For the past year, maybe year and a half I've been helping out at the Beaver's, with Scouts.
So this includes, mainly boys and a few girls aged between their late 5's up to 8. At first I thought they were so adorable! And I still do really. It's just that, once you get over the cuteness, and after never worked with children before, you start to notice the differences between you and them. For example, the fact that no matter how many times you ask them, they will never sit still, or how if you are lax in their attention only for a moment, their attention will be occupied elsewhere. These differences are not so huge that you can't have a conversation with them, as the things they pop out with are sometimes surprising and occasionally quite brilliant.
Working with children and having the huge responsibility to keep them occupied is more of a difficult task than first imagined, becuase you can't make the activities too difficult or complicated. What may not seem so difficult to you may be hard to understand to them. So every thing needs to be explianed simply and clearly in a way that they understand. This doesn't mean dumbing down words as if they were toddlers, it means simplifying concepts and completing an activity step by step so that those who find learning difficult, are able to still keep up and not feel discouraged.
The insights gathered through working with children of all ages are quite amazing, the transitions of the way children behave and develop as they grow through each section of scouts are incredibly fascinating.
As well as providing me with first hand experience in the development of children, this work has allowed me a, what I feel is a, greater boost at school. In both coursework and exam units in Health and Social Care.
Which I'll talk about later
Ja x
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