First and most importantly is to prepare my heart and attitude for the day. In situation when there are a few new comers, it is essential to have a positive attitude in pursuing a respectful, reciprocal and responsive relationship between the child and me. Te Whāriki states in order to thrive and learn, an infant must establish an intimate, responsive, and trusting relationship with at least one other person.
“M’s, her grandmother and dad” were having a few visits to get to know the teachers, peers and this new environment. “M” seems comfortable to explore around the centre as long as dad or grandmother is within her sight.
“M’s” has started attending at the centre for the last two weeks. She is still unsettled.
I understand that developing a trusting relationship takes time. In the mean time, I will keep on listening, watching attentively, read her facial expressions and gestures to find out what she is trying to communicate with me. One day, I found that she likes listen to song in mandarin”. Therefore, I repeated singing “Twinkle Twinkle little stars in mandarin” and use my limit mandarin to explain and describe the surrounding. I held her and showed her around the room. We talked about the birds, the plane, and the children around us.
By the end of the week, she is gradually become more comfortable in exploring the indoor environment. One thing I noticed was having a third teacher is making a big difference in the room. There is more opportunity to provide some quality time to the children and teachers are less stress too.
(Two weeks after “M” has started at XXX, I believe I have already built a trustful relationship with the families because they asked me if I could babysit their daughter. I politely refused it and explaining our policies that we can’t. )
As a result, I believe I met this criterion.