Monday 22 June 2015

Theories..Imagination....Play...Me!!

So this next assignment is hard. Developmental psychology, pick a theorist of psychology and analyse their theories and relate them into your own life starting with how something in your childhood has impacted or moulded you for adulthood.

Far out. 

It been a week and a half and i was stumped. I have researched my psychologist and his theories but for some reason couldn't pin point a memory or a glimmer of something that has crossed over or impacted me from childhood to adulthood.......

My mind has been racing i cant switch off as I'm trying to search in my memory bank for that one thing......

Then it came to me. I put up the holiday calender on the wall of the activities the boys are doing, rugby clinics, cross country training, kindy, drive in night, trip up the coast to see my dad, heaps of stuff around the house needs doing..........SCHOOL HOLIDAYS!!

Every single school holidays for me from the age of 5-11 (for roughly 6 years) I spent being a mum, i would open up a pretend shop, and i would load my bike up and pretend to travel around Australia. I had the most vivid imagination. I could never sit still, as soon as i would wake up every single day of the school holidays i had a plan. If i pretended i was a mum to my dolls, i would put them to bed and make dinner with my tea set, i would pretend to make beds, was clothes in a bucket and hang them out. I was role playing a role that i looked forward to but wasn't old enough to realise.
If i played shops i would have a cash register and sell my drawings to my mum or dad, or at one stage i created a drive through where i pretended to make food to sell to the people driving by. Obviously this was my sub conscience getting me ready for my adult life of working really hard for 19 years at the one job.

It was me as a young child wanting to juggle working and being a mother,  i was trying to role play finding a balance from the age of 5-11. To provide and nurture at the same time. 


I couldn't sit still long enough to watch a movie on the holidays or just lay on the lounge and do nothing, i would still be playing when mum would call us for dinner at 6pm. I would only stop for lunch. My bike was my transport and my imagination was everything. As i got older, I strived to do well, and nothing was ever to hard, if i didn't get it the first time i usually got it the 2nd or 3rd time. I got my licence first go and i walked up to the local shops at 13 & 8 months and got my first part time job. Before i left school i sent out 32 resumes to salons to try and have a back up plan in case i wanted a year off from studying/uni and i only had 2 interviews with Stefan and i was employed and i still had 3 weeks of grade 12 left. 

I think this has all stemmed back from the imagination and play based child i was growing up. I often think if sport was "really" pushed in my family would i have given that a crack as well? I played club netball but didn't go any further......

There was also no social media back then to so i think imagination and play was so much more common. Looking back I honestly think it shaped me to be the mother/wife/worker that i am today. As i child i strived to be all those things and i knew that's what i wanted.

So Lev Vygotsky i fit into your theories that Imaginative play is essential in cognitive development., but it is fast becoming endangered by our busy lives. Children now days who spend to much time watching TV or or electrical devices are not developing the language and reasoning skills that are so critical to early childhood development. 

Now to write my 2500 assignment!!! Thanks Vygotsky ....Now boys go and play....... XX





Sunday 14 June 2015

A story about Rory.........

 There is only a handful of students that really leave their mark on my husband and Rory Humphrey's is one of these students.

When Dave met Rory when he started at St Edmund's college I remember him saying "This boy has talent, he's the real deal."
So it wasn't long before the bond began to form. You have to earn "Mr Mile's" trust you don't have to be the best or the fastest or the most talented but if you show respect and the ability to want to learn and be the best you can be.... You have won Mr Miles over. Rory did this. Everything Dave suggested he did, he trusted him and Dave believed in him. Dave didn't want to be his mate, he wanted to be his mentor. So many teachers get this wrong with students, they have enough mates, they want guidance and reassurance and mentoring. This is why Dave's relationships work with his students he coaches. We knew Rory but we had never met him, that's how much Dave would speak of him. I remember his mum messaging me from her car while i was at home with my boys saying "Mr Miles has gone 25 mins over training what they hell?"

Rory went onto captain the 1st XV and was an awesome leader for his peers, Dave could rely on him. To motivate and lead by example. Rory was outstanding at schoolboy rugby union but was also a gun rugby league player so    was juggling both, he made both QLD schoolboys union and league and had to chose.
                                                       Again he confided in Dave for advice and direction.
 He made AIC teams, and also Met west. After completing year 12 and not getting the best OP he wanted (12), he chatted again with Dave about his options. Dave suggested repeating grade 12 and re focusing on his academic side and telling him he would watch him like a hawk with his studies, and drop him from sporting teams if his grades fell. Repeating year 12 Rory made Representative sides yet again so he had now made QLD schoolboys league in 2010 and 2012, and QLD schoolboys union 2011,2012 before getting picked up by the Sydney tigers (league) after he completed year 12 and obtaining an amazing OP of 6. He didn't last long at the tigers before becoming a little homesick ( he was only 17) and was picked up by the Gold Coast titans U20 squad where he still is. Dave tries to watch or record all his games and you can see his proud face every time he sees him. The reason why their bond is so strong is that there was a mutual understanding from the beginning Dave was there to guide and mentor him to make him the best he could be in the time frame that Dave was present in his schooling. Many teachers loose sight of this, they don't want another mate they want direction and support. Dave brought out the best in Rory and Rory made Dave's experience at St Edmund's one he will never forget. I'm  
really  looking forward to the next "Rory" who comes along Dave's path, and watch his journey unfold.