Guest Posted January 23, 2013 Posted January 23, 2013 Hi, I realise this is probably like preaching to the choir but does anyone else feel ridiculously snowed under trying to meet the needs of all their keychildren? I have ten and it is 6 girls and 4 boys, 5 of which are not potty trained. I am mid process of settling my new children and this is fairly complicated with some staying for varied times with/without parents. Since this began my older ones have become very needy and clingy, 3 who have been well settled for over a year have started clinging to their parents or to me. Another 2 who had a lovely friendship are now struggling to get on at all and I have constant "she did this, she said that" bickering to sort out. I am trying to help them all in their needs and also settle my new ones and am finding in trying to meet all needs I am meeting none of them or one over another. Today was the final straw, I had 3 boisterious new boys in, none potty trained. Managed to settle 2 fine then had one of my older ones getting upset leaving Mum so went to assist. This left one of my new ones with their parent, another staff member helped out with settling but afterwards I got a catty comment that she had enough of her own to settle and can I take them now which i did. Began to play with my new ones when older ones came around joining in, all went well for about a minute before two needed the toilet, and the two that bicker started to fight over a toy and another wanted to do special work for her book. I sorted out the bickering before that escalated and then took the 2 that needed the toilet to the toilet. When i came back the one that wanted to work on her book was upset because I asked her to wait and was with another staff member crying. Then one of my new ones got unsettled wanting mum after seeing crying! I literally could have screamed "Stop the world i want to get off"!!!!! We do work as a team and I have asked for help numerous times including speaking to management/committee but with everyone having children of their own to sort out it always seems to be mostly your responsibility and feels a bit of a cheek to ask others. I am trying but feel like I am failing, it was awful today never been so pleased to leave and I hate feeling that way. Sorry to rant but the thought of it again tom.......
AnonyMouse_13453 Posted January 23, 2013 Posted January 23, 2013 (edited) Do other key persons not have the same issues? If not, could you ask for help and say you are struggling. Then when they have a similar scenario you could step up and help them. We all have times like this. I seem to be asking myself 'why am I doing this job?' more and more these days, but hopefully it's just this cohort of children, and won't last forever! Edited January 23, 2013 by Cait 1
AnonyMouse_30128 Posted January 23, 2013 Posted January 23, 2013 How old are these little ones? seems like they are young so i'm not sure why you have 10 at the same time...maybe i'm misunderstanding?
AnonyMouse_19762 Posted January 23, 2013 Posted January 23, 2013 Oh jamandbread - I do feel for you.......as Cait said we do have days like that........and I know just what you mean about feeling that you are failing - I'm not sure that I have any 'words of wisdom' - sorry.......
Guest Posted January 23, 2013 Posted January 23, 2013 My new ones are 2 yrs old and the rest are 3 and 4 year olds. They are not all in at the same time, thankfully! but most days at least 5 of them are and it is shattering trying to be there for them all. Last term was lovely, most of the older ones were happy to play independently and with me when i had time but since gaining 3 new boys who are a handful bless them it seems to be going pear shape!! Trying to think that Tomorrow is another day and go with a "Can do this" attitude....
AnonyMouse_12805 Posted January 23, 2013 Posted January 23, 2013 I do feel for you and will admit to feeling like you are on numerous occasions lately and I have no key children. Can I ask how old are your children? As someone else has said they sound very young. I cant quite understand your set up- I appreciate that others may be in the same position as you but surely you dont all have 10 key children in every day, all at the same time?
AnonyMouse_30128 Posted January 23, 2013 Posted January 23, 2013 sorry re-read my post...not very helpful! the difficulty with the 2 year olds of course is that they are egocentric...you belong to them they don't really understand that you need to be shared.(hence normally they would be 1--4 in the ratio) The boys will need lots of active engaging play so difficult to do all of that together. I am sort of assuming you are in a room with others.? do you have free flow or is it a case of one out all out?
AnonyMouse_22106 Posted January 24, 2013 Posted January 24, 2013 Just to let you know you're not alone, we've been like this since September. We are having to take children who have just turned 2 and have children who are already 4 all in one room and it's really, really tough. We have tried to go with the flow a bit more since Christmas which does suit the little ones better but then the older ones just run riot because it's not enough structure for them....oh to have different ages in different rooms, seems like heaven :rolleyes: I always try and stagger the days that the very young ones are in - doesn't always work if parents request certain days but if they don't then it helps to even out the load......Good luck 1
AnonyMouse_8282 Posted January 25, 2013 Posted January 25, 2013 What kind of set up are you? We're a sessional pre-school with a long established staff, and If I'm totally honest (shock, horror :o ) our 'keyperson' malarkey is very flexible/fluid We do not work in 'keygroups' we do more 'ability' type activities. All staff help with settling, sometimes the littlest ones choose who to go to - and it's not always the keyperson! That said we often end up changing keypersons if a child really bonds with a certain member of staff. We are finding it a lot more 'challenging' lately as we seem to get very young funded 2 years (often with needs) and at the other end of the scale we have children (parents) that cannot really afford to start until their 3 year old funding starts......... so therefore a big gap in the middle. ............ And in one big hall - not the best mix. :( 4
Guest Posted January 25, 2013 Posted January 25, 2013 We are in one room which isn't the best. It has worked previously with older ones helping the little ones but this year not so much as the older ones have formed their own little groups. Yesterday was just as bad and I am struggling to stay on top of it all. Our general motto is we all care for all the children but as children ideally bond with their keyperson it is you they want when unsure or need help. Other staff do help out and I help them but they do have their own children to care for as well so it gets a bit tricky at times to find anyone free to ask. Finding I don't want to go to work at the moment as I dread it. Had 2 of my new ones yesterday and both needed one to one, it was exhausting and I did feel out of my depth. Spoke to my manager but response is it's like that for all of us so deal with it attitude. Trying to find my enthusiasm again, if anyone sees it let me know!
AnonyMouse_8282 Posted January 25, 2013 Posted January 25, 2013 The one thing we do that really helps is to make sure we have each child's favorite toy/resource out - this seems to help with 'distraction' type stratagies. We also have a big box that we call the 'unders' box, which has a really random selection of very young toys and we always get this out on 'unsettled days' or first day/week back. All the children seem to love this resource - and it does have really random odd bits and bobs in it. xx
Guest Posted January 25, 2013 Posted January 25, 2013 Sounds interesting louby loo what do you put in your "unders" box?
AnonyMouse_8282 Posted January 25, 2013 Posted January 25, 2013 Sounds interesting louby loo what do you put in your "unders" box? It's just a kind of mish-mash - much of it is when parents donate things... and these bits just do not really fit in anywhere!!! Most of it is really for 12-18ths age group - so a few very basic cause and effect toys, those square stacking cups that all have different bottoms, texture toys, etc it really is an 'odd box' it even has a few rattle/mirror type things for babies. (bit like the sad box at the corner of the Drs surgery ) HOWEVER I thinks it the security of playing with toys that are/were familiar to them, and are very simple to do that has the calming effect. We put it in the quiet area- where we have soft seating and mats, and the older children seem to understand that this really is a quiet calm area and will often sit playing alonside with the unsettled ones.
AnonyMouse_30128 Posted January 25, 2013 Posted January 25, 2013 We have 30 children in our family group from 2 and a half up to 4 and a half. we have free flow all day except transition times. The keyworkers are there to help settle but don't really stay with their keychildren for a prolonged period of time (unless they have addititonal needs). Since taking the younger ones we have definitely had to look carefully at our resources. Our marble Tree (with big marbles!) Ric rac car track (one of those zig zag tracks) and sorting and posting boxes are all very popular and as Louby Loo suggests are good for those settling times. The children should be able to play by themselves for a short time so i guess their next step would be how to get them there! then you can sit back and enjoy them.!! I've been doing cooking today so i haven't worked with any of my keychildren except when they came to cook. In fact i sometimes forget which children are mine! :blink: We all do obs on all the children all the time. I'm just wondering if you could have a rethink as a group about the way you are working as this seems to not only be causing you problems but also preventing the children from becoming more independent.
SueFinanceManager Posted January 28, 2013 Posted January 28, 2013 It is interesting to what extent practitioners are RESPONSIBLE for their key children. In the setting I worked in we had 3 areas.....carpeted play room (role play area and space for things like train sets etc to be laid out), messy room (art and messy play) and sun room (parqueted floor room set up with tables for writing, table top games and this room had book cases) We had 4 staff and each day we were rotated so we spent the majority of the session in that space and the 4th member of staff was fondly referred to as the floater and they were used wherever they were needed so first thing they were extra pair of hands meeting and greeting and looking after upset arrivees and then they would swoop in if there was a problem or toilet incident or anything that took someone away form their room or deal with situation so staff could stay in their room. We played/supervised/cared/noted obs for whatever children we had in our space regardless of whose key children they were. However as keyworker when we were floating we could make a point of tracking our own children if we were not needed elsewhere and it was our job to do our children's special books and gather all the obs others had written together for assessment purposes. We would also be the link for the family of they wanted to discuss things. I cannot imagine not interacting with a child because they weren't one of mine and as a team you mix and match and would hope that someone would cover for you if you had your hands full. Maybe you need to look at the keyworker system in your setting? Also we never assigned key children until the end of the first half term so we could get to know them and them us....hard to be someone's keyworker if there is no connection form either party. As staff we looked after
AnonyMouse_8282 Posted January 28, 2013 Posted January 28, 2013 Also we never assigned key children until the end of the first half term so we could get to know them and them us....hard to be someone's keyworker if there is no connection form either party. As staff we looked after We always used to to do this, however with changes to the EYFS we now find they have to have them from day one- or before :angry: I feel it is more important to see who the child AND family naturally navigate towards.... therefore we now tell parents their 'initial key-person' and explain this may(and probably will) change after a few weeks. All staff help settle all children- it would be a nightmare for us if only key-persons did key-children. That said, we are 2-5, and understand it could/would be different with small babies. xx
AnonyMouse_39998 Posted January 28, 2013 Posted January 28, 2013 I have been juggling 3 of mine today, one two year old who needs a lot of support, one very shy 4 year old and one rather minxy 4 year old who has been fine for months but does not like me giving support to any one else! this morning was chaos, every one of the team had a crying and unsettled child for a good 30 mins first thing! luckily they all settled eventually! phew what a way to start a week! x
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