Development in Elementary School Through the Eyes of a Child Care Provider

PHS-SAC

O I have worked at the YMCA Prairie Hill Afterschool Program for 5 years. Since I am graduating and student teaching in the fall, this will be my last year working with the program. These past five years I have seen many students come and go through the doors of my program where we help children with homework, crafts, games, and hopefully growing as individuals. However, as my time comes to a close with these students, I started to think about how my students, especially those who I have followed from Kindergarten through fifth grade, have changed and grown through our time together. What have we done together that has made an impact to both their lives and mine?

The First Year

O I first met this group of students when they were five years old. I was sixteen at the time and this was my first job. They were new to the school and the afterschool program and so was I. We navigated what to do together. Many afternoons were devoted to getting to know one another, playing Uno, and making crafts. This first year, when they were still so young, I learned a couple different things. I learned how to talk to young children and be patient with them as they learned how to be part of a group and follow rules set for them by someone other than their parents. When they were kindergarteners, only five years old, they were starting to develop into the students and young teens that I see today.

“But do you have homework?”

O Through their kindergarten year and beyond, I watched as these students grew intellectually. Every day after school we have homework time where I and the other staff will sit down with the kids and aid them in their work. Sometimes it is as simple as helping the young ones with their letters and other times we need to help the fifth graders with their more difficult math problems that now have complex methods. Through the years, I have helped these students through many homework assignments and seen them learn and grow, not just through the material but also as far as their study habits are concerned. As far as my kindergartners-turned-fifth graders are concerned, they have a lot more homework now that they are ‘one of the big kids’ and a lot less teacher involvement when it comes to making sure they have all of their things organized and ready to take home because they are now switching classes. Though some of them struggled with this aspect at first, all of them have now settled nicely into the homework routine in the middle school setting and have found out how to work responsibly to get things done and done correctly.

The Neverending Story

O The importance of reading has always been something I stressed to the kids at the after school program; since I have a passion for literature and am becoming a high school English teacher I always wanted my students to feel that same connection to, and love for, books that I did. We started out with small books, just little picture ones like Cat in the Hat or If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, but as we realized that our time together—three hours a day, Monday through Friday—allotted more time for longer books, we started reading classics such as Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. These moments, the ones where I read to the students while they huddled on the floor and hung on every word I said, almost jumping with anticipation to know what Peter and the Lost Boys would do next, were always my favorite. Now I see my fifth graders huddled in the corner reading the Percy Jackson, Hunger Games, and Divergent series just as hungrily as they used to listen to me read to them and I’m still just as excited to see that development. They don’t let me read to them anymore and yet they still choose to read for hours straight.

Family Bonding

O Building relationships, not only between the staff and the students, but also between the students themselves is key in a program such as this. Because we spend around fifteen hours a week together throughout the school year, I always encourage the students to get to know each other regardless of their grade. Through these relationships, the older students learn to help the younger students and the younger students learn that they are able to go to the older ones when the staff is busy and they need help. We teach them to work with others who are different from themselves, which is a necessary skill that they will need later in life. Sure, sometimes they do not get along but it is all part of the “family dynamic” that we create. Now that my initial group is older now, they love helping the little ones by walking them to the bathroom or assisting with snack.

Point Systems

O Helping students develop into responsible children and, eventually, adults is another aim that I have tried to have throughout my six school years at the program. In the last couple of years, we have installed the “House Cup” at the site as modeled from the Harry Potter series. Students earn points through being a good friend, cleaning up after themselves, using manners, or going above and beyond at the site. The points they earn go to their table groups (three groups in all) and the group with the most points at the end of two weeks wins the House Cup. Through this system, the student learn to work in collaborative groups to earn points and also be responsible, good friends to those in their group. Also, we teach the students sportsmanlike conduct when it comes time to announce our winner because we always make the students congratulate others if they win or do not win. Through the House Cup, my kids have become better citizens at the program and hopefully outside of it, as well.

Second Star to the Right

O As we read more and more books to the students, we started to catch on to certain quotes or phrases that held meaning to both the staff and the students. This particular one from Peter Pan reads “The moment you doubt you can fly, you cease forever to be able to” is one that still hangs at the site to this day. Every year we make posters with quotes from books that help the students realize their potential or phrases that keep them motivated; they are all from books we have read through together and they can go back and remember. These posters, though partially decorative, are a constant reminder for the students to keep a positive outlook and keep reaching forward while also looking back at the good times we have shared over the years through these readings. If the students haven’t encountered these stories with us, I encourage them to take a look at them and find the magic that other kids have found in the pages of the books and hopefully they too will love them and learn from them, as well.

Growing Older

O Now my kids, once small five year olds, are big fifth graders and their priorities have changed along with their faces and size. They no longer want to hang out with me and play with my hair; instead they find their own spot on the playground and gossip, mostly about the boys or girls that they like. Their style is becoming more mature and so are their actions. Instead of causing trouble, they are helping to stop the younger ones who are getting into fights or doing something that they shouldn’t be. They help set up snack or pass out paper when my hands are full; they are growing into mini-adults now. Watching this transformation, from small kindergartner to almost middle school students, while I transformed from high school student, to college student, to almost teacher has been an interesting one. We have all grown and changed together. Our ‘family’ learned together and developed into better human beings, both with each others help and on our own. Though we are all going to be done with the program next year, I feel like we are all leaving with something more than we started it with: a sense of intellectual growth along with skills of being responsible for ourselves, as well others, and caring to all.

Why Care?

O This is a photo of my staff and I dressed as the cast of Alice in Wonderland last Halloween. Every year we try to make this particular holiday, the one where the students get to be whatever they want to be, the most special. We pick a theme and dress to impress. Halloween isn’t the only day we dress up, however. We find any excuse to dress up or put a mustache on in order to encourage creativity, imagination, and trust with the children. If we, five grown adults, can look silly and be okay with it then why shouldn’t they have the mentality? Through this job, working with these students, I think I have realized that you never stop being a kid and this is what I hope my fifth grades remember when they leave my program. They are entering middle school, a confusing time when they encounter so many changes, and I want them to remember all the different skills and lessons we tried to instill in them during our time together. You are never too cool to put on a mustache and dance around in a tutu—you are never too cool or too old to have fun. Though I will miss them as we all move on to our new and various adventures, I know it has been a great learning experience for us all.