Carrie Henderson Weston's Blog
Posted by Carrie Henderson Weston
In another similar event to the one I detailed in my recent Article, Recovery From Issues, about a year ago I was visiting a classroom that held many of my students from the previous year. The teacher, my friend Melissa Taylor took me aside and explained to me the story of what had just happened in the life of one of my dearest students, Kati.
She had lived with her grandparents for pretty much her whole life, but that previous weekend her birth mother had taken drugs of some nature and had killed herself. Kati loves her grandparents very dearly and has always been made as comfortable and loved as if she were a daughter, but understandably she had a longing to live with her real mom.
Melissa asked me if I would like to talk to her in the hallway and possibly discuss what had happened, which I, of course, consented to do. As we were talking Kati said that her mom had “made a bad choice,” (a phrase we frequently use when children are misbehaving) and was in heaven now. She also told me that she had lots of relatives so that when her grandparents got old and died that they could take care of her. At this point I was ready to say that I would take her home myself right then and there, but I knew that this was not what she was really asking. I assured her that this would never be the case and that we talked about her mom and those still with her that loved her. And then I hugged her. I feel sorry for situations such as the one in New Zealand where for many years childcare providers were not allowed to touch children, to hug them, pick them up, or even brush their hair back. Sometimes there really are no words to say that will make something right, only a hug can transmit that you are there and care.
Copyright © 2007, Carrie Henderson and Suite 101. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use will constitute an infringement of copyright.
Posted by Carrie Henderson Weston
The older children in my school were blessed to have the benefit of the after school program and the summer school age programming that I helped to create. However, the program typically ends at 5:00 and there are usually one or two school-agers still in the center that then join the yoiunger children in the daycare. This is usually not met with enthusiasm.
Them older children are greatly loved by the littler children who immediately beset their older brothers and sisters and those that they are not related to in an effort to get them to play with them and acknowledge what they have done that day.
At first, the older students perspective troubled me greatly and I sought every way that the older students could be occupied for the last half an hour to an hour of their daycare day. I was concerned because it seemed that once they rejoined the younger students, they either wanted to play on the computers, read a book, or form a group composed of only older students.
Eventually I learned to keep this in perspective. I thought about what these children would be doing if they were at home. Would they be playing with siblings that were younger than them by three or four years? Not for much of the time. Would they be playing with toys appropriate for these younger children? I thought not. This rule of thumb had one noteable exception. For those students who seemed to always play on the computer when they rejoined the daycare,I found that the games that they wanted to play with were games that they remembered from when they were preschoolers as well as a few new games that were for preschools and would NEVER have played in the elementary school setting.
I eventually saw this to be true with some of the table toys that were available during these final hours. One of the most popular choices eventually came to be simple playdough. I think that these fourth and fifth graders needed the opportunity to safely play with toys that were nosdtalgic for their earlier years at the center in a place where they would not be looked at as silly or immature by the larger groups of children their own age.
For the other side of the coin, view my recent article on this topic, here.
Copyright © 2007, Carrie Henderson and Suite 101. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use will constitute an infringement of copyright.
Posted by Carrie Henderson Weston
For the paper that I write for, I was sent to the nearby town of Grand Rapids, Michigan to cover the former President Gerald R. Ford's lying in repose and funeral.
One thing that surprised me about this event were the number of families that were in the line that extended several miles to view the President's coffin. Many children were in strollers or bundled up against the cold weather. Many of these families were willing to wait for up to 6 hours for their children to participate in this event.
Time after time when I asked these parents why they had made a point of bringing their children to say goodbye to a leader who served long before their children were even born, I heard the same answer. They stated that they knew that even if their children couldn't appreciate the event now, someday they would remember eventually their participation in history.
I couldn't help but wonder if they would have felt differently if it weren't for the proximity of Ford's death to the holidays, and if many of had school the next day.
Click here to visit my recent article on this topic.
Copyright © 2007, Carrie Henderson and Suite 101. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use will constitute an infringement of copyright