My Supports

"Support" to me means being a cushion, comfort or foundation to me when needed.  When someone supports you they have your best interest at heart and want to help.  My family supports me often by helping me with my children.  I work 10 hour days and travel often so I depend on their support to help me care for my children when needed.  The benefit of their support is that I trust them with my children and my children are in a familiar environment that makes them feel comfortable.  If I didn't have such a reliable support system I know that I couldn't work the hours I work, attend school and provide for them financially.  My goal is to find a job that would allow me to work around my children's school schedule.  This would mean working while my children are at school, picking them up from school, not working nights or weekends and no work related travel....and did I mention off in the summer!  This schedule would have me less dependent on my family and allow more valuable time to spend with my children.

My Connection to Play

                                    Quotes That Represented Play For Me As A Child

Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning.    Fred Rogers

Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.    Kay R. Jamison

                                                     My Thoughts About Play

As a child growing up in Chicago my sister, brother and I loved to play.  As a matter of fact play was such an important part of our day that our parents didn’t have to tell us to go outside.  We pretend play with our dolls and kitchen set.  Made a band with our musical instruments, cooked with our easy bake oven, jumped rope and played hop scotch.   My parents supported play because at that time that’s all we had was “old fashion play”.  This was play that was unplanned and fun every day because we didn’t have social media and all the electronics children have today.   Play today is different because children are really not engaging on a personal level.  Play today is playing a video game online or playing a board game on the internet.  Play when I was growing up allowed me to interact with my siblings and friends in a way that children today probably would never experience.  We were allowed to play outside without all the violence and negative exposure children are exposed today.  We played with other children in our communities without fear because we basically knew everyone.   I value and appreciate the play time I experience as a child and I now find myself trying to provide those same fun experience with my children and all children I come in contact with.

 

                                           Essential Play Items For Me Growing Up

 

 

               

 

Relationships Reflection

Relationships/partnerships are important to me because it connects me spiritually with people that mean a lot to me.  The most important relationship today is my relationship and partnership with GOD! Having a relationship with him has allowed me to feel his love and want to share it with others.   The love that he has given me as helped me to better love myself, my family and the people I come in contact with daily.  My family is learning the value and importance of staying connected and spiritually grounded and it has helped us all to form a lasting partnership full of love and faith.  Having this strong bond with my family has taught me to value the work that I do in the community when it comes to engaging families.  Now that I've learn what I've learned about the importance of family I now know what I need to do as an early childcare professional in engaging families.  I must continue to motivated families keeping in mind that all families are uniquely different.  My promise to myself and families is to stand firm in treating everyone with respect, demonstrating love and compassion so that every child and their families I come in contact with will have a memorable and pleasurable early childcare experience.

When I Think of Child Development

"If we want to invest in the prosperity of our nation, we must invest in the education of our children so that their talents may be fully emploted.-"William J.Clinton

When I Think of Child Development

If I had my child to raise all over again,

I'd finger paint more and point the finger less.
I'd do less correcting and more connecting.
I'd take my eyes off my watch and watch with my eyes.
I would care to know less and know to care more.
I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.
I'd stop playing serious and seriously play.
I'd run through more fields and gaze at more stars.
I'd do more hugging and less tugging.
I would be firm less often and affirm much more.
I'd build self-esteem first and the house later.
I'd teach less about the love of power
and more about the power of love.

By: Diane Loomans

Testing for Intelligence

When it comes to assessing children I think that it's so important to have more than one way to do this.  As a child growing up I always knew that I learned differently then my peers.  It's not that I didn't know what I was learning I just had a hard time expressing what I've learned on paper ( I hope this makes sense).  As time went on I always manage to get by but didn't realize how serious my struggles were until I enrolled in college.  Because so much of my time was spent writing papers or discussion post I had a hard time writing out what I've learned.  If I could verbally tell what I've learned I would do just fine.  I'm still not quite sure what my problem is and maybe some of you will be able to make some suggestions but I feel that many children can learn the same material just in different ways.  It’s very frustrating to know that you want to say but it never comes out on paper when you try to write. 

When it comes to children be assessed across the world I think that we all must remember that children are first children and even older children need to experience different styles of testing.  I know that they learn through many standardized testing, essays etc. but what other ways are we allowing them to be assessed.  This is just a question for any current teachers out there.

Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

Domestic Violence

A few years ago I provided case management to a family that had been exposed to domestic violence for years. A mother and her four children came to receive housing and counseling for herself and her children.  My job was to help the family start their new life with the help of resources and safe housing.  After listening and assessing the family I notice right away that the children needed therapy right away.  The oldest daughter would gather all the children and would not let them leave her sight.  She explains to me that her job was to protect them from getting hurt.  One of the smaller children would lock herself in a closet to get away from any loud noises and the other children would begin to scream when they felt scared or frighten.  All of the problems these children faced impacted them socially, emotionally and physical.  One day a teacher found all the children together in the gymnasium under school bleachers.  The oldest sister explained that one of the smaller children didn’t get much sleep because of a bad nightmare and she was trying to protect her from her bad dream.  As an adult I’ve never experience anything like this and to hear and witness what these children had to endure was so hard for me and an experience I will never forget.  The family eventually moved after a year of being in the program and the oldest daughter still calls me to keep in touch.  The last time I spoke with her she said that she is still very shy and loves to read.  She said that she feels safe and her mother and siblings are doing well.  She also explains how she wants to be a counselor to help children the way I helped her and her family.   I always encourage her to pursue her dreams and her passions.  I told her that she would make an excellent counselor and I can’t wait to see her achieve her dreams of helping other children.  I’ve learned that children that have been exposed to any type of violence have a harder time expressing themselves and their emotions.  They sometimes become withdrawn or act out inappropriate ways.  My hope is that our society will realize that many of the issues our children faces impact them physically, emotionally, socially and cognitive.  It’s up to us all to make sure that children are safe and to make sure that parents have resources to get children help when needed.

 

I read this article” ELIMINATING VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN” this article talks about ways government and society can protect and provided services to children that have been expose to violence around the world. 

http://www.ipu.org/PDF/publications/violence_en.pdf

 

Resource

Inter-Parliamentary Union and UNICEF. (2007). Retrieved from Eliminating Violence Aganist Children: http://www.ipu.org/PDF/publications/violence_en.pdf