I have never considered myself a very creative person. I can't sit down and draw you a picture, I can't come up with fun activities, or even make believe! This sad fact about myself has become painstakingly obvious over the past couple weeks as I have attempted to nanny for a almost-2 year old child. I have decided that the hardest part of nannying thus far, is the fact that I have to raise this child the way the parents want me to, not how I feel is correct. It's been a stressful weekend. The parents and I had a short meeting the other night and they talked to me about what they wanted me to do better at and what I was doing good at. Afterwards I felt so overwhelmed and like I was not good enough for the job. It's definitely made me reconsider whether or not this is where I am supposed to be. I'm hoping my spirits will be lifted once I start attending the singles ward, hopefully make some friends and not spend every night here in the house and constantly with the family.
So today it had rained, so Wesley and I had to stay inside all day. He went to his drawer and pulled out crayons and a coloring book. I wanted to color too, so I ripped a page out for my own coloring. Well--later tonight he had one of his books and ripped a page out of it...hmm I wonder where he got that idea!? Also he bonked his head after dinner and ran right past his mom to get to me. It was sort of exciting in a way. Wesley and I spent some time with alphabet flash cards, and to my surprise his attention was held until we got to letter "Y". Then he got distracted by his sign language flash cards. I have also learned a fair amount of sign language. I like the idea of kids learning sign language because it helps them communicate before they know how to talk. It helps reduce tantrums and other lack-of-communication issues. Some of the common signs used include: cheese, yogurt, please, sorry, thank you, bike, play, climb, rock (and mountain), help, clean up, sleep, diaper, eat, walk, giraffe, elephant, lion, tiger, bear, dog, cat, bird, zebra, tree, leaf...ok so pretty much everything, you get the idea :) I have always wanted to learn sign language, so this is a good start!
Well, if any of you (scarce) blog readers have any suggestions for fun, developmental activities for children about the age of 2 who like to do pretty much anything..it would be GREATLY appreciated.
There are great videos (depending on how much TV the parents want the kid to watch) called Signing Time videos that teach kids sign languages. We only have the first one but it teaches them words like; eat, milk, more, want, sleep, Dad, Mom, car, airplane, flower, fish, dog, cat, etc. They have been really good for our kids. Does Wesley have any time where he is required to entertain himself or are you responsible for all activities? I would recommend playdoh (you just have to make sure he's not eating it), watercolors, blocks, going for exploration walks (ask him to look for and point out certain things (for instance, today we are looking for dogs, or cars, etc.) I'll see if I can find any books or anything. Under two is hard to entertain because they are still too little to do a lot of the fun craft stuff, too bad he doesn't have any siblings to help keep him occupied. And as far as your performance review, keep your chin up and remember it's for your own good, although I wouldn't like it if someone gave me a performance review of my skills as a parent.
ReplyDeleteThey actually have almost all of the signing time dvds. We watch at least one a day, typically. Sometimes we will watch 2, then he will watch another after I am "off duty". I quite enjoy the signing time dvds, they really are great! I've learned soo much already!
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