January can be one of the most challenging months in before and after school programs.
With the excitement of the holidays fading, both children and educators may experience
a slump in energy and enthusiasm.
For school-age programs, this period presents unique challenges as children navigate long
school days, winter weather, and post-holiday fatigue.
In this episode of the Forgotten ECE, we are going to explore targeted strategies for before
and after school educators to reignite energy and engagement in their program while maintaining
a supportive environment for staff and children alike.
Welcome to the Forgotten ECE, the show where before and after school educators, summer
camp and PD staff and CYWs have a place where they are seen, heard, and valued.
I'm your host, Jamie Wagler, and I'm so excited you're here.
Well thank you for joining me on the first episode of season two of the Forgotten ECE.
This episode is called Navigating January Blues in Before and After School Programs
because you know what?
I have the blues.
I don't know about you, but January kind of sucks.
Although this is my year and that's really my manifesting is it.
This is my year.
This is going to be my year.
Anyways, if you don't know where that song from, you should find out.
I'm just going to leave you with that.
Anyways, this is my year and this is going to be your year too.
The way we're going to start off is by navigating those January blues.
Thanks for joining me today.
Welcome to the Forgotten ECE episode one of season two.
The first year wouldn't have been as successful without you, so thank you.
I appreciate it.
I didn't even do a last episode of the year where I say, happy new year, but here I am
saying happy new year.
We're going to start by understanding the January blues in the school age settings.
Do you know why January feels tough?
I bet you know why it feels tough for you, but I'm going to tell you why it feels tough.
Children may struggle to adjust after unstructured holiday time.
They were just home for two weeks sometimes.
Sometimes a week depends on which center you're at and who's on holidays, but they were just
home unstructured time leading to restlessness and difficulty transitioning between school
and program activities.
It's also the limited daylight and colder temperatures because they can reduce outdoor
activity options and impact mood and behavior.
I'm impacted severely here in Ontario.
It's gross.
I know I live in Canada.
I know there's going to be snow, but it could have just snowed for Christmas or for if you
celebrate that or for that one week and I would have been fine with life.
I would have been like, cool, we're good.
Educators often feel the strain of balancing high expectations with reality of children's
varying energy levels and needs.
Some signs you're going to look for that this is happening in your program is heightened
challenging behaviors like defiance or hyperactivity during the program transitions, a noticeable
drop in participation, particularly in group activities and complaints of boredom or fatigue
from children who typically engage in activities readily.
Honestly, I was just covering my full time job as a supervisor and I was just covering
our afterschool program this afternoon and we were playing in the gym and having a grand
old time.
We get back from the gym and the first one child was like, I'm bored.
I don't know what to do.
We literally just walked in the door, literally.
I'm like, okay, let's play a game.
Let's do something.
I don't want to.
I get it.
I completely get it.
I feel like you're probably dealing with this too, but in order to counterdick that, I have
some practical strategies for January success just for you.
First you're going to reestablish routines and flexibility.
Use consistent yet adaptable routines to create structure.
After adding a quick mindfulness or breathing exercise to transitions between when children
get back from school to your program or when children are arriving in the morning.
Make sure you have an area in your room, whether that's your gym, whether that's a shared space,
whether that's your classroom, whether that's wherever in your before and afterschool program
that you can create a visual schedule that highlights fun activities to build anticipation,
but also that another section that has calming down strategies.
Maybe it's a box.
Maybe it's not a part of your room.
Maybe it's just a box that children can go to and it has small tiny lava lamps or poppets
or cards for breathing activities.
Something where children can practice some of these mindful activities before transitioning.
Focus on engagement through interest-based activities, literally interest-based activities.
Pull children to find out what they're interested in this month and then pull from that your
activities.
Things like winter sports, animals, creative STEM challenges can spark these excitements
in one of the programs that I supervise that educators used to have a box.
One of those, I'm... I got to stop for a second because you are all going to laugh at this,
my listeners, because I'm trying to talk, but I talk with my hands, so I'm trying to
show you what the box looks like.
Obviously, you can't see it because you're on my podcast.
You're listening in from your radio, not from a video.
Okay.
I'm so sorry.
Anyways, it's like an old Kleenex box with a hole in the middle.
Then children got to write down things that they're interested in and then they pulled
out examples for that week or that month, usually for the week, that they would deep
dive in.
That doesn't mean those are the only activities available.
That just means that they took from the interest, that was one of the activities available,
and then whatever else was offered was based on the emerging interest in the classroom.
Offering project-based learning opportunities is such a fabulous idea.
This could be something like designing a winter carnival or creating group art displays.
Use your creativity and your imagination, and if that fails you, like mine does sometimes,
Chachi PT is a great place to get ideas.
Pinterest is the most fabulous place to get ideas.
Check it out.
Type in before and after school activities or group activities, project-based learning,
and it'll give you a whole list of ideas.
You're also going to want to maximize movement and play.
Now is the time to plan for indoor and outdoor activities.
That could be a freeze dance or a mini obstacle course or building a snow mountain outside
and sliding down.
That could be playing tag in the snow.
Push for outdoor play to be feasible.
I understand that there's rules around how cold it is and when or when you cannot go
outside, but if it's not too cold, if it is not at that, wherever your level is from
where you're listening, get outside.
Challenge team snow building challenges or scavenger hunts designed specifically for
your school-agers.
The snow, as much as it really is not, my friend, the children love it.
There's so much you can do.
There's so many gross motor and fine motor activities within the snow.
Utilize it.
It only happens for a couple of months.
Get out there and utilize the snow.
On those days that you can't go outside, I mean, obviously go to the gym, get some gross
motor skills, work those muscles, but bring snow in for sensory activities.
Still, let the children play with the snow.
Now that we've looked at some of the problems and some of the ways you can address them,
I wanted to take a second to talk about you.
Supporting educators and maintaining program quality.
Preventing staff burnout is so incredibly important.
If you're working in a team, try rotating supervision responsibilities to allow each
team member time to recharge.
For example, if you're splitting your class into groups and someone's dealing with the
quieter zone and someone's dealing with the busier zone, make sure you alternate those
high energy activity oversight with the quieter zones.
This will save you from getting too stressed in these moments.
Also encourage peer support by holding short informal staff check-ins with your team members.
Address challenges, share your successes, be proud of the things that you should be proud
of.
Be proud of the small wins or the great big wins and do not take any challenges to heart.
I want you to also work on those connections with families.
Use a program newsletter or if you have an app, we run by Bright Wheel.
I'm not telling you that you should use Bright Wheel, but it works out for us.
There's also Seesaw, Hi Mama, so many other ones.
Seesaw has a free version though, and you can share information with parents.
Use it to share highlights such as pictures of the children's creations or updates on
group projects or interesting things the children did or said that day.
And then if you're feeling like you can put some oomph in it, host a brief parent workshop
or a question and answer on fostering resilience during winter months to create that supportive
partnership with parents.
Parents and guardians are also struggling.
It's hard, especially if they have to commute or especially depending on how many jobs they
work or what they're doing or how many kids are at home.
There's so many factors that you might not understand if you're not in their shoes.
And we are there to help and support them.
You my friend, if you're my friend, if you're not that's cool, but you are an expert in
early childhood education.
You are a professional.
This is your job to help families.
Tell them, explain to them, hey, I know what I'm doing.
I advocate for yourself.
I have some great ideas that you can help foster this resilience in the winter months.
Let me tell you about them.
Send it home in a newsletter if you don't feel comfortable hosting a parent workshop,
but get out there and let them know that you're willing to talk and listen.
All right.
Question time.
I got two questions that I had recently that I wanted to share on here.
The first being, how can I keep older children engaged when they seem disinterested in group
activities?
Has anyone ever felt that?
I know you have.
Introduce leadership roles that allow the older children to mentor younger participants
or plan portion of the daily activities.
Try to get these to highlight their unique skills because it builds that confidence and
buy in for them.
I have a student right now that is probably the oldest in the group now that I'm thinking
about it.
And in order to get them more engaged, especially when they're feeling those bored moments,
is I get them to help me in the office.
That could be making a they're really good at arts, that could be making a poster for
my door, that could be helping around the classroom with organizing, that could be sorting
the board games.
Honestly, whatever they want to help with, they are welcome to.
And I encourage them to come up with ideas of how they can help.
Now, is every child that's older going to want to be helpful?
Not necessarily.
But there's other things and responsibilities you can give them.
Maybe it's a job chart in the classroom.
Maybe it's a line leader like the school does for transitions, or maybe it's a clean up
the table or put snack away or pushing all the chairs.
Give them jobs, especially those who want responsibility, and show them that you feel
that they're responsible.
Build that confidence.
The second question is, what can I do to encourage cooperation during transition times?
Oh, great question.
Use games like Willoughby, Wallaby, woo, an elephant sat on you.
Willoughby, Wallaby, me.
An elephant sat on me.
If you don't know that song, look it up.
I did not own the rights or responsibility to that song, or do I sing it with pizzazz?
But it's a great song.
And we use that.
You say Willoughby, Wallaby, woo, an elephant sat on way me.
And then the kids say, oh, that's Jamie.
And then that person lines up at the door.
You can also use games like Simon Says or theme challenges during these transitions to
keep children focused and engaged.
I just did a wonderful lunch and learn with Carla from the Early Learning Foundations
about working with school age program.
And one of the things I told them, which I'm going to reiterate here, also, if you're not
in the latte lounge, definitely go.
Go right now.
You're missing out.
It's a great place to connect.
It's a great place to learn.
And it's full of great opportunities.
Anyways, and you get to listen to my lunch and learn.
So winning.
Okay, back to what I had said in there is we're working with school age children.
Sometimes we play when it's time to clean up before we transition.
Make sure you're giving warnings for transitions.
But when it's time to clean up, we play the Mission Impossible theme song so that children
have to beat the Mission Impossible theme before the time runs out and finish tidying
up.
Great way to get the kids involved and excited.
And it's really adrenaline building.
And then they line up as soon as they're done.
And then we go if we're going to the gym or get ready to go outside or washrooms or get
ready to go to class if it's before school.
I feel like I talked really fast in that.
So I apologize.
But I'm just so passionate about it.
I want you to know that I hear you.
January might feel like a challenging month.
But with thoughtful planning, creativity, and of course, self care, it can become an
opportunity for growth and connection.
I want you to stay inspired and informed.
And you can do that by signing up for my free, best word, free, Beyond the Bell newsletter,
specifically designed for before and after school educators.
It's packed with tips, tricks, resources and information to help you navigate the wonderful
world of schoolagers.
I want you to check out my Instagram, Miss Jamie underscore REC.
That's M-I-S-S J-A-M-I-E underscore REC.
And in the bio is where you can sign up for that newsletter.
And like I said, it's free.
It comes once a month, the first of every month.
And also a great thing to use for your professional development.
I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for tuning into the Forgotten EC.
Be sure to subscribe and join me for our next couple of episodes because someone great is
coming on.
Thank you.
We have an episode coming soon with us for your support.
Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at Miss Jamie underscore REC.
Give us star rating and leave a review.
We have an episode that will be both with Carla and yours truly.
Lots of fun episodes with me.
DM me or comment.
Again, thank you so much.
And happy learning.
Thank you.
Bye.
I love you and have a wonderful week.
you