parenting

Boy have I learned a lot about parenting (I know that its going to be totally different with it our kids but still...) let me explain a little- Monday, Wendsday, and Friday for 4 hours I am in the preschool teaching, playing, enjoying, cleaning up after, and solving arguments for toddlers. On Tuesdays and Fridays I babysit 3 kids (6yr, 3 yr, 1yr) from 12-whenever (normally 5-6) On Sundays I am in the primary but for my ward it's really the nursery with 2 boys that are just 18 months. So pretty much my entire week revolves around kids (when I am not with them I am preparing to be...) Don't get me wrong I LOVE IT! Sundays get a little boring when I can't sit next to husband for sunday school and instead just playing with blocks for 2 hours and talking about having babies (all the ladies in there with me are pregnant right now). Preschool is HARD work, its a different kind of work then math and science... you are preparing for lessons weeks in advanced, coming up with new ideas every day, observing, teaching, evaluating, crafting, reading...etc. It's hard though cause its not the normal kind of teaching-DuH! You can't just lecturechildren they have to be involved in everything you do- there is sooo much more then I ever thought I would need to do in preschool.

But something that I have learned from all of this was the kind of parent I am going to be (well hope to be) I have this image in my head that whenever something goes wrong IE my child is throwing a tantrum over something and I can't calm them down, ill just put out one of my many binders and read what to do if I can't remember it already. It's crazy how you can see all of the different parenting types in a preschool, even when the parents aren't there you can tell. You can tell which children are the youngest, oldest, only girl/boy, ones who's parents are still in school, or working full time... etc We learned today that the key to disciplined is a fantasticcurriculum. But how does that have anything to do with parenting you ask?! I have realized while babysitting after school that the children mostly act out because of boredom... when I give them something to do or look forward to its not bad, and they actually seem to work together... I strongly believe that if things are more thought out everyday then we would have more child interaction there fore making it so we don't have to feel like we are always nagging. Another thing I have learned is to just let children be children. Play is the best way for learning, Learning is NOT a race... I feel bad for those children that their parents think they are slower when everyone their age is reading, or walking. Every child is different and needs to be treated as such.

We have been talking a lot about "play" in my curriculum for young children class. Its sad to see how things have changed since I was a child. I remember going out and playing neighbor games, riding bikes, jumping on the tramp, playing make believe with friends... and now with all of our technology and cool toys kids are going outside less and less, and loosing the ability to make believe because they are giving the toy instead. I am not saying this is how everyone is but this is something I am going to work on with my children. Just letting them be themselves. Playing and learning new things for themselves... I think sometimes I miss my childhood, I want my children to live theirs to the fullest! :) I know I know I have all these things up in my head thinking that parenting is going to be a piece of cake... but I am sure hoping with everything I have seen and learned lately that its going to be something like that, and when its not I hope I only remember the days that are! :)

*side note another reason why I love Matt so much is because he understands how important all of this is to me, and will do anything so I can be at home with our children all day everyday. I will be there- the other day when I was baby sitting when the mom came home I was holding the 1 yr old, I went to give her to her mom and she started crying and refused to go to her. It broke my heart to see her mom tear up and think "why wont my own child come to me?" I can promise you that that will never happen! :) Don't get me wrong she is a great mother but we have just both agreed that my full time job is going to be a mother, not a provider.


Ps... sorry this looks so funny I just am kinda out of it these day... :)