At the beginning of freshman year, before I transferred to Yokohama International School, I took on a variety of different jobs looking after children in my neighborhood. For a while, I had been going to the local park almost every evening after school or on weekends and playing with the children who lived in my neighborhood. After developping close friendships with many of the children, I gave the parents my contact information and offered my services as a babysitter. I was soon asked to babysit and/or tutor french to three of them.
In advertising myself as a babysitter and by committing to spending time with the children, I hoped to gain a job, in order to make some pocket money as well as gain work experience, which would undoubtedly be valuable in the future. I also hoped to develop more relationships and a deeper community engagement by interacting with the other members of my municipality.
Before I was offered any work, I underwent a babysitting course with the Canadian Red Cross, which allowed me to learn basic first aid skills as well as certify in CPR and basic childcare (babysitting skills). This was rewarding in that I could advertise myself as a certified babysitter. It was also challenging, as it required dedication, interest and learning skills to be able to read the textbook and learn all the skills, as well as passing a final exam all in the space of one day.
Every week, I would tutor french to two children for one hour on Friday nights and look after another each Saturday afternoon for 3 hours. I would also occasionally babysit at other times during the week or on weekends, even up to a full day. I also kept up my relationships with the kids by going to the park and playing with them while the parents chatted several times a week, if I did not have homework or extra-curriculars.
The tutoring part of my job was the most challenging, as I had to come up with lesson plans and constantly reevaluate how I was learning with the children and try to improve by changing the activities I presented. Having no previous tutoring experience, I found this quite difficult but ultimately, useful, as I still use the skills I acquired ?now, in my current tutoring engagements.
This work experience has allowed me to grow as a person in many ways: I have learnt that friendship extends beyond age limits and that no matter what the age/knowledge gap, it is quite easy to find friendship and build relationships with anyone, as I did with the children I looked after. I also realized that young people have a lot to teach us (in terms of friendship, social skills, etc.), regardless of how inexperienced they may be. I also developed some crucial time management skills, by having to sort out my schedules and manage my mini business on my own. I was also surprised to have gained ?self confidence and social skills by becoming less shy as well as gaining the satisfaction that my dedication has payed off. ?I find myself using these skills I acquired very often, in anything from organizing my schoolwork, my extracurricular schedule to managing odd jobs and responsibilities. Furthermore, I gained responsibility, through being relied on to look after the children and to be punctual. In addition, I gained leadership skills, which has helped me in class, during value visits with the kindergarteners as well as in other of my current pursuits.
In conclusion, the experience of tutoring and babysitting has helped me gain a wide variety of skills. Reflecting back on this, I am realizing the benefits of taking initiative and using leadership skills. In the future, I hope to able to use many of the skills acquired through this experience. Also, this has left me wondering whether tutoring other subjects to children is similar to tutoring languages. I have also been intrigued to experience the difference between tutoring older kids and younger children. Finally, babysitting a variety of children from various ethnicities and nationalities has sparked my interest into various cultures, languages and ways of life, which I hope to be able to discover in the future.
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Source: http://blogs.yis.ac.jp/15robidouxk/2013/01/03/gcd-babysitting-and-tutoring-french-reflection/
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