When Working with Children...

One of the things that I loved about being a teacher was the relationships that you develop with your kids and how you can progress from being just another adult, to a person who they look up to, respect, and even actually like. Here in La Rosiere I wasn't sure how different it would be with only seeing children for one week.

It depends on what shifts I work but I can end up seeing some children quite a bit during their time here and getting to know them. Often, the more I get to know a child or a group of children the more fun the job is. A few weeks back I was working with a 12 year old boy with Down's Syndrome. I went on his skiing lessons and was at his chalet for lunch and high tea (what the company calls dinner time), so I spent loads of time with him. 

He was usually not difficult to work with but he had his moments, as every child does. The first shift I spent with him I was telling someone how well behaved he had been, but then I recalled some of the things that he did. He had smashed a glass of water, walked thought it before I could stop him, threw his diary in to the water and run out of the chalet in pursuit of more fun. Having sprinted after him I brought him back in before he could get up to no good, which was greeted with him beating me with pillows and informative pamphlets, before spitting directly in my face. This was a bit of a challenge but in all the day was good, so I guess its in perspective.

The rest of the week he was great though and amused us with throwing Ed's hat every time he saw it, demanding to forego the magic carpet up the nursery slope and to walk the whole way up, and eating six portions of baked beans at lunch (his parents later told us that John was banned from beans after he farted all night and created a disturbance in the chalet. Ed and I acted nonchalant).

The most traumatising experience of the season was granted to me by John. I was lying on the floor of the snow club as often one does at work, when in a flash, John was straddling me, bobbing up and down guttering 'Yeeeah, yeeeeeah!'. I wasn't sure if he was copying something he had seen his parents do, copying the internet (yes he has a condition but he's still a 12 year old boy) or if this was just nature taking over, but it sure was uncomfortable. Laura's chorus of "Getting to know youuuuuu!" did not help.

You're never supposed to have favourites but really its inevitable that you will get on with certain children more than others and end up spending more time with them. A favourite of mine one week was a girl called Thea who was wise for her age and liked to tell me facts about science (those who know me must understand how pleasing this would have been). She had some memorable quotes such as:

Ah they are painting my face again, lovely!
It went on to get a lot worse.

Dion "You're in Rachel's chalet?" 

Thea "Oh do you know her?"

Dion "Yes she is my girlfriend"

Thea "I see... Is she a bit pushy?"

 and

Thea "You know Dion, we are quite similar. We both wear glasses, are clever, funny.."

Her brother (who's name I don't remember as he was not as cool as his sister) "Yeah but you don't have the same hair. And also Dion's brown, and Thea's peach. So that's a difference"

These may have been funnier if you were there and knew the children but either way they are things you might not expect children to come out with. Why would a nine year old ask if someone was pushy?

What's also great is we have returning families, and in one case we had some children for Christmas and again at half term. I picked up these two girls from the airport and the flew to give me a hug, which was excellent as I wasn't sure if they'd remember me. Turns out that the did and had even made a character on the Nintendo DS to resemble me (offensively brown, terrorist beard, Elvis Costello glasses, but hey).

  Unfortunately I was working in the nursery that week which is a service that they had surpassed, but I did get the chance to see them in their chalet on my day off and have high tea with them.

Ready for a list? Thing that happen in childcare:

Children get hurt all the time. I've seen a kid run it to a wall, run off the side of a mountain and slide down in peril, children with nosebleeds from footballs to the face (may or may not have been kicked by me), a child with nosebleeds from excessive picking, the same child with a cut on his ankle claiming he had a nosebleed on the foot, them crashing in to each other constantly on skis because they are crap, the list goes on. We have to fill out accident reports on each injury so it does get less amusing.

Sickness. Children can't deal with going down a mountain in a bus for shit, and as such I have to clean up tonnes of spew on transfer day.

Pants accidents. We all have them, although I'd like to say that since leaving Reading these have declined. And children wet themselves too. One embarrassing case was of a 10 year old who pissed himself and then pretended it had never happened by sitting in sodden thermals in the snow club. Poo accidents happen with the younger children and I've had to clear those up too :(

Crying happens a lot. Often in conjunction with injury or wetting the pants. This is acceptable I'd say but what does get annoying is children crying and crying for no reason. This happens all of the time and aren't really a fan of being reasoned with, so that's no help.

Working in childcare is fun because you can never expect what the children will say, and because you do grow fond of each other in a short space of time.
     It is challenging, especially with the amount of patience that crying or annoying children demand, but for the laughs they give you and the appreciation you see, its definitely worth it.


Next post: Words Of Mine
Previous post: Wicked Times In The Palace