Part Two

The last time I posted was back in December 2023. regarding my oldest grandson,
A New Chapter.  
Ideas have been swirling in my head since then as to what to write next and nothing sticks. It’s been frustrating.

I began this blog in June 2017. How It All Started That was 7 years ago. My objective was to document my journey through a separation and divorce for my grandchildren in the hopes of accurately portraying my angst to find meaning with what happened and my desire to find happiness and heal.

I find myself at this spot in my journey yearning to write about my career in Virginia. I want to write the stories, again for my grandchildren. So Part Two? Is that what I should call this chapter, these stories? The stories will be in no particular order. They are stories that filled my heart and helped me to grow to see the world differently.

Where do I begin? I am aware that I didn’t journal during this time of my tenure as an Early Childhood Education Director, 1985-2004. This is all from my memory. Thankfully I have letters and photos to help.

Where do I begin? From the beginning makes sense!

I was hired the summer of 1985 by the church school committee to be the director of a faith based early childhood development center and here’s the cool thing! It was a parent cooperative. That just means that a parent is expected to help in their child’s classroom a certain amount of times for the year. This presented me with a lot of opportunities. 

My first memory is this: 
“I have no idea of what I am doing and I need help!“

So here’s what I came up with quickly. 

1. I knew fairly quickly to go slowly. I began to meet individually with each teacher to hear their hopes and dreams for the school. The side benefit was learning about their families.
2. I need a degree. I have a Bachelor’s in Biology but that doesn’t help me with the science of young children and their behavior. I need help. I need a degree in Early Childhood Education.
3. I need to find other folks like me. So I found out about VAECE back in 1985. That led me to NAEYC. Annual conferences became my water fountain. I attended these conferences yearly from 1985-2003.
4. I really needed to get to know all the children. This was imperative. There were about 200 children. And yes, they come with families. So meet “Vic.” He continues to be my favorite puppet. Vic and I sat outside and greeted each child as they entered school for the first 6 weeks. Vic became an important character at the school.
5. Dare I mention the budget? You mean there’s money involved?
6. Lastly, I realized that this was probably a 5 year plan. 

Sweet Spot

So where’s the sweet spot in the beginning? I believe it’s the group of folks that took a chance on me to lead their school to a place they never imagined. Little did I know or they knew the places this would take me! It changed the trajectory of my life. 

Do you see another sweet spot? Hit the comments and tell me your ideas. 

So stay tuned to hear the stories of people like Phil, Demmy, Abbey and Gladys.
Stay tuned to hear how the entire faculty and two babies flew to Sacramento to meet the infamous Bev Bos and Tom Hunter all thanks to parents. Those babies graduated from college this year, 2024.
Stay tuned to read the journey into making our playground into an outdoor playground.
Stay tuned to read about our journey into understanding the importance of an anti-bias curriculum.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

Be sure to leave me a comment. I love hearing from each of you. No I yearn to hear from you!