Establishing and Maintaining relationships with children

Stop:
To establish and maintain relationships with children in my centre from the first day I walked in I made sure I had a smile on my face so I looked welcoming and friendly to the children. I started off inviting myself into a group of children's play with a alphabet board but I didn't want to disturb them so I just observed then after a little while I started asking questions about the alphabet board, I then related the letter A to my name and introduced myself . From doing this the children wanted to do the same and started introducing themselves. After a couple of week's introducing myself and having simple conversations at eye level the children became more comfortable with me and started saying "Hi Abbey" when I would walk into the room on a Monday morning. I have been maintaining and furthering these relationships with the children by asking them creative questions every week and I have noticed what each child's individual interest is so when I was asking them questions I would relate it to their interest. I have also started setting up little activities that I know the children are interested in. And from spending mat time with them I have learnt the children's favourite songs and rhymes and I sing them with the children when they are playing with an activity or talking about something that relates to the songs. By taking an interest in each individual child it gives them a sense of belonging with you and it makes them feel cared for. And as for me it's an amazing feeling to be able to have fun, caring relationships with the children, it makes being their a thousand times better.


Think:
I feel I have been successful in establishing and maintaining relationships with the children in my centre because it didn't take me a long amount of time to start establishing the relationships and when I did the children seemed to take to me really well and have grown more fond of me each week. I also think the stragegy I used was successful because it was fun for the children and it was the perfect opportunity for me to support the children in having social inetractions with me and the other children (Ministry of Education, 1996). Also the relationships I have with the children have become more real, it's great because I've learnt a lot about each child and they have learnt a lot of things about me. I think what made the relationships successful was I had more confidence in myself to form the relationships with the children and I didn't rush into forming these relationships I took my time so the children didn't feel forced to talk to me. These relationships I have with the children make me feel absolutely awesome. The children were more welcoming than adults and  I didn't force them to talk to me but they still were happy me being there with them, it gave me the greatest sense of belonging. One thing I learnt from establishing these relationships with the children is that it helps when you take time to get to know each child's interest, it's a great feeling for them to know you care and take interest in their lives.

Change:
I wouldn't actually change my strategy with establishing and maintaining relationships with the children because my strategy was very effective and also if a new child was to come into the centre and I was to do things differently it could possibly over whelm the child and I wouldn't want that.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki:He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.