Henrietta M.

“ My background with children goes something like this...

I regularly babysit for an 18month old girl who has loved to dance since she could walk, so we dance whilst learning the alphabet and numbers - it's great fun! I also babysit for a couple of other children; 5 year old boy, he's quiet and we sit and draw and paint and make things, and an 8 year old girl who's into everything she can get her hands on and...

My background with children goes something like this...

I regularly babysit for an 18month old girl who has loved to dance since she could walk, so we dance whilst learning the alphabet and numbers - it's great fun! I also babysit for a couple of other children; 5 year old boy, he's quiet and we sit and draw and paint and make things, and an 8 year old girl who's into everything she can get her hands on and talks and talks and teaches me new things every day!

I have a four and a half year old nephew who I frequently play airplane, dinosaur and car games with for hours on end when I'm back in England. So, whilst the family are catching up, I can be found running around the garden with a little man on my back shouting "We're going to crash!" Before that, I worked as a camp counselor in Jacksonville, Florida looking after 5 to 14-year-olds, teaching them drama, singing, crafts, basketball (yeah... a Brit playing basketball is pretty funny, never mind trying to teach it)! I was asked to become a camp counselor by the parent of a child who was in an acting group for 10 to 12-year-olds that I was running. We would put on plays and musicals for their parents and friends.

During this time, I was a concert clarinetist. I spent some time volunteering at a local home for Autistic children where I shadowed a music therapist and would play my clarinet to the children. The best part of this was when a teenage boy, who had not spoken in years said the word 'more' when I stopped playing and 'toilet' when he needed to go. The staff were blown away, as was I. I will never forget it. I also traveled the east coast of the USA and found myself helping out at another school for Autistic children in Chesapeake, Maryland.

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