As part of my College Course Early Childhood Care and Education FETAC Level 5 I am completing 120 hours work experience here in Crawford Childcare, Glanmire. It was my whole life passion and fascination to work with children. Children show us a world that we may have forgotten how to imagine and it is a world full of wonder. Small experiences are major events to children. When raindrops fall on their hands they might tell you it feels tingling or they can look at a moving worm for a long time out of pure fascination. They trust you without any doubt. It is so important to guarantee them a healthy and safe environment to let them play and develop freely. I moved to Ireland from my home in Germany one year ago. I made the decision then to study for a career that would please my heart. I think it was more fate than coincidence when I moved to Glanmire as the first things I saw on the road was the sign for Crawford Childcare. Suddenly I knew I wanted to work there. Now I’m almost finished my work experience and I can say with all my heart it was and has been the right decision to do my work placement here at Crawford Childcare. I’m impressed with the work everybody is doing and I can feel and see how the children’s needs and interests are the centre of all things here.

All the team understands how important children’s lives are, both in a healthy and safe environment and in their overall development. Both indoor and outdoor play is the key for everything here with a mix of free play opportunities and structured activities. The children love to be outside playing whether it is riding a tricycle, playing with balls, water, sand or gardening. To build sand castles or sand cakes, pretending to make a strawberry cake with chocolate and cream on top with sand and to serve it to a group of children for an imaginative teatime are some of the experiences I have shared with the children here.
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Shovelling sand into a bucket develops hand eye co ordinations and teaches the children about capacity and weight. The children become involved with the play, making up stories to understand the world, using language and extending their vocabulary when talking about their preferred sand cakes. This type of group play encourages sharing, turn taking and socialising in doing it all together. The child also benefits emotionally as they are having fun which in turn raises their self-esteem.

I couldn’t imagine this great impact before I started my childcare education and I can now see how strongly connected theory and practice are in Crawford Childcare. In the end of every day I see the happy smiling faces knowing they had fun and had rich learning opportunities. I have really enjoyed being part of the team here at Crawford Childcare.