getting a bit more comfortable...

We're exhausted. We just finished our first shift here at Thornwell. For those unfamiliar with what on earth we're doing...let me break it down. There are 13 cottages here that can have up to 8 kids per cottage. At the moment we only have four. Our days are spent doing what most parents do...with a little twist. As I understand it, the difference between being a Family Teacher (that's our title) and a House Parent is that the HP is just kind of living with them and guiding them through a day and an FT is doing that AND teaching. Constantly. The boys each have "target skills" that they are working on and throughout the day they are taught with either praise or correction according to their skills. We've been trained on how to do a teaching interaction (that has specific steps we have to go through) and they are rewarded + points or reminded - points. It's kind of hard to explain but even after just a couple of days seeing it play out it is obvious that this system not only works but is effective in keeping them motivated and taking advantage of teachable moments to help them learn basic (and VERY helpful) life skills to set them up to succeed in life after Thornwell. Definitely a system that is easy to support and stand behind. (that was like a Thornwell PR moment, not my intention...haha)

I have to say when the shift began both of our heads were spinning and our brains were overflowing with lots of information...it felt like the chaos would never let up. BUT, after a couple days in the cottage it's amazing how well things have got and how the sharp pang of being completely overwhelmed, it has let up. We've had a great weekend with the boys. We've gotten more and more used to catching the teachable moments and implementing all of our teaching interaction training. We've also had the opportunity to just have fun and hang out and get to know each of them better. We have four great kids and as Josh and I debriefed this weekend we both agree that we've already become attached. This job will by no means be easy but I can already see how rewarding it could be. It's already brought some heartache and headache, but has definitely been balanced with lots of laughter and good times.

And for the grandparents, Sydney's doing just fine :) She's adjusted SO well. She's finally back to normal sleeping patterns (which could change now that we're off duty). She's slowly connecting that when we say "bye bye" she should wave her hand (something we've been trying to teach her for a while). She's been crawling and pulling up like a champ...but now standing alone yet so walking is still a ways away (thank goodness!). And she LOVES the boys here and they have each really taken to her as well. Every time one of them walks in the room she lights up, it's pretty cute :) And the boys are always asking where she is, playing with her, or wanting to help with her. She's inherited pretty great older "brothers".

Well, to my disappointment I have forgotten day after day to get our camera so yet again I have no photos of our new home to share. Maybe next time ;)! Until then, please check out the new addition to our blog! We copied the Collinsfam and put a calendar up so you could see where we're at, what we're doing, and make big plans to come visit us :) So check it out ----------->