Welcome Time
This is such an important time for the children. They are still so young between the ages of three to six, and leaving their parent is still hard.
I like to have an environment that is a structured welcome (there’s a surprise), however this structure has the flexibility to cater for the runner in and the stuck to the leg categories.
Welcome Table
The routine I like to teach the children and helpers at welcome time is that they go past a welcome table. This table is full of the childrens laminated photographs. (This table will doubles up as a goodbye table) at the end of the session. See our resource - Goodbye Time.
Find your face
This table is situated at the door and has all your regular’s names and photo’s that are laminated placed on table. You ask the children to find both their name and then Velcro them up onto a Velcro/carpet board (such a great asset in any children’s room). This board is know as and called the Who’s in the Room Today board, and I refer to it later. I always have pictures of the helpers with their names and they get stuck on the board too.
Some children will be relaxed and happy to rush into the room, find their face and name and slap it up on the board and move onto the toys. Some, however, will be reluctant but finding your face is a huge distraction from their parents’ leg or hand. I often say, “is this you? is this you?” obviously holding up the wrong photograph!
Another distraction is the enticement of a welcome worm – I use sugar free worm sweets, if they are too long (snakes) I cut them up, and every child gets to choose one worm as they enter.
It’s a bribe
Let’s face it, the worm is a bribe, but it works! I have been using the welcome worms for some 17 years and they are always a winner.
Fun for everyone
I have a saying which goes along these lines, as those little hands enter the worm bowl, “just take one and then its fun for everyone”. This can easily be said gently to the child who grabs a fistful of worms. Explaining that if one person has ten worms in their sticky little fingers, there just won’t be enough for everyone.
Visiting children
Its tough for visiting children – full stop! All of it is tough, the room, the other children, the fact that they are being left, people they don’t know, all of that in a new environment. Whether the children are visiting for one week, never to return, or their parents are “church shopping” it is so important that they are made to feel very welcome.
The welcome table can be daunting as all the regular children know what to do, week in, week out they have been grabbing their photo and their worm and happily skipping in the room. For the visiting children, I always have spare, blank laminated pieces of card ready to write their names on. I also make up spare laminated pictures either of lions, or giraffes or fun pictures of cartoon girls and boys and ask the visiting child to choose one and stick it up, telling them that if they come again they don’t need to be a lion they can have their own photo. Asking a new visiting child if they want to be a fierce lion or a little puppy is a great way to kick of a new relationship, plus they will really want the welcome worm!
What’s your name?
The Who’s in the Room Today board is a fantastic resource for your morning, this is how it can work for you:-
1. It’s a warm, fun welcome – that has great structure for routine.
2. It’s a great distracting tool, when Mum or Dad’s leg seems more comforting.
3. It an be quickly used for your headcount at any time during the morning for you to (a) count how many you have that day and report back, (b) check to see if you still have the right amount of children in your room.
4. It can be looked at when you forget the children’s names. Very Helpful! I am British so I spend my life calling everyone “lovely” and “gorgeous”, however it is important that we use each others names, so many times I have walked the child back into the part of the room with the Who’s in the Room Today board and quickly scanned it to recognise a face.
5. When and if children have to leave early, they take their name and picture down and you can keep account of who’s in the room as a lost child will give you and your helpers a small heart attack for sure.
6. You quickly work out who are your regulars and come week in, week out and who comes one in four.
7. You can efficiently feed back to church, which children or families no longer are attending for good follow up procedures.
Keeping on Top of it
What does the Who’s in the Room Today board mean for your workload.
1. You have to regularly take photos (easily done these days with your handy phone).
2. During the week you print off the picture(s) and type out their names.
3. Laminate both the picture and the name and stick the Velcro on the back and you are ready to go.
4. I usually organise a photo after the second visit just in case they are a one-off visitor. However, you will know your group and regulars very quickly (if you are the new one)! I used to have a regular couples grandchild, she would only visit us on holidays, she was always so pleased to have her name and picture there on the Welcome Table ready.
This process really keeps you on top of who is who in your room. I never upgrade the photo as its amazingly cute to show the children how young they looked at age 3, when they are now a big 6 year old. It’s a great continual conversation point at Welcome Time, when you say to the child “that’s not you, that’s a little girl/boy.” They spend ages convincing you that it is their photo and it’s an adorable conversation to have.
When the children graduate (see Graduation), I always pop the picture and name into their folder so that their parents have it as a keep sake (see Saving Memories).