Michelle, a Nanny for Hire in Kingston, WA 98346
My first experience with childcare was working for the Martha and Mary childcare center in downtown Poulsbo at the age of 14. I quickly moved up to becoming head of the infant room at the center. After experiencing a childcare center, I knew I wanted more one-on-one time with the kids to teach them instead of just caring for them. It was then that I decided I wanted to become a teacher. I first began nannying for a foster family who had a 1-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy with ADHD. I nannied for the kids 40+ hours a week during my summer vacations for two years and experienced some amazing but heartbreaking times with them.
During high school I worked in the and was even selected to work as student teacher my senior year of high school, at in their full time Kindergarten class. When I left for Bellingham to go to Western Washington University, I immediately got a job as a part time nanny for an extremely smart 18-month-old girl. I worked about 20 hours a week while pursuing my education degree. During the summer I worked longer hours and three years later the family had their second child, a boy. I was his nanny from the day he was born until his third birthday and I taught him quite a bit. The two of them turned 6 and 9 this year, and I still have a really close relationship with the entire family.
During the time the mother of the family was staying home with her newborn son, I was "passed" to another one of the family friends who needed a nanny for their 3-year-old and 5-month old son. I worked in between the two families until the original mom was ready to return to work. At this time, I commissioned a close friend to take on the second job I had nannying. For three years, my friend and I did what we called nannying sharing. The kids were very close in age and we would take them to gym classes, the park, and zoo etc. It was great. If one of us couldn't work, the other took care of all four.
After college, I ended up moving to Nevada with my older sister and was automatically hired to work as a Preschool teacher in one of the private schools in town. I ended up turning down the offer because, sadly, teaching doesn’t pay too well. I missed nannying though, and it didn't take me long to get a part-time weekend job for a mother with twin 2-year-olds. I also began teaching preschool to two girls, 2- and 4- years-old, after work. Their parents were firefighters and didn't work the hours to get the girls to preschool at the normal time, so I stepped in. I developed a lesson plan and had an entire classroom to teach them 3-4 hours a day, 1-2 days a week. It was a challenge trying to teach one to write her ABC's while teaching the other to identify her ABC's but we managed. Eventually, I was promoted to a Health and Safety Position at a owned mine, which required an hour commute to California and left me with very little time and energy to continue to teach in my spare time.
After working for for a year, and not using my degree at all, I decided I wanted to go back to school to pursue my Masters degree. I moved back to Washington for six months to save some money, and got a job as a nanny for a Bainbridge Island family with a 12-week-old girl. I helped the mother make the transition from maternity leave back to work, and then worked 12-hour-days, three days a week. After 4 months, I was unexpectedly granted early admission into a MS program in New Zealand and accepted the offer. Although living in New Zealand was amazing, I was unhappy with the education system and decided to come back to the States to finish my degree. I have just returned from Nevada after helping my sister with her newborn son for the last three weeks and am in the process of applying for admission to University of Washington in the fall of 2010. I am currently living in Kingston, Washington and a looking for a full time position in the Kitsap County area.