My Supports

    I am surrounded by plenty of support systems, which include: my family, close friends, and my job. My family supports me by being there emotionally, socially, and many times financially.  I have three boys who are very active and I really have to take a "me" break at times.  My family helps me out with my children. 
     I have a few friends who are like "heaven sent", they are shoulders to cry on or someone to just hang out with.  These friends are really near and dear to my heart.  I am blessed to have them.
     My job is another one of my supports. It is also a very important part of my life, because I have to provide the financial means for my children and our lifestyle.  All of the above mentioned supports are a critical part of my life.

My Connections to Play

“It’s better to play than do nothing.” Confucious

“Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.” Miles Davis

I was the only child home when I was growing up, because my siblings were much older than me, so I had to play with other children in the neighborhood. My parent’s didn’t stress outside play too much, because they did not want me outside alone if I did not have any company.

            As I child, it was more outside play than today, because it was before the age of video games. I have a 10 year old that complains about it being too hot to play outside in the summer and too cold to play outside in the winter, because he wants to stay inside to play his video game. I monitor his video gaming, because of his homework and getting outside playing for the interaction with other children. Social skills are very important and should be concentrated on just as much as academic skills.

            As we grown into an adult, we do need to mature but we should also have some downtime and relax. The issues of an adult’s life on a regular are very stressful at times. We have to step away at times, because stress will work on our physical and mental health.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Relationship Reflection

Relationships and partnerships are important, because they are the foundations to establish other things.  You must have a relationship or partnership to work with or communicate with other people.  People feel more comfortable when they have developed repoire with another individual whenever business is involved. I have several positive relationships and partnerships with many people including: my family, co-workers, classmates, and business people.

 In order for relationships and partnerships to remain and positive, all parties involved must trust each other.  Trust is a very important factor in relationships/partnership.  I have learned that you have to handle each relationship/partnership differently.  You can’t talk and or trust all people with some information.  Friendships are something that have to be invested in to determine the worth of them.

Researching

I have learned that accurate research requires time and a variety of sources to gain some beneficial information.  I have gained my best research from interviews and talking with people in the profession.  The information seems to be more realistic and you can relate to it more.  When I did a schedule of when I would observe the children, talk with the adults, and read my research documents; I was able to get things in an order and organize my project.  I had initially just started researching websites and journals without any order and I became very frustrated.  So I took a more organized approach and received better results.

When I observed and interviewed in the classrooms some of the teachers and students did not accept it well.  I explained to the teachers that I was doing research for an assignment and I would try not to bother them for long. As I was completed the interview, I thanked them for their time and help.  I have become even more interested in the early childhood field, because I have read about a lot of things that I did not know about in the advancement of the Early Childhood field

Early Childhood Australia

 I chose to review the Early Childhood Australia website.  The research topics on this website include:  “Push for reform as parents pay more for early childhood education and care”, “Extension for preschool funding welcomed”, and “Professional development fund a board to early childhood sector”.  In 2013, the Early Childhood Australia (ECA) celebrated 75 years of continued services to Australian children.  It is a non-profit, non-government organization.

            They have three branches that are integral parts of the organization; they help identify issues and priorities for state and national action and influence position statement concerning young children.  The branches are a great source of professional support for Early Childhood Australian members with great networking opportunites.

Option 1----Positive Example of the effects of research

Research can be beneficial to families, because early childhood should be a necessity.  Research can be done with families to compare their incomes, backgrounds, or locations to determine the children’s different learning skills and abilities.

            The research can be done without being to invasive.  The community can send out different surveys or questionnaires to the different families.  The surveys would be completed by families from all backgrounds.  This will give the community leaders/educators a picture of how important an early childhood education is to young children.

            The early childhood program that I work for could ask the families to complete a survey every year about the previous year and the child’s progress.  The surveys are mailed to the state offices and the results are used to help the early childhood area improve in the upcoming years.  The parents usually become frustrated at times, because of the surveys but we remind them that is for the betterment of their child and their education.

Your Personal Research Journey

I had originally chose to do my research on “early childhood being available to all children ages 3-4 years”, but after receiving comments and suggestions from Dr. Todd I decided to research one of my sub topics, “social development in young children”.  I believe that social skills are just as important as academic skills.  The children must learn how to cooperate with each other just as well as they recite their ABC’s. My personal children all have good communication skills, but we are working on the socializing area. They will talk to familiar people all day, but they are not as open to strangers or new people.

            I would appreciate any suggestions that will enhance my research on my topic, “social development in young children”.

Final Blog Assignment

Australia and UK The international contacts that I chose were in Australia and the UK. I have received very little help from the contacts. I have received a reply email about once or twice by both contacts, but they were redirecting me to someone else. I contacted the other contacts and I have heard absolutely nothing back. I have researched the websites and found interesting facts about the countries and the educational background. Australia’s poverty line of single parent families is 21.8%. In 2008-2009, the UK had 13 ½ million people living who were living below the low-income threshold. Most of the students of Australia fall below the poverty line. The short term goal for the UK was that child poverty be redirected to the number of children in low income households by a quarter. A goal I would suggest would be that countries try to come together for the good and make things work out to improve the education spectrum and make some good moves in the education field.

International Contacts-Part 3

The issues that are being discussed around me include the rules and regulations of Medicaid, eligibility requirements for children to qualify for special services, and the cost of daycare. As I have previous mentioned. I work for a daycare in the DDS department (Development Delayed Services) and it is funded by Medicaid for students who are eligible to attend based on their evaluation reports. The rules and regulations are getting tougher and tougher. We have to make sure all our I's and T's are crossed, because we are dealing with the federal government. We have different professional developments through out the year and it is also available for us to receive it online if we were interested. My professional goal is to receive my certification and get a job in teaching and recruiting, but I know I will have to go into to the classroom first as a stepping stone. I hope my time in the classroom is not as a long time, because I feel I can be more beneficial in the area of finding and recruiting teachers. One challenge that I am facing now is that I am kind of stuck on which area I would like to teach or what age level and that is something that needs to be decided in order for me to move further in my educational venture. I am hoping to pass my program and move on to my next educational level.

Canadian Association for Young Children....Sharing Web Resources

On the Canadian Association for Young Children website, I explored the "Membership" link and it explained the membership fees and incentives. It named the different membership levels and gave me the contact person's information. As I explore the website, I do not see any subscriptions to a newsletter. It a journal that comes our seasonally. It is online and it is called "The Canadian Children" contextualizes and maps pedagogical moments, practices, events, discourses, and conceptualizations of Canadian early childhood education. The articles examine arrangements, linkages, and assemblages can simultaneously create limitations and possibilities for children, educators, parents, researchers, policy makers, and curriculum developers.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts

I have contacted about four different contacts. My responses include redirection to the website or to another individual. The information I have gained has come from the websites and I have been referring to them regularly. I will continue to attempt contact and research the website, but as I have previously stated I feel these contacts do not feel a need reply to us. It is amazing how we are contacting different people, but we are getting the same results.

Sharing Web Resources

The organization that I am studying about is, the National Black Child Development Institute. It works to support and promote the development of evidence based programs designed specifically to engage, educate, and empower parents and communities of color. The program and the policy supports federal, state, and local efforts to provide an increasing number of low income children with access to quality early education and care; efforts to create strong and supported early childhood workforce and efforts to promote developmentally and culturally appropriate standards, curriculum, instruction and assessment that is aligned with the correct curriculum. The programs and activities include: TEACH, and many other programs around the country. The institute is committed to addressing multiple aspects of the child welfare system with a focus on family engagement. It is also important that you prioritize conversations about race, culture, class, and gender in the context of family engagement. It is critical for us to make important decisions about engaging with family and community members in ways that demonstrate a deeper and more complete understanding of the Early Childhood field.

Getting to know your International Contacts

I have made some contacts, but I was redirected to other people so I am still waiting on a reply. I researched the countries and their poverty issues and I found some interesting details. The poverty line in Australia is based on a factor that Australia is a developed nation. The notion of poverty is significantly different than the Third World Country. The families who has an income lower than other families in Australia are considered poor. Most of the students of Australia fall below the poverty line. The other groups of people who live under the poverty line of Australia are the aboriginals. The Smith Family Report of 2001 has given a statistics on Australia poverty line which is: 14.9% children of Australia are poor, total percentages of Australians who live in poverty are 13%. percentages of single parent families who live in poverty is 21.8%. In 2008-09, the UK had 13 1/2 million people living who were living below the low-income threshold. This is around a fifth (22%) of the population, the number of children living in low-income households was 3.9 million in 2008/2009. The government short term goal was that child poverty be reduced to the number of children in low-income households by a quarter.

My Organization....to RESEARCH......National Black Child Development Institute

The organization I chose is, National Black Child Development Institute. The website is www.nbcdi.org. It is one of the only national organization that is dedicated exclusively to the success and well-begin of Black Children, the National Black Child Development Institute and our network of Affiliates have been a powerful and effective voice on issues related to the education, care, and health of Black children and their families. NBCDI supports and works primarily with Black children birth through age 8 and their families through coalition building with community based organizations, foundations, and corporations, school systems, elected officials, government, child care, Head Start and many other public and private partnership. The organization has an upcoming conference coming up, it is called the "Bright Past, Better Future: Remember and Rise Up!" It is the 44th Annual Conference and it will be held October 11-14, 2014 in Detroit, MI. I am looking forward to finding out more about this organization, it seems to be interesting and different.

Professional Contacts: In Country and Outside the Country

This has been a busy week and a little frustrating on deciding which organizations I wanted to contact. I decided on Australia and the UK. I emailed both parties, and I am awaiting a reply. I am hoping to hear from them, because I am interested in how the Early Childhood Field is flowing in their countries. The website I decided to study and research over the next few weeks is the National Black Child Development Institute. I have skimmed the website and it appears to be an attractive website and it has a lot of vital information. I will be updating everyone on my finding.