Briefing- Agenda: Mothers Day Cards

Briefing
Agenda: Mothers Day Cards
In this short meeting we will be exploring the issues around children making Mothers Day cards. The positives and pit falls of production made cards. 

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Transcript

Briefing-Mother Day Cards 

00:14

[Sarah]: Hello and welcome to the Early Years Staff Meeting with me Sarah 

[Steph]: and me Steph.

00:21

[Steph]: How are you doing?

00:22

[Sarah]: I'm going to go thank you.

00:25

[Steph]: We're still getting used to the whole introducing ourselves on the podcast aren't we?

00:33

[Sarah]: We are. It's a little bit alien to us so you have to bear with us. We're not, well, we're not, we're not, we're very novices so yeah just be patient but we're trying to keep it real so yeah it's not polished. But today we're just going to have a little quick chat. It's very topical. It's about Mother's Day cards. 

[Steph]: It's the big do we or don't we make Mother's Day cards?

[Sarah]: Definitely. Yeah, it's cards that are production line or cards that are truly one unique cards I'd say. 

01:21

[Steph]: We think we both in our careers of teaching have definitely gone down the production line before.

01:28

[Sarah]: I think it busted out the daffodil card quite a few times.

01:35

[Steph]: With the egg cup, with the egg cup in the middle.

01:40

[Steph]: As a parent, it is nice to get those cards. I have got them from my own children and put them away. A little folder probably up in the loft somewhere now. So you know you can see it from that point of view where it is nice, it is nice to get a card, it's nice to give a card. However I think the real debate here is you know what is it the children actually get out of making a craft that is set by an adult and they're just following a set of instructions.

02:21

[Sarah]: Yeah, and I think also for a staff member having to do that, it's the pressure of having to get all the children to get them done. And I think the first few children probably get the very, very best experience out of that production line. But maybe the last children perhaps don't.

02:41

02:44

[Steph]: Grab the feathers and put them there. No, no, no, no.

02:48

[Sarah]: the paper, get your thumb in, get your thumb in.

02:52

[Steph]: Spread your fingers.

02:56

[Sarah]: Yeah, I think we've all been there. And then the writing in the card inside is usually sometimes it's copied or even printed out for them. And they're told what to write. I think, yeah, I think we're perhaps more come into the realization as practitioners that perhaps this isn't best practice anymore. And the lovely ladies at the curiosity approach, so if you haven't heard of them, if you go to their Facebook page, they are on there. They probably would be doing a post-suit, I would imagine, about this kind of thing, about how not to do a production line, but how to make authentic child-led cards.

03:48

[Steph]: And I've also seen before you can put like a little label that goes out on the back of

a card to parents and it just sort of explains that you know this card has been made for you with love and it's been made you know in a unique way so ask your child about it, ask what he represents and what it means just as a way of sort of you know being able to and carry that on at home.

04:20

[Sarah]: And I think how I've seen it done in other settings is that they've in their provision, they've just put out some, sort of a range of coloured card and some lovely pens and a few like little crafting accessories and children have just been free to create their own masterpiece on the front.

The teacher teaches the skill of how to fold the card and that the writing goes inside. But obviously it's their own work so they can create it however they like.

04:57

[Steph]: And you know, all we've done, I've done it this way before and the children will just

amaze you with what they can do. Like I've done this before I've had sort of cards with little pop-up features, and you know using just a range of materials. So it's just about giving children opportunity to express themselves not be bound by something that we've seen on Pinterest that looks quite nice.

05:31

[Sarah]: So a few years ago I was doing the old production line and we were doing that card with the tea bag inside. 

[Steph]: I think I have one of those. 

05:49

[Sarah]: You probably do. I do.

05:53

[Steph]: The tea bag is still there.

05:56

[Sarah]: 
 Yeah, the tea bag is still there actually.

06:01

I was getting the tea bag and I was rushing and I gave the child a Pritt stick and I said right glue in the tea bag glue in the tea bag and frantically pointing where I wanted them to put the tea bag and the child just looked off at me and said what's teabagin? My TA at the time literally was just crying with laughter so much so she had to leave the room. She came back in, she was crying with laughter again, had to leave and then all day long it was just she was just ripping me. What's tea bag in? What's tea back in? So that is the moral of the story is no production cards.Unless you want to answer some very awkward questions.

07:06

[Steph]: Exactly. Yes, about some very inappropriate things.

07:10

[Sarah]: I just completely ignore them and just carry on trying to get the darn cards finished in time

for them to go home on the Friday. Ready for Mother's Day on the Sunday?

07:23

[Steph]: Well, we won't be doing that this year, Sarah.

07:28

[Sarah]: No, we definitely won't be doing that this year. Yeah, we'll be getting out the range of cards

and all the lovely bits and pieces and just letting the children do what they want to bless.

[Steph]: And I think as far as I would, you do have to be sensitive around the topic of Mother's Day, Father's Day, all these celebrations and maybe mindful that not all children have the same family set up. So it's just sort of aware of that, we're not promoting that you have to make a Mother's Day card. You can make a card for somebody that you love, you know. It could be, 

[Sarah]: it's just all about the language you use, isn't it? So I think in the past, in our setting we've just called it Lovely Ladies Day and that's just you know any lovely lady you want to give it to, you're welcome to. And the same for Father's Day, use the language of, you know, mothers and fathers' day, because it just excludes those children that, you know, perhaps don't have those relationships with their mothers and fathers or it's a bit complex. So yeah, you just do have to be very sensitive.

08:46

[Steph]: Well, I hope.

08:48

[Sarah]: Right, and that's all finished.

08:49

[Steph]: I hope you have a nice Mother's Day if you manage to get your tea bag in your cup and get a cup of tea out of the children.

08:58

[Sarah]: I might get a little bit of a lay-in if I'm very lucky, but I doubt it with my very young children.

09:09

[Steph]: This might be our first explicit language. So we have to have a little bit of language, yes.

09:22

[Sarah]: We might have to put a little e on there.

09:23

[Steph]: So apologies to anybody who is offended. On Early education,

[Sarah]:  but yes, in your endos happen all the time in early years.

09:38

[Steph]: Oh they do.

09:40

[Sarah]: Can't be helped, I'm afraid, but that's what makes it magical in a way.

09:44

[Steph]: Absolutely. Innocence, the innocence and yeah, the laughter.

09:51

[Sarah]: And sometimes you just have to laugh and if you don't you might cry.

09:54

[Steph]: That is true.