My Journal and Journey

What type of Mother Hen Are You?
by Montessorimom.com: Educational Resource

Yesterday a kid from an older class asked me what the names of my children are.  I began my answer in alphabetical order: Anthony, Ashton, Brooke, Brandon, etc, etc.  He interrupted me saying “no, Miss Sarah…your real kids!”  Well, no, my friend, I don’t have any real kids.

All the same though, this quiz that I found on my mom’s blog is fun and gave me a little insight into my teaching, teacher-ness.  Today was craziness at Christian Childcare.  By God’s grace, though, I came to the end of the day with a smile and re-claimed sanity.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful outside play day.  Today was crazy because there was so, so much rain that our play ground was unusable.

Friends and blog readers, I am sorry that I haven’t posted in such a long while.  My life has become more wonderful than it has ever been before and blogging has fallen entirely to the side.  I am making the effort (I hope successfully) though, to stay in contact with my family and best friend.  So, I guess, posts will just be here and there now.  Thanks though to those of you who might still stop to check if I have written.

There were a lot of good things that I learned at Little Peoples Place.  One of the things that the owner told me I am seeking to be true and really appreciating it.  He said the way to have kids respect and follow you is simply to play with them.

Just since the sandbox has been open for playing, I have noticed that my popularity with the other classes has really gone up.  Because I enjoy playing and talking with my class all the time, they already listen to me most of the time.  There is one particular child in the four year old class that simply has had no respect for me since I became a teacher back in February.  When I was a cook and made no attempt to direct her, she was nice to me.  But now that I spend a lot of time playing with her outside she listens to me all throughout the day.  When I tell her to lay down and close her eyes at nap time she does so.  When I ask her to use good manners at the lunch table she minds herself for a few minutes.  When I come in in the morning she runs up and says ‘hi.’

Some other good points I learned at Little People’s Place were relating to professionalism with coworkers.  The owner told us that we ought to talk only briefly while with the teachers…and when we did talk, it was to be restricted to the kids (and that not in a gossiping manner).  We weren’t allowed to sit down when we were on the play yard (unless it was on the ground with the kids).  We weren’t allowed to yell across the playground to the kids.  We were required to redirect the kids quietly, not humiliate them by yelling.

Little Peoples Place has a bad reputation throughout all of the county simply because it is so big.  The owner has lost track of the centers.  He has good philosophies, ideas and principles, but not the ability implement them at every center.  I am glad that I got to work at his newest center when it first, first opened.  That way I got to have time getting to hear the Little People’s Place story and philosophy first-hand.  And…I am glad that I have moved on and now work at the small Christian Childcare center.

I have taken the good from a big center and am now successfully applying it to my beautiful small school.

And I don’t really have a story for the picture I found for today’s post.  I just liked it…its cute and the playmobil character looks like is taking something and leaving someone behind.

Hope all of you are having a wonderful Saturday!

This afternoon I went ice skating for the third time in my life.  The last time I went was last December with my good friend Kirsten.  When I lived in Colorado one of my most favorite things to do was go roller skating.  They got so used to me coming that they’d let me have half an hour of skating time all to myself as they got the rink ready for public skate.  They didn’t stamp my hand to show that I paid ’cause everyone knew me on a first-name basis.  When I am on the rink all by myself I feel incredibly free, almost like flying.  It was wonderful!  I would really like to start going to the rink here in town every Saturday like I used to in the Springs.

Days like this make me glad that I choose childcare as a career path!

Today was a day that we got to play in the sandbox!

Today was over-cast, it rained last night, the weather was cool enough to require a sweater and the sun came out enough to make the sand dry enough to make play in it permissible.  If it were up to me, we’d play in the sand every single day.

And I am going to add to this post…I just have to run for the bus now.  Tttfn

My sister Kayla is always having wonderful self-realizations, becoming more aware of who she is as a person, her unique qualities and so on. The tendency I have is to trip and stumble through life, not quite aware of why I do what I do, what prompts me to do this rather than that, make one thing priority over the other, etc. The other day I did make a discovery about myself–I love getting flowers.  I have give flowers before…to my boss, my mom, sick people and friends.

Aside from the numerous dandelion tops that my kids find in the play yard and lovingly present to me, I have never been given flowers before.  Saturday before last I was given flowers for the first time in my life and it made me so happy. The bouquet is only a single pink daisy now, but I still am enjoying seeing it in its little vase on my kitchen counter top every morning.

Thanks for the flowers friend!

When I was in college I was continually thinking of life plans. Most of them seemed unrelated to each other, all over the board. When I was about sixteen (first year of college) I had the idea of starting my own daycare. Then the idea of becoming a clinical psychologist came into my head when I took Psych 110 and I changed my focus to Psychology. I also thought of becoming a physical therapist, nurse, elementary teacher and child psychologist.

I ended up going into childcare only because it was convenient, it was what I had experience in and I needed a job when I got out of college. The idea of starting my own daycare came in and out of my head over the last six years. During the slow winter days in Colorado I did a lot of research into what it takes to start a childcare business. I read so many books, looked at different websites, did interviews and looked at possible locations. Then I moved back to Washington. And I wasn’t sure what I would do, what I should do, where I was going to work, if I was going to have to switch life plans, if I could even have a life plan, if I would have to just find a dead-end job.

Little Peoples Place hired me right away. When the owner found out that I was interested in starting a daycare he encouraged me and gave me advice from his fifteen years experience of going from a home-based daycare to a huge, multi-site enterprise. Even in our termination interview he said I should still pursue my own business…our philosophies were simply too different.

About a month ago Christian Childcare had an open house to celebrate twenty five years of business. Christian Childcare was started by a twenty one year old gal who knew she wanted to start a daycare when she was just thirteen years old. I had meant to interview her several years ago to learn more about how she did it, how she started so young and became so successful. Last week I finally sat down with Sherri and she answered my many, many questions. We talked about her vision, philosophy, business plan, zoning, advertising, policies, location, planning, licensing, suppliers, resources and sundry other things.

Little Blessings Nursery School was one of the names that I loved most for my daycare. It had everything that I wanted… Unique, child-centered, Christian and educational.

After talking to Sherri and remembering all that I have read, I have decided that starting my own childcare business is not in my life plan anymore. I realize that Sherri and I have very much the same childcare philosophy; her goals for Christian Childcare and quite similar to mine for Little Blessings Nursery School. My only envisioned difference is a more educational childcare experience focusing on art and music. Now I see that I can happily pass my career at Christian Childcare, adding my specific interests to my class and so, enhance the business uniquely as every lead teacher is expected too.