OWL training approaches.

[rivka]

Tomorrow afternoon I leave for OWL training. It's being held at a Swedenborgian retreat center outside of Philadelphia. (I just like to say "Swedenborgian.") The place looks beautiful, but that probably doesn't matter, because the training schedule is crazy intense: on Saturday, for example, we're in training from 9am to 9:30pm. Still, I'm looking forward to it. I've heard that it's fun.

I'm really hoping that I come home feeling competent to teach this course! Parent orientation is just in a couple of weeks. I keep reminding myself that this has been a very successful curriculum nationwide, which must mean that the teachers don't have to be able to walk on water in order to make it work.

Michael and Alex are going to be solo for the weekend. We've done this once before, last January, but Alex was a lot younger. I'm not sure how it's going to go. We've explained to her a couple of times that I'm going away to a special school, and that I'm going to have dinner there and sleep there, and she will stay just with Papa until I come home. And I made her a little calendar to map out how long it will be until I come home, and what she'll do in the meantime. She's still pretty unclear on time concepts, so I don't know if the calendar will be helpful or not.

Any recommendations from the other parents out there? Also, I'm putting the calendar below the cut, and would appreciate advice on making it clearer.






This is supposed to convey: On Friday, she'll go to nursery school. One night will go by. On Saturday, she'll have a play date with Zoe and spend time with Papa. Another night will go by. On Sunday, she'll go to church. Then she'll see our friends Jen and Megary. After that, Mama comes home.

Comments

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

That looks like a great calendar!

The first few times I went away, I made a much simpler calender for Liam that he could put a sticker on every day until I came back. But yours with the pictures is great!

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Alex would want to put all the stickers on at once. :-)

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

I'm probably the last person in the world to deserve an opinion on this, but might "Mama goes to school" be better than "Mama leaves"?

[rivka.livejournal.com]

D'oh! Of course it would.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

You rock!

I think your calendar is fantastic, and if things threaten to melt down a little, it'll help to restructure her thinking. 'Sleep and do this and sleep again and do that and Mama will be back' is pretty clear.

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

Have a wonderful weekend! It sounds like a lot of fun, actually. :-)

-J

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think it will be fun too! I think we learn how to lead the hands-on exercises by actually experiencing them during the training, so it shouldn't just be a bunch of sitting around listening to lectures and having sober discussions. And I'm guessing that the kind of people who sign up to teach OWL are interesting and fun to hang out with.

Plus, the food at the retreat center is reportedly excellent.

[lerryn.livejournal.com]

My brain went a very bad direction with lead the hands-on exercises by actually experiencing them.

On a more serious note, from what you've said of the class, it should be an interesting thing to lead, and it's definitely important.

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

When Jeff and I went camping, my parents stayed with the boys. We called at least twice a day and talked to them, which helped. They got excited for the phone calls, but otherwise were mostly ok.

Henry was pretty clingy when we got home, though. Jeff went to take the trailer back after Henry went to bed, but Henry saw him leave from his window. He went ballistic.

When Jeff goes on travel, we talk about daddy going on an airplane, and every time Henry saw an airplane he'd point and say "daddy on airplane". We talk about where he is going, "Can you say 'Indianapolis'?" We talk about daddy a lot while he's gone. "Where is daddy?" "On airplane!" "Daddy loves you so much." For some reason, talking about him doesn't make them beg for his presence. Jeff calls frequently, but the boys do tend to act up a little more when he's gone. That might be somewhat tied to my extra high stress levels.

Keep her busy, say it's special Papa time, call frequently, and then spend some special Mama time with her when you get home. Sometimes Mama goes places, but she always comes back.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

spend some special Mama time with her when you get home. Sometimes Mama goes places, but she always comes back.

I took Monday off work, and I'm planning to keep her out of school just to hang out together.

[dafna]

The husband of a good friend of mine travels a lot for work. They have two young twins, and when James goes anywhere he takes two of their stuffed animals (one for each twin, so in your case, one animal would probably be fine) with him and takes digital camera images of the animals doing whatever he's doing -- so they get to see their stuffed animals having coffee in Tokyo, or sitting in the airplane seat or whatever.

He then e-mails the images back during the trip, or if it's a short trip, shows them to the kids when he gets back. And their mom talks to the kids about what the stuffed animals are doing and how they're keeping their dad company because he's all alone and misses them.

This sounds sappy, and it may be overkill for 3 days, but it's *incredibly* effective. It focuses the twins' minds on the fact that their dad is missing them, rather than the other way around -- and they love seeing their stuffed animals off having adventures.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

That is _adorable_.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

We do that.

But we don't have any kids ;)

[roga.livejournal.com]

When I was small and my parents were away on vacation, my grandmother wrote a daily journal with me (she did the actual writing, since I was too young) so that I could show my parents what I did while they were gone. I can't really remember how I felt then, but I still think it's a pretty great idea.

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

Regardless of how you prepare, there will be a dozen times during the weekend when she asks for you. Michael will then have to explain where you are, that you are coming back, and then redirect her to something else.

It'll be fine.

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

When I went away for a weekend in June, Elena asked repeatedly where I was, and galagan told her I'd be back in a couple of days. After I came back, she kept repeating that phrase - we'd stop at a store and he'd run in for 5 minutes, and she'd say "Daddy come back?" and I'd say "yes" and she'd say "in a couple days". So - clearly she didn't understand the relative *time* element of it, but she got the important part, which is that the person is coming back.

I know he spends time with her differently than I do - entertains her other ways than what I usually come up with and stuff like that - so the above comment about it being special Papa time really rings true for me.