New Homes - Week 1

So far I have gone to a couple homes to meet children I will potentially be working with.  Each time, I get a little nervous because entering someone else's personal space as a stranger holds a lot of unknown factors.  I've learned to come prepared.  I have a bouncy ball in my car at all times just in case the child I am working with has a lot of pent up energy.  I have cray-pas and paper within arm's reach.  I have embroidery floss for those who want to make bracelets, and model magic if someone needs to keep his or her hands busy.

My initial meetings usually end up involving coloring.  On a personal level, I've found that it is easier to talk about things when I'm doing something else mindless.  I have a mandala template coloring book that I've made copies of.  This has gone over really well.  I bring all sorts of media: cray-pas, colored pencils, markers.  We both busy ourselves in coloring our mandalas while we get to know each other.  It creates a buffer, a sort of protection in the early stages of our time together.  

This mandala template is from http://www.freecoloring.info/mandala-coloring-pages.php