The Benefits of a Messy Centre

Walking into a messy centre, what did I find, they washed their hands just fine!

The other day I had a conversation with another ECA or Kitchen Helper at a centre I'm currently assisting with. What I found was that we had a brief conversation about what could be seen as positives and negatives of working at a centre. 

Here I provide a list of things which I think make a centre great to work at, while being messy.

1. Paint products or craft supplies are always visible - if the child or a group of children want to explore their creativity a craft project can always be worked on.

2. Cleanliness is actually important - although the centre may appear messy, I was quite surprised to see that the children there were being taught how important it is to wash your hands. In comparison, to another centre I had briefly supported, the centre wasn't messy, however, the children in comparison, were washing their hands with clothes and sinks and proper washroom facilities weren't as easily accessible to this group of children.

3. Accessibility to information systems or note keeping tools - Regardless, of the centre, having tools is always so important to report and communicate information to parents and families regarding a child's school day. Luckily and thankfully, the staff at the current centre, I'm assisting with, have been nothing but supportive and throughout the week supported me all the way from my first poopy diaper to my first daily log post for the children.

4. Educational Toys - one thing I find helpful at any centre is finding toys you can relate to. Recently, I had the pleasure of partaking in a safari activity with a group of children. This activity didn't require any toys at all, and was an activity the children and I were able to execute in the playground. We were able to pretend we were on a safari, and thought of all the animals we would like to see. From there, we as a group acted out or made the sounds of these animals. It was a fun-filled activity, which later, lead to find the farm animal toys. Low and behold, I had done a similar activity with one of the children indoors after this safari activity with this child inside. Thankfully, the activity went over well in both situations and I'm forever grateful to have both memories or activities, in my back pocket as activities to try with future groups of children.

5. A delicious and nutritious snack menu - a topic that makes the day at a child-care centre that much easier to communicate with the families and grow a bond with the children, is the snack and lunch menu. At a centre, always knowing what is being served makes conversing with staff and the children, that much easier.

Crackle, crumble, blunder 🦉