It was a beautiful Saturday in June when I received a call from dispatch. It seems a bus driver had three youngsters on her coach that were a little too young to be on their own. The female driver had called her dispatcher who in turn dispatched me. I was to intercept the bus and wait for the parents to arrive. I caught the bus on a regular layover and had the kids exit the coach. It seems they wanted to exchange their Po...
I got told off at work the other day. Not uncommon, the children always have an answer for everything, and I am constantly getting attitude and sass, but I just sass them straight back. I am teaching the next generation to be sarcastic assholes. You're welcome, society.The particular boy who told me off, has no language skills. He is on the autistic spectrum and he has a specialist who comes into see him a few times a wee...
If you read the newspaper regularly, you probably missed the news about the grand opening, for the simple fact, it wasn't reported by the media or tabloids. I am, of course, talking about the grand opening of my nail salon last week at the daycare. It had all started the week prior when one of the boys asked why my nails were purple. I had painted them that colour so they matched my dress for the date I went on the night...
Working with children, you're privy to some of their conversations. Overheard snippets as you walk past or sit next to them. Even the very young children somehow seem to be able to effectively communicate with each other. To me, it just sounds like random noises and baby babble, but they just know. On Wednesday I was partially privy to such a conversation when I walked down the other end of the playground to defuse a squi...
"That's him, Momma."Cindy points at Simon across the schoolyard. Her mother looks at him and smiles. He's pleased but not sure exactly why.He's the new boy in kindergarten. Some other boy tells him that Cindy likes him.What's that mean?Now her mother is visiting to pick up Cindy for something.She tells her mother he's her new boyfriend. He's glad, for some reason he can't really understand.It just seems important to be th...
"My Uncle Patrick is in Canada," one young boy announced to me on Friday. I was on outside duty that afternoon and it was rather quiet, so I was standing on one of the boxes that the kids can climb up and then slide down, blowing bubbles for the few interested children. It was mostly the 2 and 3-year-olds that cared, while some of the older children, especially the boys, shrugged and ran off to find something else to do....
I don't know if it's the children I work with or just children in general, but some of them are obsessed with the human anatomy. Whether it's the questions I have documented in my other stories, or pointing to certain body parts and using them as weapons, I feel like my stories these days are mostly about the human body from a child's perspective. One little boy refers to me as 'boobies'. On the odd occasion he will use...
My girl looks out the windowwake up hurry wake up mommyIt's snowing out let's go she yellsI turn in my cocoon to seeHer eyes are shining in her cribIt's a snow day she says to meBrothers are home let's get emCome on Boone and ShawneeDo you wanna build a snowman Hurry let's do it she grabs a handBoots gloves hats and coats go onOut the door so fast it's grandLook, momma, it's OlafI smile and watch my girl She hugs her snow...
"Boom!," I hear a little voice coming from the bathroom. "BOOM!" I hear again, this time louder, and then there is the unmistakable sound of laughter. Children just love playing in the bathroom, running all the taps in the basin or filling the basin with paper towels to overflow them and create 'baths,' or making a mountain of bubbles with the foamy soap. I prepare myself for the worst as I go to the bathroom, expecting a...
Sitting down with a group of children in the shade, on a very hot day, I was reading a story with them about farm animals. After the story was finished we played the "what sound does this animal make?" game. We went through the usual the dog goes woof; the cat goes meow, the sheep goes baa when I asked them what sound does a cow make. All the children make very loud mooing noises, and then we laugh at how funny and silly...
Children are very curious and inquisitive, so naturally, questions about bodies and body parts are going to come up in my job. How one handles it, is key. Of course, there is that classic childhood game of 'Show me yours, and I'll show you mine.' I figured out early on that if you overreact to children playing that game, then they're going to try and hide and play it more often because they know they're not supposed to. S...
One of the funniest, yet simplest things I have ever seen since working with children happened on Thursday and even now, just thinking and writing about it, I have the giggles again. We have a 'family play' area set up for the children. They have a little seating area, a round table, two small cots and a small bed for the dolls or some of the smaller children, though they are bigger than the dolls and my fear is the wood...
Things are heating up at work. Apparently, spring didn't get the memo that it's her season, and us here in Hawkes Bay have gone straight to summer. It's not a major complaint, though, six months of summer sounds amazing, and it's even better because our Christmas and New Year's are in the summer. Because things are heating up and it's getting hotter, we leave a note for all the parents that they should start packing sun h...
Halloween isn't widely celebrated in New Zealand. It's more of an American thing, but I have noticed that now it is slowly starting to catch on over here. The local Plaza now stock Halloween costumes, and not just for children, as I have seen in previous years, adult costumes are now on sale. Anything from the classic sexy French maid and sexy nurse, witches, wizards and Disney Princesses and other characters to the very...
I work in childcare, a job I love and enjoy very much. No two days are the same and the children definitely keep me on my toes, but I would not change it for the world. I love my job. As you probably guessed from the title, this is just a little piece about the conversations I have had with the children over the course of my job. I was on the early shift one morning, and as I walked into the daycare centre I finished my c...
