Hello, everyone!  I spent the last week trying to find a professional contact in the early childhood field that was outside of the United States.  I had ZERO luck!  I sent emails out to professionals in Haiti, Ghana, Morocco, and Armenia.  I don't have any preference to any certain country.  I am just so excited about the idea of learning more from any country that is different than the United States.  I think that it will be very enlightening, interesting, and eye opening to see how things are in the early childhood education field outside of the United States.  I have given up on getting replies to emails.  I am assuming that I am in junk folders or that I was automatically deleted because my email address looked unfamiliar to the person receiving it.  I am going to start making actual phone calls on Monday.  If anyone has found a way to make contact or has any great tips, I would love to hear about it.
  I have decided to explore NAEYC's website.  The program that I work for is NAEYC accredited and we use NAEYC as the authority on all things early childhood related.  I think that learning more about the organization can greatly benefit me in both my classes and my job.  So, as I learn more I will be sure to pass it along to all of you!
  Best of luck!  Can't wait to hear about all of the wonderful experiences and concepts learned from all of my peers.  I hope to have my own to share with you, as well! 

My Support
     Absolutely, positively, no doubt about it, my husband has been my number one system of support since I was 14 years old.  I also have my parents and a couple of other friends and family members that have been support for me, but they have all come in and out of my life from time to time... but not my husband.  Since 7/02/92 he has been in my life and has never, ever failed to support me.
     My parents are also huge in my support system.  I always know that if I get into a bind with my kids being sick, vehicle breaking down, or needing a few dollars until payday... they are always there to rely on.  They have helped my husband over and over again over our many years together.
     I also consider my kid's schools as support.  My husband and I need to work everyday and their schools offer up a free and safe place for them to be so that we can go to work every day.  My job is also a support in my life.  It offers up money each week that I can use to keep food on the table and a roof over my head.  I also rely on my cell phone as part of my support.  I keep my schedule in it, use it for an alarm in the morning, pay bills with it, keep up with friends and family with it, etc. 
     When I think of support in my life, my mind goes to people first.  I think that our largest support comes in the form of other people.  Maybe that is why God (or whover you choose to believe in) made sure that there was more than one person one the earth... because we depend on each other for support.

                                    My Connections to Play

  I noticed that my quotes about play mostly revolve around outside.

The things that I spent hours playing with as a child...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  When I think about how my play was supported by the adults in my life, I realize that it was mostly by giving us the freedom to play.  When we got up in the morning, we were given breakfast and then sent outside.  We were not expected to be in the house unless it was time for a meal or dark outside.  No one ever asked where we were or what we were doing.  We didn't have lessons to go to or practices scheduled.  We were not in any organized sports as small children.  When I was a child, organized sports didn't even exist until you entered junior high.  Our parents purchased us few toys (very few) and they gave us the freedom to play and explore.  They never stood over us to make sure that we played in any certain way.  They didn't plan activities for us.  Our play was exploring the world without any rules as to how to do our exploring.  Play is so different today.  Granted, play is much safer than when I was a child, but it is so rigid and planned out.  Children are told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.  It seems as if adults are so caught up in planning everything out for children.  They enter them in to every club and every sport and it becomes very important to the adult that the child is the best at everything.  Children are no longer given any time without adult supervision.  Children are never given the opportunity to explore without rules and supervision.  Everything today is so planned out for children.  Like I said.... much safer, but at what other costs?

Relationships

Relationships are important to me because they motivate my every move.  My husband and children are the reason for which I do the things I do.  I work a full time job.  I clean, cook, and do laundry.  I work very hard every day to try to do the right thing, be a good person, and set a good example.  I do these things because of the results that they will have on the people that I love the most… my husband and children.  My relationships are also important to me because these people love me in return and support me.  My parents, my friends, my children, and my husband are always there when I need them.  If I need a hug, encouragement, a kind word, a shoulder to cry on, or even people to go an a beach vacation with… these people are there.  They help me to not feel alone.  They make me stronger because I know that there are people that will always be on my side and who will have my back no matter what.

                My most positive relationships are those that never come and go.  My relationship with my parents, my husband, and my children and the most positive.  These people never leave my side.  We may fight.  We may annoy each other.  We may say not so nice things to each other on occaision.  However, this never makes us turn our back on one another.  My relationship with my parents, husband, and children all developed first from a mutual need.  We take care of each other.  We support each other.  These relationships are maintained by love and by supporting each other.  These realtionships are maintained by spending time together and enjoying each other’s company.  We share our lives with each other in good times and in bad.

  My friends are also positive realtionships as long as things are good in the friendship.  My friends give me someone to vent to, someone to laugh with, and someone to hang out with when I need a break.  My frienships develop by having a common interest.  For me this is usually by working together or by my husband working with them or with their husbands.  These realtionships are maintained by spending time together and sharing informaiton with each other about our lives.

The biggest challenge that I have discovered about realtionships over time is that once that common interest is gone, the relationship rarely lasts.  I don’t have any friends that I went to high school with that are still in my life.  I make friends with people at work, but once I leave the job or they do, the realtionship gradually fades.  My husband and I have had many “other couple” friends over the years, but once the thing that we had in common, the thing that brought us together, is gone, then so is the friendship.  We have also had may friends over the years that have become divorced.  Once this happens, the other couple each goes their own ways and our friendship with them seems to have been lost in the divorce.  I have not really had much of a challenge over the years with maintaining relationships with my parents, husband, or children.  These people and I are forever bound and none of us will ever leave the other.  However, maintaining and developing friendships seems to be very challenging.  It is hard to keep interest in maintaining the friendship when there is no longer anything in common with them.  It is also hard to form new friendships because I know that chances are that they won’t last.

I think that the thing that makes relationships also be partnerships is having a common goal.  My husband and I have a partnership in addition to having a relationship.  We work hard together to run our household.  It is much like a business.  We want the maximum outcome possible.  Our profit is having happy, healthy, and well equipped children.  We work together to keep our home safe and clean for them.  We work together to run them to all of their school events, to teach them to be good people, to help them with homework, etc.  My husband and I have a partnership because we are a team working together towards a common goal.

Reflecting on my own relationships has helped me to see how important relationships with families is to the development of each child.  My relationship with the families is a partnership.  We each want what is best for the child and this common goal can bring us together to work as a team for that child.  In order to develop and maintain this realtionship, I have to spend time with the families.  I have to take the time to talk to them.  To ask them questions about their live and the things that are going on, even outside of the child.  I should know more about them than just their name and which child belongs to them.  By becoming a partner with them and by developing an actual realtionship with them, they can the trust that I am there for the same exact reason that they are, and this reason is because we both want what is best for their child.  That is our common goal… to see their child be successful.

 

Thanks to all of my fellow bloggers this semester!  I have learned so much each week by visiting your sites and reading and seeing things from your perspective.  It is always helpful to see that others have different perceptions and can add so much to your own thoughts and frame of references.  Speacial thanks to Dionna Hill and Dana Jones.  It is so helpful to always be able to go to your sites and know that you will have your postings done on time and in a very enlightening manner.  Thanks everyone.  Good luck in all that you do in the future.

In an effort to view children and their development in a more comprehensive manner, I feel that we need to look at each asspect of their lives that affect their development.  We must assess each of these areas and use that information to assess their development, any barriers or strengths, and what we can do to assist families in ensuring that the child develops in the manner that is going to best benefit them.

 

 

World Health Organization, Tarun Dua retrieved from

 

https://www.iom.edu/~/media/Files/Activity%20Files/Children/iYCG/Cost-of-Inaction-Presentations/Dua.pdf

Measuring education is not hard.  There are many popular developmental programs that have testing kits for the educational aspect of child development.  However, some of these other areas may be a bit harder to assess.  The reason for that is that it requires building relationships with families and then having conversations.  The best way to measure most of these other areas is by asking questions of the family and then recording their answers.  Once the family knows you, trusts you, and has a relationship with you, then they will begin to be more forthcoming and honest and will reveal the information that you need to assess these other areas.  I feel that child development is much more than the eduation, and that all of the areas in this chart must be addressed when assessing child development.


     I was interested to look at ECE assessment in the Philippines.  I was surprised to see that they had much of the same "holistic" concept that we use in the United States.

     In researching and reading about early assessment in the Philippines, I found that many of the ideas, goals, and tools were the same as ours.  However, I also remember from researching childbirth in the Philippines, that there is a huge disparity between those who have money and those who do not.  It seems as if people in the Philippines have access to quality ECE programs and the assessment tools that come with that, but I have to wonder if these same resources are available to the poor in this country.

  I was raised in extreme poverty and could tell the long, sad story of my childhood poverty and all of the negative effects of it.  That's really depressing, though.  I will instead tell you about my husband's grandmother, Opal.  Opal was a child of The Great Depression.  She was one of several children.  Her family was close and they all had a lot of loving support from each other during this time.  Opal spoke often about The Great Depression and how hard it was.  However, these horrible times always had stories of great memories.  Opal's mom gave them each a baked potato hot out of the oven every morning and they carried it to school to keep their hands warm because they couldn't afford gloves.  They would put this potato in their desk and then take it out and eat it at lunch.  Opal could make anything.  I will not say that it was all tasty, amazing, or even a good idea, but her upbringing in extreme poverty had taught her how to make something from nothing.  She bought 2 ply toilet paper and separated each ply into it's own roll of 1 ply so that she could get 2 rolls of toilet paper from one.  She thought it silly that anyone really felt that they needed 2 ply.  She made her own ketchup, mustard, etc.  No way would she pay hard earned money for things that could be made with a little hard work.  Growing up in extreme poverty had taught Opal to value family.  It taught her to never be wasteful or to take things for granted.  It taught her to be resourceful and creative.  It taught her to be strong.
     When thinking of children in other countries living in poverty, my mind when to all of the pictures we see on television of the starving children in third world countries that could be saved if we would just give pennies a day to them.  I started looking into this, but then I wandered about children who lived in poverty in countries that we didn't consider to be poor.  I looked into the number of children in Sweden that were living in poverty and I was surprised that the number of children in poverty is actually quite high there.  Sweden has many supports in place to try to combat the number of children living in poverty.  The government has programs to get companies to hire people out of unemployment, they have subsidies to help pay day care so that parents with children can work, they have child benefits that are paid to the parents to help with the cost associated with providing for children, etc.  Sweden has many governmental programs to assist families raising children to try to help lower their number of children in poverty.  However, it must also be noted that the definition of a child in poverty in Sweden does not mean that these children are hungry or that their most basic needs are not met.  It only means that the children cannot participate in the same activities and hold the same lifestyle as other "normal" children (http://socpol.duth.gr/SWEDEN.doc).