This is the fourth year that I have made up a yearbook for my daycare family. It consists of a poem that wraps up our year and names all of the kids and a tiny little bit about them; a 'bio' section with an individual photo and a write up about that child; some snapshots of our year and an autograph page at the end (that all the kids 'sign'). I really considered ending that tradition this year ... but in the end, I just couldn't do it. It's a nice way to recap the year, focus on the positive and gift to my families as a memento of their child's growing up years.
I've let a lot of negativity seep into my being, this year. It took many, many tries before I could deal with the 'Christmas poem' part of my yearbook this year. Every time I tried rhyming my little stories together, I could feel the negativity. So I tabled the idea, went to work on DVD's for my families (compiling video footage of the year and tried to individualize each DVD so that each child's ''best movie moments'' is on their own DVD).
As I worked on the DVD's, the tides slowly shifted. I was watching edited moments of my days here - video footage where I try to focus on what is good about our days. Sometimes the final production is very edited, but at the end of the day is there really any point on focusing on what went wrong with the day? An afternoon scanning our happy daycare moments put me in the right frame of mind to write my 'Christmas poetry' at last.
Yesterday, I got on a roll with our yearbook and I do believe that it is the best one yet. Some new ideas, a good dose of positive attitude, focusing on the kids and thinking of how I want all of us to remember this year resulted in something I'm rather pleased with.
This is what I love about Christmas. It forces me to focus on the good stuff. It pulls me out of ruts and makes me excited about the challenges I've overcome and I'm ready to face the future (and new year) with a renewed perspective on things.
As a daycare provider, you really need positive forces in your life. In most other jobs, you are surrounded with a supervisor and coworkers that can help you keep focused on the end goal (not always though - sometimes the negativity of poor morale at work, serve to bring you down instead). I'd love to rally daycare providers together as a support system. Not a gathering where you focused on the negative - but a meeting of the minds, sharing ideas, support and encouragement.
In the mean time, I shall keep blogging - here and on my daycare blog for my parents. And if all else fails, I'll make up a yearbook to push me back into a positive perspective!
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