Wednesday 13 December 2017

Working with Children. What I have learnt?


Over the last two and a half years through my workplace I have had the opportunity to be a positive influence on the children that attended the early learning centre that I worked at. Yes sadly, I had to resign from my position due to relocating our superhero family back to Queensland but I do hope to gain employment at another early learning centre in the very near future.

Through the children and families at the centre, I gained new knowledge and was able to hone my skills as an early childhood educator.

Here are some of the things that I have learnt from a gorgeous group of children, babies through to five year olds, and their families over the last two and a half years ....
  • I have learnt to say hello in eighteen different languages - German, Filipino Tagalong, Vietnamese, Sudanese Arabic, Noongar, Maori, Burmese, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Hindi, Italian, Hebrew, French, Dutch, Libya Arabic, Croatian and Pirate!
  • That I am able to learn to speak another language, albeit it was only counting from 1 to 10! But I am proud to say that I can now count to ten in eight languages - English (of course,) Bahasa Indonesia, Vietnamese, Italian, Croatian, German, Filipino Tagalong and Hebrew!
  • Counting in Vietnamese and German generally evokes a lot of giggles from those children who speak the language fluently. I know that I wasn't insulting anyone, they were giggles of joy that I had taken the time to learn their language.
  • Asking a child whose first language is not English how to pronounce something in their home language generally ends in fits of laughter from everyone! There was a lot of miscommunication! And there was some frustration, on the child's part, when I was unable to say the word correctly - "Seriously Jenni, not like that, like this!"
  • That the line "I know that I am not your Mum, but I am a Mum, so would you like me to give you a Mum cuddle?" works wonders on scraped knees, tears and other minor aliments!
  • Being a "day care Mum" is perfectly acceptable!
  • That the words "I love you more than hot wheels" from a three year old is a HUGE compliment.
  • That you can ice skate and fall down on to astro turf and only occasionally injure yourself. And that spending an entire day pretending to ice skate and fall down is absolutely hilarious and a really fun way to spend the day!
Throughout my working career thus far, I have always worked with children in some capacity. Either as an educator, as a mentor for at risk youth, or as a tutor. I will admit that I did try working solely in administration after returning the workplace after having L, however the call of working with children brought me back to where I truly belonged!

Children make work life interesting. They think outside of the box and cause you to look at the world around us from a completely different perspective. No two days are ever the same.

6 comments:

  1. It is incredibly you've learned all those languages! What a gift. And I love that you connect with these children by being a mom and essentially a mom to them. It really takes a village.

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  2. It is so amazing that you can say hello in so many languages!! Sounds like you've learned so much! thanks for sharing!

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  3. sounds like you've learned some great things! kids really do make everything way more interesting!

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  4. Learning different languages is a great thing. My husband and daughter is currently trying to learn how to speak my Filipino language. Since I speak different Filipino languages I decided to teach them the Bisaya and Tagalog since they are the easy one learn. I am sure your kids will miss you and so their parents.

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  5. How awesome that you have learned so many different languages, I would love to do that!

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  6. Thank you for putting all these strategies into a very readable place. It shows your ability and great skills. keep sharing such article in future. tiny tots school in Carrara

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