Story or Comment?

To Post a Story or Comment

To Post a Story

Simply, write your story in Word and send it to a.sanders@derby.ac.uk. Remember to think of a catchy heading and to put a name and date at the bottom. If everything’s OK, then it’ll be put on 100V. Remember, Netiquette!

To Post a Comment

Go to 100V Blog. Click on the ‘comments’ at the foot of the Story you want to make a comment on. Follow the instructions in the box that pops up, and send. If all is OK, it’ll appear.

If you want to comment on a comment, then just click on the comment, comment (if you see what we mean!). If you want to see your Comment, then go to the 100V Blog, click on the Story Title and it’ll appear (with others).

Andrew
8th March 2009

Story#2

Abigail’s Beads

I sometimes joke about strategies to work with children and one of these is to lock an errant child in a dark cupboard. I was talking with a Childminder recently and she was able to share a story.

Abigail was making a necklace and bangle with those luminous beads you can get and was naturally enthusiastic about see how they worked. The childminder’s only option was to put her in the cupboard under the stairs in her hall so she could see the effects. This little dark room was still occupied when mum turned up at the front door...

Andrew

8th March 2009

Story#1

Potential Boredom and a Surprise

One of the aspects of being a childcare worker is the potential boredom of the job and there’s one thing that really gets me, that’s when there’s not enough children around. Staffing ratios mean that you have to be staffed up for the eventuality but sometimes this is far from the inevitable – you may have a predicted, say, 12 children planned for and then only two turn up for the three staff you have there.

This is when you have to think creatively. You can, of course, go out – you often have the ‘ratio’ to do this and it’s a change, isn’t it? It’s a very good idea to have a ready-made permission slip available so when the children arrive you can talk to the parents and obtain specific (even though you probably have a blanket low-level one attached to the registration forms) permission. To have this, you have to have some ideas about what this ‘specific’ might be. We used to go on the tram, to the local shops and supermarket, to a park, for instance; keeping this to a simple activity is a wise move and extreme sports, whilst a useful experience, are not generally advised.

Thinking about going out and the public arena, some 15 or so years ago I used to work with children with downs syndrome and I had a weird (or so it seemed at the time) experience with an 11 year old boy with whom I was working in the Derbyshire Peak District. Having just driven to a small town there, we were walking along together and a passer-by pressed a £1 coin into my hand. When I asked what it was for, the reply was that is was “ for your son, get him something special”. I can’t recall my immediate response but I do remember being surprised.

Later I got to thinking that, as a parent in this situation, this might be quite common? I also thought that there’s a certain finality about the condition, nothing will change significantly and the carer’s situation is one for life…one which contains a lot of devoted parental love.

4th March 2009
Andrew