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.

My Supports----So blessed!

I am blessed to be surrounded by some great support including my family and close friends. As you know, I have three young boys and it can become quite overwhelming at times. It is good to have my family and their dad to help me out when I just need some “me time”. It takes strong support when you are juggling a job, working, and raising children. My support systems have helped me emotionally, financially, and physically. It is good to have shoulders to cry on or have someone to help you through a difficult financial low or do chores for you when you’re physically unable to. I am often told how blessed I am to have such a loving support team that consists of mostly family and a few close friends. My mom is my top supporter; she is there for me before I even know I need someone. I do not even want to imagine her not being there for me. I pray for strength that if I have to come to that point that God will get me through it. I can say to anyone if you have a good support system, you should be thankful because not everyone can be that blessed.

"My Connections to Play-Get Out and Play!'

Sweet childish days, that were as long As twenty days are now. ~William Wordsworth, "To a Butterfly Childhood is a promise that is never kept. ~Ken Hill As a child, my Daddy was the parent that took me outside to play. He said it would help me rest better at night. My Mom was not really an outside person. When I did go outside, I would just sit around and watch the cars go by. I was not too physical, because I did not have anybody that was my age around. I was the baby and all of my siblings had been gone alone time. Even now as an adult I am not an outside person, but I go outside to help my children with their physical activity and to explore different things in their surroundings. Today’s children do not even know how to play the tradition outside games such as: kick ball, freeze tag, or hide and see. The neighborhood children come over to my house sometimes to play with my 9 year old son, and they are usually just standing around outside. I suggested one day that they play freeze tag and they all looked at me like I was speaking another language. The only freeze tag that they know about is on a TV screen. The type of playing that children do today involves a TV, console, and game stick; my Son included. I try to make him go outside doing the week and I limit his gaming hours. The lack of physical activity is one of the leading causes of childhood obesity. We also have adults who play the different games a lot and the children are watching them. We as adults, parents, and educators need to stress the importance of physical activity and playing to learn. When children go outside, they are exposed to a lot of different learning tools. They can talk about the weather, the animals, and many other things. My other boys (1 and 3) enjoy being outside more than my oldest son. I guess, because they have not been “sucked in” by the gaming world yet. When I was a child, I do not remember to many activities on social play. It is a play that I see as a necessity now. Social play helps a child to find their personality and become familiar with other people. I have seen that when a child goes to daycare, they have better social skills and they are not shy people. Having good social skills will help a child be a better student academically.

Relationship Reflections-Family First

Relationships are very important in our lives. Whether it is a family or an intimate relationship, we all will develop different relationships in life. I have been blessed to have relationships of all calibers and they all have had their impact on me. In my opinion, there is not a bond like a mother and child's. I have had the experience to be a mother three times, and I feel that it is four of me including my children. I have came to a point that when a person does something wrong to me it does not really affect me, but if it comes to my children I am ready for battle. I guess it is just apart of being a mother. My three boys mean the World to me and it is nothing that I do that doesn't include them. It gets very hard at times, but I know that with each passing day I am  investing in their future.

I grew up in a family of 10, five boys and five girls. I am the baby of the crew. I receive tons of support from my brothers and sisters. I have a lot of nieces and nephews, some are older than me but it is still so much love. My parents have been married for 50 plus years. We have a very strong family bond and always have each other's best interest in mind.

I have also been blessed to have some additional  people added to my life that are like family and we also have developed a family like bond. I just have to say that family is awesome and we should appreciate the one's that God has given us on Earth.

Family First,
Theressa Lee