I"ll also have to be a little less candid, and more "touchy feely".

That's one thing I don't like about the UK. It's like everything has to be nice and sugarcoated. If a child intentionally shot another child, you wouldn't be able to say "That's awful! How can you shoot someone else?".

You'd have to say something like "Awww, why did you do that? He doesn't like it when you shoot him, say sorry and give him a hug."

There I go again with assumptions and negative remarks...

Entry #8, 30 October 2009

Today's activities were focused around Halloween! As such, the 2-3's and 3-4's were joined together to prepare/conduct activities suuch as ice hands, ice bowls, a Halloween party, face painting, costume contest, pizza making, etc. I helped stick the pizzas in the oven, as well as prepare the chocolate-covered apples.

The ideas sound great on paper, but I feel the kids didn't really enjoy it that much. Most of the activities required a lot of adult input, so it felt like the adults were doing most of everything while the children hardly did much. As such, I felt the children were more bored and confused by the activities, especially the "Halloween party" where everyone was just sat around the table. They lightened up when the icecream came out though.

Most of the kids came dressed up. Some were proud to show off their costumes, but some cried when they were asked to put them on.

J;b was in a terrible mood this morning. Upon entering the nursery, he just stood there with his head bowed, crying very loudly. This continued when he was put on a staff's lap, and then sat on the carpet as well. I tried to calm him, but he just kept crying.

Another child came over with a toy, which drew J'b's attention. He stopped crying immediately, and spoke in a cheerful tone, telling me where the toy was meant to go. Was he just pretending? It didn't seem like it. Perhaps J'b enjoys being helpful, as later on in the day he enthusiastically helped me out with the books as well.

B'a was off yesterday, because she trapped her finger in the door and had to be taken to hospital. She was in today, and eager to tell everyone about her finger. No bones were broken, or stitches required, but the cut was deep and her finger was bandaged.

B'a's mother instructed that she shouldn't be allowed to play in sand and water for a week, and generally not get her finger wet or dirty. This was upsetting for B'a, as she greatly enjoyed sand and water play. When I told her she couldn't, she tried to bargain, yelling "Just one hand! Just one hand!".

When I asked her what I/mummy said about her finger though, she would reluctantly answer, not to get it wet or dirty. It took awhile to get the message across, but I feel she got it in the end.

Moving Forward

I thought the Halloween party was a great idea at first, but at the end of the day, I felt the kids would have had more fun if they'd participated more. Of course, with 19 kids and so much to do, it's not that easy as well. Maybe the activities could have been spread over 2 or 3 days, rather than crammed all into one.

I'm glad I found out about J'b's helpful streak. It's always great when children enjoy being helpful, and it's a much better way for him to seek attention then throwing tantrums and faking distress.