That time when things didn’t go as planned.
As every parent understands with children their day sometimes doesn’t go according to plan and change is required to make it work. For families in childcare when an Educator says an event or experience didn’t go as planned or there were a few adjustments in the day, they respond with the nod of agreement and understand where the Educator is coming from. The unexpected is very expected when children are around. Parents and Educators understand that plans change and you must adapt to it and rework it into your plans. It can be challenging at times, especially when your day is all planned out and all of a sudden an unexpected glitch happens and the day seems to be a complete write off. As Educators we are always waiting for the other shoe to drop and cause a waterfall effect on to each child in the room and when it doesn’t we surprise ourselves and do a little happy dance to celebrate. We often experience multiple hiccups during our day in the Shale room; this past week was a big one. One thing put us all off course for our week of planned experiences. In the end we came together as a team to figure out how we could move forward to make sure each day was still full of play, laughter and developing our skills. Experiencing an unexpected hiccup is not limited to only adults but children experience them as well. The children in Shale overcome their own personal unexpected problems during play and daily interactions in the room. This is where children demonstrate the disposition of persisting as in the PPP, the Alberta Framework; to persevere when a challenge or difficulty arises. To persevere through a challenge, we must use our problem solving skills. To understand what is the problem or challenge and seek a way through it or accept that our day will still go on and it is not completely done.
In Shale, every child demonstrates their own unique way of persevering. Frustration is one way a child expresses their feelings when someone doesn’t go as planned. A serious determined face as a child works through the problem is another. Zoe demonstrated her ability to persist when attempting to climb up our table slides, at first she had a difficult time standing up to reach the top. She changed her approach to the table and reaches to the top of the table and pulled herself up it then positioned her standing at the top of the slid, then slid down the slide to do it all over again. Ellis showed his very determined face while trying to pop the bubble wrap just like Sarah did. Ellis watched how easily Sarah popped the smaller bubble wrap and he mimicked her actions as his face was getting red from exerting pressure on the bubbles, he soon realized that it was just not going to happen. So he moved onto the larger bubble wrap and began popping. Ellis saw his challenge with the smaller bubble wrap and changed direction to one he knew he could succeed at.
How does your family at work though the unexpected events you run into during the day?
Have a great weekend. See you on Monday!
