Yep, this time the word ‘Work’ is referring to employment…
Well, not exactly – not yet… i’m doing my internship for my playgroup/childcare course – unpaid, of course. But from now till Autumn, at least, i’ll be spending my Tuesday mornings with 7 adorable, always active, mostly loud, sometimes difficult boys of 3 to 4 years old.
My very first morning was yesterday and what an eventful first morning it was.
i got there nice and early, only to find out that on Tuesdays the lady in charge (Monica) doesn’t come in very early. She arrived just 15 minutes before the playgroup was due to start. She says on Tuesdays, the kids tend to arrive right on time or a little late so no rush. She is really laid-back, both with the running of the playgroup and in her interaction with the parents.
It all started well. i was not a stranger to the boys. i had visited their group last October when i was just observing different types of childcare situations. But one of the boys’ mother just had a baby and he was not wanting to leave his mummy that morning. So Monica convinced him (let’s call him M) to wave bye at the window, while his mother promises to come pick him up very soon.
So like i said before, Monica is quite laid-back with the running of the morning. No big timetable to follow, no planned craft to do – unlike playgroups i hear about back in my home country.
We gather the boys, sing a couple of songs and then they are off to play. One of the boys, J, kept wanting to have snack and dragged his backpack around with him, asking if anyone wants to eat. We ended up having an early snack. A couple of the boys weren’t ready for snack just yet and we left them to play. They joined us quite quickly when they realised everyone was sitting down to eat without them.
They all bring their own snack and are really good with sharing their food with others. They do lots of food exchanges – i was very amused. A couple of the boys finished early – one of them was M.
M went off to play with R just round the corner from our snack table. The others were still eating so we stayed with them. i popped my head around to tell them playing around the big tables is not a good idea. The room is a shared facility with the Lunch-table for older kids so there are much bigger tables in the big room. i go back to the snack table and almost as soon as my head was turned we heard a loud BANG and then crying.
M had fallen. i suspect he was trying to swing between 2 big tables. i have done that in my childhood days and broken my tooth. He had a big bump on his forehead and his upper lip was bleeding. i picked him up and handed him to Monica. While she took care of him, i got the other kids to finish up their snack, go to the next room to play while i cleaned up the snack table.
M won’t let her even put a cold pack on his bump and the only thing which calmed him down was dialing his mother’s mobile on Monica’s phone. It wasn’t serious but Monica had to carry him the whole time till just 5 minutes before the end.
We tried to get everyone back to the circle to sing a few songs before the end but they were all so distracted by the incident. The mums arrived early and it was all good.
So i was super nervous about this first morning and now that it’s over, i’m looking forward to next Tuesday and i think i will enjoy these Tuesday mornings with the boys 😉
syc
trippingdifferently 