Babysitting Scenario

It’s a Saturday and you’re on your way to your weekly babysitting job. The two children you babysit are Cindy, age 4 and Joey, age 1. Their mother called you before you left your house to ask you if you can stay later to feed them dinner, give them a bath and get them to bed. You agree because you could use the money. When you enter the house the children are playing. Cindy is dressed up in high heels and a feather boa, talking on a pretend phone, while her dolls are lined up in a row watching her. Joey is finishing his snack. The mom puts her coat on and leaves.

Joey starts crying. You pick up Joey to comfort him and bring him into the room where Cindy is playing. Cindy has moved onto playing with her small building blocks. Joey picks up a green block and starts to put it in his mouth. You stop him. To redirect the children you tell them that we are going to make miss you cards for their mom. You took out the crayons, paper, and stickers. You help Cindy write MOM on the top of the card. Joey scribbles under the word mom, and they both peel off the stickers to put on the card.

You check the clock and it is time for dinner. You see a spicy crunchy taco kit left out and use your FCS skills and prepare crunchy tacos. You put the tacos on the plate and load the tacos up with beef, salsa, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese. Cindy and Joey are not interested in eating any of the food that you worked hard on preparing. Even though you worked hard on the taco meal, you end up making chicken nuggets and peas for them. The second dinner was the most successful.

After dinner you bring the children in the playroom and teach them a clean-up song. Now it is time to head upstairs for bath time and bed time. Although Cindy normally takes a bath with her brother, today she decides that she wants to take a bath by herself. You just put Joey in the bathtub and Cindy ran off to get a bath toy for him. After bath time you decide to read to them a bedtime story. You tuck them into bed, shut off the light, shut the door, and feel proud of the great job you did.

Read the scenario above and think about how each of the following terms is related to the story:

Dramatic Play // Cheerios //Stranger anxiety //Fine motor skills //Songs //Preschool// language development, imagination, bonding