Adventures in ECE

One day, one of the little girls who usually stays until 5:30 or so was nowhere to be found shortly after a new staff came on duty.

She counted the kids and thought she should have one more than she did.  So she checked the attendance log - and she still had not enough kids.

She noticed which one was missing…. and had a brief moment of panic when she double-checked and discovered that according to the log, that child should still be in the classroom.

Turns out mom had picked her up early …and the staff had forgotten to sign her out.

Fortunately, the worker in another room knew that she had gone home early …but oy! What a panic!

Really - who would ever want to call a parent and ask if they had their kid or not. Yikes!

Different centres handle toilet training issues differently….  at one place that I worked at, if parents were trying to toilet train, we would support that by suggesting a trip to the potty every 10 minutes or so.

 Where I am now, though, it really is not seen as a priority - and unless the child actively asks to go, they probably won’t get taken.

I get that for teachers it is a lot easier if the kids are in diapers until they are fully trained - but I really think we should do more to support potty training efforts.

So….I keep asking, even if its not “done”.

Gotta love it when you get to work with people that don’t really pay attention.

One day, I had a new person working in my room. She was having a great time sitting at an activity table with a little girl…. and I was trying to keep track of the other 10.

I was sitting at the cutting table, where 2 kids were cutting with scissors.

Great activity, that… good for hand eye motor skills.

Not so good, when kids start pulling things off shelves and creating a rucus …and the other staff can’t be bothered to pay any attention at all.

I turned my head to break up a fight happening in the car centre and sure enough, one of the little darlings at the scissor table made use of the opportunity to cut her hair.

She managed to cut about an inch off a hunk in the back …..  which is somewhat less ambitious than I was when I was that age - I managed to chop my hair to the scalp a few days before I was to be the ringbearer in my aunt’s wedding.

I guess it could have been worse…. thank goodness the mom was cool with it!

January was a ~lovely~ month.  Every possible cold, flu, virus & bug…. and I DO mean bug ….as in lice… has gone through the centre.

And of course, it’s not just the kids that catch them. Us big people manage to catch some of almost everything too… but fortunately, I managed to stick with just a cold & flu. I am SO glad that I skipped the lice thing!

It wouldn’t be AS bad if we could keep the cooties in one room at a time - but most of our kids seem to have siblings who also attend - so whatever we have goes right through every room.

One of the biggest reasons for the problem is parents that think that they can get around the rules by dosing their kids up with medicine before they drop them off…. it doesn’t work - we are not that dumb. It is pretty easy to find out that the mommy or daddy gave them medicine in the morning …. as soon as a kid starts looking punky, we ASK. And guess what? Kids that little TELL.

Of course - by then it is too late…but at least we know who to blame.

AND we call and ask them to come and pick their kid up - and then they aren’t allowed back until at least 24 hours later.