My Connections to Play

Adults are obsolete children-Dr. Seuss www.quotegarden.com We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing-George Bernard Shaw www.quotegarden.com "Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child's soul." Friedrich Froebel http://www.childsplaymagazine.com/quotes/index.htm When I was young I would play outside all day with my friends and family. We loved to go exploring because we lived in the country and had alot of fun climbing trees and just seeing what nature had for us to find. I used to enjoy playing outside on our tire swing and playing games at night around the neighborhood. My siblings would play games and explore with me even though they were older than me. This helped me to grow closer to them and learn young about how rules can change from one minute to the next. I was an outside player when I was growing up and still perfer to be outside whenever possible. Both at school and at home outside play was encouraged and we also had family time when we would play games together (board games and outside games ). Play was encouraged-but I grew up in the 1960's and the electronic age had not hit yet, so that was good. Today I think play is alot different because so many children do not play outside. Today children play inside on electronic devices or are watching television. When I was growing up children played sports and got together outside-today children play some sports, but also get together to play computer games and other inside activities. Play time is being taken away from children today in many programs and being replaced with more desk work and for me this needs to be changed back to how it was when i was growing up and you had recess two to three times a day and you played outside most of the time.

These are some of my favorite things to do and play with even now with my grandchildren-we are always playing outside and making up games to play. It is great to watch them explore and ask questions about the world around them. I instilled in my children a love for the outdoors and we are all trying to do the same thing with all the grand children.

Relationship Reflection

Blog: Week 2

Reflecting on Building Relationships: My Reflection

Reflecting on my relationships and partnerships with the many people in my personal and professional life, I find that they are pretty much separate from each other. My relationships/partnerships with my parents are very important because they will be the foundation of how my relationship with each child starts. Relationships with anyone can make you who you are or what you become throughout life. I have a very good relationship with my daughter Sarah (now that she is older); over the years we have grown very close and work together to raise her daughters whenever she needs a sounding board on why they are doing something she doesn’t understand. Sarah is my biggest supporter on continuing my education and pushes me forward whenever I think I can’t go on. I know I can talk to her about anything and she comes to me whenever she needs to talk as well. My son is also part of the backbone to getting my education-he is also working on his Bachelor’s degree after returning from Iraq and having a very hard time adjusting. We are his family and help him in any way we can. My family is who I depend on daily and I know they will stand behind me in all my decisions. They help me understand why I should or should not do something and I am the same way with them. Being from a military background I have made friends around the world, so sometimes it is hard to stay in touch-but I still keep in touch so we can continue our relationship over time and distance.

My other person that I have a great relationship with is my husband, we have been together for 31 years and I know I can depend on him to keep me grounded in both my personal and professional choices. I can talk to him about anything and know he will give me an honest answer and help me understand why if I don’t agree with his answer. We have been through many happy and sad times and I know he is there for me. My cat that we had for 18 years is also very important to how I look at relationships because he was a constant in my life for a very long time and went everywhere with us (traveling cat) he went to Germany, Japan, Switzerland and Saudi Arabia with us. He was part of our family and it was very hard on everyone when he passed away. These relationships have made me into the caring person I am today and taught me how important each person is and I continue to build on this daily.

These relationships have helped me to understand just how important building a connection with my families is and also how hard it can be sometimes. I try to learn about each of my family’s backgrounds so I will better understand them as a whole. When I know as much as possible about them then I will be able to work better for the whole family. It can be difficult to keep relationships going because sometimes you get busy, move away, change careers, or any number of other reasons. Sometimes it is just meant to be that a relationship fails or changes and we need to move on. My experience with relationships/partnerships has helped me grow into a better listener and also I have a better understanding of other cultures/diversity because of moving around so much throughout my life. I have built an understanding that each culture is different and we need to understand that not everyone has the same beliefs-but we do all have the same needs.

My relationships over the years have definitely made me who I am today because when I want something I have people behind me telling me to go for it and that I can do anything I put my mind too.

Week 8: When I Think of Child Development

Quotes that have meaning:

While we try to teach our children all about life, Our children teach us what life is all about-Angela Schwindt
www.quotegarden.com

Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.-Kay Redfield Jamison
www.quotegarden.com

"Children are our most valuable resource" -Herbert Hoover
www.compassion.com

Children need models more than they need critics.-Joseph Joubert
www.notable-quotes.com

All of these quotes reflect jsut how important children are to us and they show us that we must take care of them because they are the future. There are so many quotes available for us to read and ponder and it is sometimes hard to pick just one or two. I can't wait to read everyones quotes so maybe I will be able to find some new favorites. This class has been great and I have learned so much from my colleauges-I hope to see many of you in my next class.

Testing for Intelligence? Week 6

Blog Assignment Week 6:

Testing for Intelligence?

This week we are looking at children being assessed and or measured. For me I think that assessing a child can be done with the “whole child” in mind, but is not normally. Most assessments are focused on certain areas and then they have another assessment for whatever else is being looked at. Assessments can be a good thing for a child because we need to look at everything to see where the developmental issues might be. When assessing a child we look at many areas; social, cognitive, and physical and each of these areas has other areas within to look at and measure. In order to get a full picture of a child’s development and or abilities we need to assess them at some point. This is not to say we test them so much that they are afraid of testing or even failing, we need to make it more of a game for young children if possible so they will get the most out of the experience. When we only look at certain areas of a child-we are not getting the full picture so we will not really know the child. Every child is different and develops at a different pace, so we need to take this into account when doing any assessing.

The country I picked to look into is Japan-partly because I lived there for three years and I would love to go back at some point (maybe as a DOD employee). In Japan they have no real assessment criteria, until they are in secondary education and this is so they have a better picture for the high school years. Children are regularly assessed by their teachers in Japanese and mathematics by teacher made assessment forms or professional ready-made tests (http://www.inca.org.uk/japan). In order to continue into high school each child must be assessed or they cannot proceed. Children are passed onto the next grade by the teacher’s assessment and not by testing as we do in the United States.

http://www.inca.org.uk/japan-system-mainstream.html

Blog Assignment: Week 4

While going over this week’s assignment, I was overcome by how many of the stressors we see throughout our lives and how they affect us. I will say that for me I feel my childhood was very stressful because I was a military child and moved often and then when I was two years old my dad was killed in a car accident. After this happened my mom did the best she could to raise five children alone and we ended up still moving around and living close to military bases so we had their support system. Being part of the military family has a lot of benefits because they do take care of their own-no matter what. One week before my eleventh birthday my mom passed away from cancer and we started moving around to family and strangers homes. My brother tried to care for us but he had his own family by now and it was just too hard to take in four more people to care for. I lived with aunts that just wanted the money that came with us and then the foster care system that I my view did a very poor job of screening families before putting children in their care. One family I lived with abused us often and we finally found our voices and told someone and they came and got us out, but not before they had damaged our small two year old brother (foster brother) by hitting him because he wouldn’t talk-he had something in his throat that had to be operated on later and I found out he fully recovered with no side effects. I lived in over ten places between the years 1971-1979. Over this time my siblings and I lost all our belongings so that we now have nothing to show or share with our own children and grandchildren.

For me I feel that many of the stressors listed this week and many others fall into my life as I am sure they affect many of my classmates. We all have difficult times to remember and persevering throughout is what makes us stronger and the person we grow to become as an adult. I am very sensitive to how the foster care system works and have talked with social workers many times about what I need to do to make a difference and I am in the process of working with our local office as a volunteer so I can made an even bigger impact on children’s lives and help them in new ways.

Childhood Stress

I chose childhood stress in Japan because of the Tsunami and the fact that I lived there for three years (in Misawa). I would like to research the Tsunami and find out in what ways others and I can help those affected. I was reading on the internet today that a man’s motorcycle was washed up in Canada in April. It was a very touching story about the Tsunami even though it does not deal with childhood stress. So many families were and still are affected; they will be continued to be affected for the rest of their lives. Children need to be talked to and shown books that can help them understand what happened and this also helps them to cope with the help of the adults in their lives.

References: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/04/04/disasters-put-stress-children-japan.html

Just a side note about breastfeeding-does anyone have an opinion on the Time magazine cover story? Just wondering what everyone's ideas are on how it was done and all the hype that is going on with it. I'm all for breastfeeding, but not so sure about children of this age-any thoughts?

Week 2: Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding

I chose breastfeeding because it is a very important issue and one that needs to be talked about more and not pushed under the carpet. In the United States it is a topic that people don’t like to talk about and it just so natural for a mother and child to have this connection from birth. Breastfeeding is very important for a child’s healthy development and there are many benefits for both mother and child. I breastfed both my children (both until 6 ½ to 7 months and I stopped then because when the teeth start coming in OUCH) and I think it helped us to bond better and they had less colds and other health problems growing up. I believe that every mother should try to breast feed unless there are health problems that prevent it. My daughter has breastfed her children as well and I think they have done very well also. Some things about breastfeeding that I feel are important: Breastfeeding protects babies, breastfeeding should last at least the first six months, breastfeeding helps the mother’s body and also breastfeeding helps the child fight illnesses through the nutrients in the mother’s milk.

I found many sites with information about breastfeeding around the world and it can vary depending on where you are. There are many factors to look at in regard to breastfeeding, social issues, workplace issues and the country you live in. according to the World Health Organization, globally less than 40% of infants under six months of age are exclusively breastfed (“10 facts on breastfeeding,” 2012). Optimal breastfeeding together with complementary feeding help prevent malnutrition and can save about a million child lives. The Philippines is one of the leaders in international efforts to promote and protect women’s right to breastfeed. The country has implemented laws to control aggressive marketing by formula companies and their false claims that formula makes babies smarter. The WHO estimated that the nation’s total lost wages from caring for formula-fed children with diarrhea and acute respiratory infections during the first six months of life was 1 billion pesos ($23.4 million). Eighty-eight percent of Filipino babies are breastfed at birth and 34% are exclusively breastfed up to five months of age (www.incultureparent.com).

Share ways the information you have learned may impact your future work

This information will not really change my work because I work with preschool children; however, some of my children have newborn siblings. My center does care for infants six weeks of age, so I may find that I could share this information with my co-workers that work with the infants. I know this information will come in handy when I finally get to open my own school after I finish my Master’s program. My daughter and I want to care for infants because it is so hard for mothers to find quality care for these very important young children when they have to go back to work. I say this because my daughter had this problem and ended up being a stay at home mom because she couldn’t find a place that she really felt comfortable with and I am in the mindset that if you can stay home at least for the first year-DO IT!

References:

(2012). 10 facts on breastfeeding. World Health Organization, retrieved from http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/breastfeeding/en/index.html

http://www.usbreastfeeding.org/workplace

La Leche League International; http://www.llli.org/toolkit

www.healthychildren.org

http://www.incultureparent.com/2012/03/breastfeeding-around-the-world