My Supports

When I think of support the first thing that comes to mind is my family. My Husband, children, parents and my sister are my biggest supporters. While I provide support to all ot them in different ways, they help me daily in what ever is going on in life.  I also have very supportive co workers who work as a team to make sure things are bing done.

One of the things practical things that has been a great support is my Monthly budget worksheet. Two years ago when, I started my new job I created an excel budget worksheet, that accouts for where my money is going and how much is coming in. It has been the greatest things 2 years later, helping me to stay on top of bills, savings, and being able to make sure my family is taken care of.

Life without my supports would be difficult, for example, I work an hour and a half from home, and my husband works from home, he is able to get to the kids if something happens and we also don’t have to pay for after school care. My dad keeps my car running so  i can get to work every day, and this summer my sister allowed my daughter to help her with her new born baby and teaching her to cook, and drive. My children are supportive in that they allow me time at night to do homework.  I depend on my suppot system on a daily basis. In someways its a mutual support system and others it depends on the person.

It is great to have a supportive system in place, and I strive in my job to be a support to our students and families as they go through our program this year, as well as our staff, who work work with the students.

My Connections to Play

Growing up as a child play was a very imporatant part of my life, often times I had no choice but to play, as we did not have all devices that are avaialable today. We played outside, we played pretend, and we play with out neighbors and friends.

 

 

These 2 quotes describe how I feel about play as I was growing up in the 70’s and 80’s.

 

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These 2 items represent 2 of the many items that were my favorite to play with.

As a child my parents supported play and my grandparents. Our teacher also encouraged us to play from Head start and beyond.  We played with the neighborhood friends and our cousins.

Today children have so many distractions and devices that they don’t know how to play. Schools now have so many rules about no child behind, that play is not at the top of the list, they have to make sure children are getting the academics. Families are now working so much that there is no time for play at home with parents and children.

It is my hope that we can get back to the point of allowing children to be children and play, without all of the academic stresss that is placed on them as early as pre school.

 

Relationship Reflection

My Family

Mom, Sister, Dad, Grandmother

Relationships are important to me because they are a part of my life and daily routine. I have a lot of relationships with family and friends that impact my life on a regular basis. Some of my relationships have taught me life lessons and others I am still tyring to find the common ground.

The people in my life most important are my immediate family, my Husband, my 15 year old daugher and my 5 year old son. I also have my parents, my one sister, brother in law and my new Baby Nephew, and my Husbands family. Although my family circle is sometimes strained, we have a lot ot be greatful for.I consider my self to have a positive relationship and partnership with my husand. When we met my daughter was 2 years old, he took her in and has always been there for her, and 10 years later we added a son. We have a great partnership when it comes to raising our family.

Another relationship I find to the most memorable and cherished is that of my 94 year old Grandmother who is currently living with my parents. Before she came to live with my parents I would see her from time to time, but never got to sit down and spend as much time with here as I do now. It reminds me of when we were young spending our summers at her house with the rest of my cousins. Although whe is is older and much slower I am learning to cherish every moment I have left with her.

My work family would be another partnership/ relationship that i consider as positive. I have worked this job for 2 years and formed relatinship and friendships with a lot of great woman, some a little closer than others. One in particular is my friend who is much younger than me, but I consider her to be wise beyond hear years and we get along very well.

Relationships are hard, you have to work at them in order to maintain positivity. It does not take much to form relationships, but I have learned over time who I can trust, there many of my relationships are based on distance or being sometimes conservative in how much I can trust them. So the challenge for me is trusting people to a point of forming a relation

Being the Early Childhood field, I have had many relationships with my students and families as well as co workers. I was always the quiet friend who could get along with everyone. I tried really hard to make students and families feel special. Recenlty, I was confronted by a father and daughter who was in my class many years ago. The girl who is now a teenager, cried everyday in my class to the point that no other teacher would deal with her. I would hold her and confort her and try to get her to engage in the activities. She remembered me and her father thanked me for helping her get through the year. It made me feel really special that I had an effect on her, although I did not that I would not want someone to do for my own children, and that is confort them and allow them to see everything is ok. As ECE Educators we must be able to have relationships even with the parents or students who seem difficult to reach. Our classrooms will run alot smoother when we form those relationships.

Expanding Horizons and Expanding Resources

Part 1

I listened to the podcast of Dr. Barnabus Otaala, Dean of Education in Uganda. He talked about children with HIV and how after taking the child to the Dr to be diagnosed, the parents seemed to be more open to the Dr than the teacher in listening to what was going on the the child. Dr. Otaala wants a strengthened relationship between Educators, Doctors, and the parents.

Part 2

The resource I chose is The National Association for the Education of Young Children. (NAEYC)
This organization provides many resources for Early Childhood.

“The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is a professional membership organization that works to promote high-quality early learning for all young children, birth through age 8, by connecting early childhood practice, policy, and research. We advance a diverse, dynamic early childhood profession and support all who care for, educate, and work on behalf of young children.

The association comprises nearly 60,000 individual members of the early childhood community and more than 50 Affiliates, all committed to delivering on the promise of high-quality early learning. Together, we work to achieve a collective vision: that all young children thrive and learn in a society dedicated to ensuring they reach their full potential.” (NAEYC)

This organization help with accreditations, and and professional development for Early childhood educators as well as resources for child care providers that help to promote quality child care.

References:

http://www.viaway.com/category/2691-21490/world-forum-
radio

https://www.naeyc.org/

My Supports

My biggest supporters are my family and my co workers. On a daily basis my husband help me with our son, and makes sure things around the house are done while I am at work,and he allows me to come and be able to do school work, while making sure our family is OK.  He also works behind the scene making sure our family is taken care of.

My parents are also big supports in that they help me with my High School daughter making sure she gets to school and get what she needs.

The teachers at my job are big supports because they do their jobs and help make my jog easier. Our administration team also supports by working together to make sure the needs of our children and families are met on a daily basis.

Without the support of my husband and parents I may not be able to work, go to school and take care of my kids.

Without the support of our teachers and Administrative staff, our program would suffer and our children would not get the quality Pre school education that they deserve. We also get great support from our school district in making sure we provide a quality Pre school program.

The benefits of having great support means being able to be successful in things you are doing. Supports also encourage and give you something to keep fighting for. Without any of my supports my life would be so different.

My Connections to Play

“Play is so integral to childhood that a child who does not have the opportunities to play is cut off from a major portion of childhood.” -Musselwhite

“Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.” -Kay Redfield Jamison

 

Play was an important part of my growing up from school to home, children  were able to play and use items to make beleive. Without all of the technology we have today we did not have a choice but to play with our toys outside and pretend. The items below represent a few things that I played with as a child. These items were used for what they were meant , but also we used our imagination to pretend they were other things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is important that we allow children to play, and not get so caught up in academics, especially in the early years. Children need play to help develop their imaginations, social skills, cognitive skills and physical skills. Children need to be able to go out side and to run, jump and play with balls and bikes. Playing should be an important part of a child’s day everyday.

Relationship Reflection

Relationships are important because we live in a world where without relationships it would be impossible to live. We have many relationships that help us in our daily lives, and we depend on each other to make it. The most important relationships in my life is my family, especially my Husband, and children. My parents are also important relationships that I am still able to maintain, as well as my younger sister.

 

I maintain a positive relationship with my husband and we partner to raise our children together. I have a different relationship with my children because my daughter is 15 and my son is 5. Although, I love them both the same, I have different relationships with them because of their age differences.  My family consists of many other positive relationships with my in-laws as we a a close family and spend a lot of family time doing activities and entertaining the children.

Outside of my personal life, i have relationships with my co workers. Being at he my job for the past 2 years I have gained close relationships with many of my coworkers and I am able to maintain those relationships because we all seem to have different personalities that we bring to the table.

There are many challenges to having so many relationships I am always the positive person who does not like confrontation, and I always try to make others happy at the expense of my own happiness.

Early Childhood for Life

“We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.”

  — Stacia Tauscher, dancer and artist 

Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate.” 

— Anonymous

The goal of education is not to increase the amount of knowledge but to create the possibilities for a child to invent and discover, to create men who are capable of doing new things. Jean Piaget 

A Note of Thanks:

 Thank you for following my blog on Early Childhood. I hope the past 8 weeks have been informative and inspiring for you to  continue the great work of being Early Educators.

Thank you for all you do for our children and communities.

-Kareema King

  

Assessments for Young Children

Early childhood assessment is a tool used to gather and provide educators, parents, and families with critical information about a child’s development and growth.

Below is a link for the Article that talks about assessments for young

Early Childhood Assessment

children.http://resourcesforearlylearning.org/fm/early-childhood-assessment/

We use assessment for children ages PreK  on up to High school to see where children are, and how much they have learned. As an Early Educator it is important that we see what children know when they come into our program in order to know what to skills to work on, and at the end of the year we assess what the children have learned. This helps us to see what has been successful in our teaching efforts.

Believing in the whole child, means being able to help children be successful in all areas of their lives. We have assessments that test  Numbers and Letters, Social skills, and even assessments for health concerns. These assessment give teachers and support staff an idea of how to help the child be successful in their academic career.

The Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool (MDAT): The Creation, Validation, and Reliability of a Tool to Assess Child Development in Rural African Settings

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2876049/

This article talks about an assessment used in Rural Africa for young children.

 

References

Early Childhood Assessment. (2008). doi:10.17226/12446

Gladstone, M., Lancaster, G. A., Umar, E., Nyirenda, M., Kayira, E., Broek, N. R., & Smyth, R. L. (2010). The Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool (MDAT): The Creation, Validation, and Reliability of a Tool to Assess Child Development in Rural African Settings. PLoS Medicine,7(5). doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000273

 

Stress in Young Children

Imagine as an adult, going through stressful situations such as divorce, an abusive relationship, Natural Disaster, death of a loved one, or many other things that may occur in life. Now imagine these same situations and how they may effect young children.

I can remember a friend who lost their home and everything due to a Hurricane causing a major flood. This same friend has recently seen her parents divorce, and was back and forth living between the two. Both parents home was lost due to the floods. For my friend and siblings, this was a major deal, they were already dealing with how to live between both parents, and now they had to live from place to place until both parents were able to obtain and secure housing. This family was not in the best financial shape, which also added to problems that they all had to face.

Recently Hurricane Maria hit the US and Puerto Rico was hit hard, they are still dealing with the aftermath of the Hurricane Maria, in that people are still without lights and housing four months later. This stress has an impact on children who may have already had other situations going on in their lives. Schools were interrupted, children still living in temporary shelters, and some may not have power. This situation not only effects the children’s physical health and being, but seeing their parents stressed effects them, as well.

Although bad things or stressful situations are not effecting us, we should always think about the people who are going through these situations and the children that may be effected as well. I cant imagine how I would deal with certain situations, and really don’t know how I would handle things if my children were place into these stressful situations. As Early Educators, we don’t always know what is going on with our children, but when we do know we should try to empathetic to their situation and how it may effect their learning, and behavior in the classrooms.

 

Reference

Berger, K. S. (2016). The developing person through childhood (7th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.