Returning to the fold

"New Zealand" by Susie Mallett, 2005

I had a rather lovely experience at work today.

A young lady arrived at the group when I had been expecting a twelve year old!

The “young lady”, who turned twelve yesterday, was so shy when she arrived with her mum that I began to wonder if I was going to hear a word from her at all this afternoon, or from the other young girl who arrived later.

Getting to know you

While the Mum was still there the child was very quiet but when her work-mate for the afternoon arrived she relaxed and both children started to get to know each other. Instead of getting on with walking, climbing or playing ball-games directly after our lunch, we thought it would be good to play a game together at the table. It was a good way for me to find out a little bit about the abilities of the newcomer and also for the children to get to know each other.

Both children had decided to come to “Petö” during their holidays so an extra game before some hard work did not go amiss.

When the session finished the twelve-year-old young lady gave me her hand and said goodbye and left with a smile.

I worked with this young girl when she was a Kindergarten child that is why it was such a shock to greet a girl almost as tall as I am. She greeted me with my name and she laughed and had fun just as before, I felt like she had been with us forever, and I get the impression that she felt the same. She was really pleased to be there.

We have a lot of hard work to do in the next few weeks to help her so she is happy in her school life but the first step was made today. She tried really hard to overcome her shyness and to fit in. She made a very good first impression on everyone.

Welcome back to the fold!

Notes

Getting to know you, from the King and I, 1956 –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aVbJhg23Ao

My mum and Dad used to sing this together when I was a littlie.