My Twice Baked Potato

As I mentioned in a previous post, we have been blessed with a series of small, but significant celebrations that have occurred recently.

The first mini celebration happened when we took a short trip.  We celebrated seeing our friends of course, but the biggest celebration of the trip was my son’s ability to enjoy an impromptu barbecue, which meant that we could enjoy it too.   In many families, this is common and nothing exceptional.  In my family, this was huge.

The second mini celebration that happened, was the successful week my son experienced with our new nanny!

Since I had to go back to work last week and my son’s school starts this week (we hope…still waiting to hear about a possible teacher strike), we needed to have our afterschool nanny watch him for the whole day.  Now, our new gal is bright, responsible and energetic, but honestly I was a bit concerned that after a week with my TBP she might have second thoughts.

We have been in “Operation Return to Schedule” at our house and much of that responsibility fell on her shoulders.  I created a schedule to help shape the day and listed possible activities for them to do together.  This list was the fun list with new toys and activities that had been purposely saved for the week.  I also made up a list of “Mama work” which was a list of academic activities that they could select from throughout the week.  The purpose of this list was to help my son be reintroduced to activities that may not be his favorite, but ones that are similar to “real” school work.

I went over the schedule with my son and with JL ( nanny) and then left for the day.  Honestly, I was nervous as I drove away, but as I drove farther from home and closer to work, my mind was able to shift focus.

I limited my check in texts with JL to three throughout Monday.  Each time, I got a reassuring response and each time I breathed a bit easier.  By Wednesday, I think I only checked in once and was confident that she would let me know if she needed help.  It became apparent that If JL can handle my TBP for a full day, a full week, then afterschool would be a cake walk.

Here’s the thing about a kid like mine…relationships mean everything.  If he knows that you care about him, he will do almost anything for you.  Although I was initially concerned, I believe that this longer exposure did great things to build their relationship.

I have a recipe (see home page of site) that I feel contributes to my son’s success.  The nanny is a key ingredient in that recipe!

What recipe do you use to help your child flourish?