Helping at the daycare - up to day 4
This whole week, I am helping my mom at the daycare, taking care of 10+ kids: 2 infants, 4 toddlers and the rest are preschoolers, plus 3 first graders when they come from school. I have done this before with my mom’s helper while my mom was on vacation but it was long time ago. I would say more than 1 year for sure. Even at that time I did not do it for 5 days. We used to split the week with Yulya, my sister.
Working at the daycare one needs a lot of skills such as
thinking on the spot quickly, have good physical stamina, be multitasking and show self initiative in doing thing as unusual events come up from time to time.
The group of kids has an interesting relationship with one another. All have their own great and challenging sides. Well, they are all great kids but sometimes like to do some silly things and get upset about unusual reasons or no reasons at all.
There is one big troublemaker that requires special attention all of the time. Today he was not at the daycare and the day was going very slow!
Monday was the hardest day. I was trying to figure out what is their routine and who is who. All day was hectic, kids kept us busy and did not sleep much. There were no breaks to seat down whole day!
The rest of the days I got in sync with what’s going on. Every morning after breakfast I do morning exercises and dancing with them. After that I read stories. Then we played outside. Most of the kids divided into pairs and play or fight together. The troublemaker walks from pair to pair and does something to make them cry. Some girls start to scream as soon as they see this troublemaker come close to them. I make sure that he is busy helping me with something, playing near by under supervision, or seating in the high chair. Wild boys can bite, throw heavy toys, fight, grab kids' hair, push kids, take away toys, break what has been built by other kids, etc.
My mom’s and my roles are to make sure that kids are fed, they don’t get hurt, their diapers and noses are clean, limit crying to a minimum, everyone is entertained or busy and everyone gets rest. In addition to that, we try to keep the daycare clean and do crafts with kids who are able to do it. My mom also manages to cook fresh soups and other dishes for the kids, do laundry, and put kids in beds at different times to take naps, record on paper babies' activities (such as time of feeding, sleeping, dirty diaper, etc).
In some cases, I need to hold a child in one hand and feed another child with the other hand. Or clean up things while holding babies, including my daughter who wants to be held by her mommy. She is about 20lb now. My muscles are getting stronger and stronger.
I was very lucky that the weather was great for outside play! Well, there is a lot of dirt but we put rubber boots on the kids and just hoped that they wouldn’t fall into the dirt. We hoped, but a few kids did fall and were all dirty today. We had to wash their clothes.
Kids also had music lesson today. A teacher came over and they were singing, dancing and learning notes. They know a lot of songs! I didn’t know a lot of them. Well, I knew maybe 3 out of all they were singing for an hour.
My muscles hurt and I feel like every day lasts eternity. I miss my quite office, my computer, time to write and read.
I am so grateful to all daycare workers who actually enjoy their job! I don't think I could continue doing this week after week day after day. It is too much of activities for me. I like it to take things slow and quite.
Working at the daycare one needs a lot of skills such as
thinking on the spot quickly, have good physical stamina, be multitasking and show self initiative in doing thing as unusual events come up from time to time.
The group of kids has an interesting relationship with one another. All have their own great and challenging sides. Well, they are all great kids but sometimes like to do some silly things and get upset about unusual reasons or no reasons at all.
There is one big troublemaker that requires special attention all of the time. Today he was not at the daycare and the day was going very slow!
Monday was the hardest day. I was trying to figure out what is their routine and who is who. All day was hectic, kids kept us busy and did not sleep much. There were no breaks to seat down whole day!
The rest of the days I got in sync with what’s going on. Every morning after breakfast I do morning exercises and dancing with them. After that I read stories. Then we played outside. Most of the kids divided into pairs and play or fight together. The troublemaker walks from pair to pair and does something to make them cry. Some girls start to scream as soon as they see this troublemaker come close to them. I make sure that he is busy helping me with something, playing near by under supervision, or seating in the high chair. Wild boys can bite, throw heavy toys, fight, grab kids' hair, push kids, take away toys, break what has been built by other kids, etc.
My mom’s and my roles are to make sure that kids are fed, they don’t get hurt, their diapers and noses are clean, limit crying to a minimum, everyone is entertained or busy and everyone gets rest. In addition to that, we try to keep the daycare clean and do crafts with kids who are able to do it. My mom also manages to cook fresh soups and other dishes for the kids, do laundry, and put kids in beds at different times to take naps, record on paper babies' activities (such as time of feeding, sleeping, dirty diaper, etc).
In some cases, I need to hold a child in one hand and feed another child with the other hand. Or clean up things while holding babies, including my daughter who wants to be held by her mommy. She is about 20lb now. My muscles are getting stronger and stronger.
I was very lucky that the weather was great for outside play! Well, there is a lot of dirt but we put rubber boots on the kids and just hoped that they wouldn’t fall into the dirt. We hoped, but a few kids did fall and were all dirty today. We had to wash their clothes.
Kids also had music lesson today. A teacher came over and they were singing, dancing and learning notes. They know a lot of songs! I didn’t know a lot of them. Well, I knew maybe 3 out of all they were singing for an hour.
My muscles hurt and I feel like every day lasts eternity. I miss my quite office, my computer, time to write and read.
I am so grateful to all daycare workers who actually enjoy their job! I don't think I could continue doing this week after week day after day. It is too much of activities for me. I like it to take things slow and quite.