Before I get to off topic I'll give you a little background about me. I grew up with five siblings...my oldest brother being four years older than me and my youngest sister is six years younger than me. My mother was a stay-at-home mom. All the neighborhood kids were always over at my house growing up. Mostly because when they came over they had lots of peers to play with but I think it also had something to do with my mother almost always being at home. When I was at the young age of seven my youngest sister had a medical episode that left her mentally handicapped. In a matter of a moment our lives .... my life ... changed forever. Though my parents tried as hard as they could to still make our lives as "normal" as possible. Physical therapists, occupational therapists, special education teachers, para-educators, and IEP managers became a normal part of our lives. I was fascinated with the work they did with my little sister and paid really close attention over the next few years.
When I was in high school I jumped at the chance to enroll in family and consumer science courses. I took courses in parenting, courses in family science, and a course in international cooking. These were considered "pud" courses but they were the courses I looked forward to going to every day. When I was fifteen I signed up for a course titled "Infants and Toddlers". For this class we had to go to the building next door which was a daycare center to observe "real" children....I say "real" because you can only learn so much reading about children in textbooks. I fell even deeper in love with caring for and educating young children. Five days before I turned sixteen I made my first resume, filled out an application, and went to my first interview. Though I had two jobs prior to this one (babysitting neighborhood kids and weekly cleaning a nearby business on the weekends) this was my first professional job interview. I was very nervous but that daycare director must have seen something in me as she hired me on the spot. I started two weeks later.
After two years loving every moment of my job I started taking courses at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. I started out taking courses in Elementary Education but switched my major sometime during my sophomore year to Inclusive Early Childhood Education...a brand new major that had not been available to me when I started at the University. Over the next five and a half years I attended the University I spent hours upon hours in daycare centers, special education classrooms, elementary classrooms, and early childhood classrooms. I completed two student teachings one in early childhood education and one in elementary education. Upon graduation I was hired by the public schools to become a substitute teacher.
For two years I subbed until a close family friend approached me with the idea of becoming a nanny/daycare provider to her soon-to-be-born daughter. I jumped at the chance to have my own space and knowing where I would be working the next day (a bit of a hazard of substitute teaching). After a year of watching this beautiful little girl grow up before my eyes I started the paperwork with the state to become a licensed in-home daycare and open my home to other children. Shortly after becoming licensed we found out I was expecting a little girl of my own.
Fast forward to four years later and we welcomed a beautiful healthy little boy in May of this past year. Though I maintain my license for daycare....still attend training workshops and seminars, am up-to-date on CPR and first aid training, comply with all the new state regulations, etc...I am enjoying some time off from daycare at the moment to be at home with just my kids. I'm not sure what the future has in store but I'm open to finding out!
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