A Visit - Personal Essay

I visited

with the family I interviewed over a Friday and a Saturday. They are what I would think of as a typical

upper middle class American family. The family consists of the mother and

father, the nine year old boy that I chose to do the assessment on, a seven

year old girl, and an eleven year old girl.

The family is originally from the state of Washington

and is living in Wisconsin

because they were relocated for the father of the familyÑžs job. The father is a

plant manager for a glass factory in a neighboring town while the mother is a

high school English teacher. Both have

masterÑžs degrees and highly value education. The family is also of the Mormon

faith and uses this faith as a tool in everyday life in wide-ranging

situations. The home environment of the

family is very well kept and set in the countryside on the outskirts of a rural

town in western Wisconsin.

The home is two stories with a basement and the family has about 30 acres of

land. The family own horses and also has

some wooded areas on their property.

They like to take their horses for rides here or just take walks sometimes.

When I was

present at the home for the interview the first time, there was the mother, her

mother, and the three children present. During the follow up interview the day

after, these people were all present as well as the father. Over the course of

the interviews, I experienced less than I thought I would have. My interviews took place in the early evening

and late afternoon and I got to see a dinner meal, the children either playing

indoors or outdoors, the children doing homework or being tutored by their

mother, and I got to see the parents and grandmother engage in play with the

children. There were less daily

household duties like cleaning up or doing laundry than I had expected there to

be with tree children. I think perhaps this was because the family knew I was

coming over and either did not want to be bothered by this during the interview

or thought that it might be rude to be doing chores with a guest in the

home.

My initial

thoughts about the experience were that I was very nervous and apprehensive

about the interview for the first about half hour that I was there. Later on I started to become more comfortable

with the process and finally after I witnessed how interested the family was in

the process and in the safety of their children I actually felt really good

about completing the assessment.

The findings

of the assessment came out very well.

The family seems to be well adapted to their stressors in their life and

to have very positive health and spiritual practices. The home and environment that the children

live in is also safe and sanitary and has a positive effect on the childrenÑžs

learning and developmental progress.

The family

scored very well on the middle Childhood HOME inventory checklist. It relayed the fact that the family is very

supportive of the child and that the opportunities for education and

developmental growth are present and allowing the child to flourish. The area where the family was weakest,

according to this tool, was in the category that dealt with enrichment of the

child. The negative responses in the

category had to do with library access and having taken the child on a

trip. I think the rural setting in which

this interview was conducted may have something to do with these responses

because the library facilities are not large and donÑžt have as much to offer as

larger libraries in bigger municipalities.

Also, the family has their own learning experiences in the outdoors and

during private teaching sessions that the parents give to help enrichment of

the children.

The family

had great strengths in many areas.

Probably the most notably strength was the cohesiveness and coping that

the family shared. The family is

extremely tight knit and each family member relies heavily on one another,

especially the mother and father. Almost

everything the family does is done as a unit and if one family member is having

trouble with something is seems as if everyone rushes to his or her aid. Of course there was the usual fighting that

occurs between siblings of school age and the disciplining tone of the parents,

but overall there is an air