My Connections to play by Ms. Jay

When I was 5 years old I remember living in Germany and just beginning kindergarten. Kindergarten seemed like a comfortable place to play and paint. I remember playing and painting because those were the activities I enjoyed most. My parents often provided opportunities to let my older sister and me play together. My younger brother was not born yet and I was the baby. Other people thought my sister and I were twins because we are so close in age. Most of my time playing with my sister was not as enjoyable as playing with toys by myself. I say this because my sister often played “the boss” and as the younger sister I did everything she told me to do and I played with her always in a passive way. The times I was able to go into my own room and play with toys alone was great. So for this assignment I’m going to reminisce of playing alone in my room and with my three toys. I’m so happy to share pictures of some of the toys I played with when I was five.

As I’m in my room I feel I’m in my own territory in my own world. I become “The boss” and I can play with anything I wanted without having to share with anyone.  I go to my toy shelf and pull out

this fisher price camera. This is the closest one I could find, the one I had the actual camera was white and all the strap colors were the same on mine. I received this as a gift from my dad for Christmas. I took this toy everywhere I could take it and pretended to take pictures of everything! I was greatly influenced by my dad because he had a real camera with the same upright features and a big lens. As we lived in Germany I found that he liked taking pictures of where we lived and all the places to visit while traveling throughout Germany. I thought I would be just like my dad and walk around taking pretend pictures of everything. I think if this camera was real, I would have taken thousands of photos. This was a toy I carried around my neck all the time. I remember looking out my bedroom‘s giant window and taking pretend pictures of the weather outside looking at people below. My room had an awesome view of green grass, a nearby park with trees, and hills. Our family household was like living in an apartment building and our apartment was located towards the very top floor of the building.

As the camera got heavy I decide to take it from around my neck set it down and pull out my

 karaoke radio I absolutely loved this toy; I was always singing, dancing, listening to music around the house. With this toy I was able to sing with songs on the radio as well as trying hard not to be so loud when my mother was sleeping. Believe it or not I still have this toy; it is sitting on top of my desk cabinets with some pictures. I don’t have the heart to let anyone touch it or let my daughter play with it. I liked to pretend I was a famous singer like Whitney Houston or Chaka Khan; I was heavily influenced by watching female groups harmonize and sing and dance like En Vogue. Often times my mom would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I told her “a famous singer”

            As my sister got annoyed with my singing I would put this toy away and pull out my

play Mobil toys. I also kept these toys and these pictures represent the exact toys I had when I was 5. I enjoyed these toys because they were not quite like Legos but some of the pieces still had to be put together. These toys brought me into a miniature world. Almost everywhere I went when I was in Germany the houses looked the same as well as the parks and play grounds. Germany was a different culture than my own that I was exposed to and found other children my age also played with these similar toys. By the time I was 8 I had a collection of them.

I believe play today is not as enjoyable as when I was a child because of all the technology. Toys today seem like computers, although I don’t have too much of a problem with computer toys, maybe I think some toys could be losing sight of letting the child explore and use their imagination with them. Today’s generation’s toys seem easy to push a button and something happens and they seem a little high tech. At some point I’m a little jealous of some toys because they were not available like a touch screen or an electronic notebook or babies that cry, wet, eat, and tell you when they are “all better” but I would hope that as a parent I provide my child some tools that encourage her to learn about her world a little independently. I also see these children will be living on earth long after our generation is gone and despite all our parental efforts of raising children to learning academically what ultimately describes the definition of fun is play.  As I grew into adulthood I found that after school, work, and responsibility is finished I sit back and reminisce about my own childhood and not having any adult responsibilities and want to do nothing but play or have free time

The two quotes I would like to share that I feel summarizes play within my childhood and also early childhood education are those by Jean Marc Itard “Begin with the nature of the child and his interests.”(Lieberman, L (1982) I think by my parents giving me opportunities to play based upon my interest encouraged me to explore the toys I had and learn about my world through these toys. With the camera I began to see pictures of my environment and somehow without really realizing it Germany is different from the United States. With my microphone and radio I explored dance, music, singing and playing with spoken words. With my miniature toys my world and imagination with these toys and nature of these toys was endless I played with them for hours. I literally went to sleep and couldn’t wait to wake up in the morning to play with them again or go to the store and add to my collection, I saw that play and toys opens doors to new culture and discovery. Jean Marc Itard also mentions “Education must be in harmony with the dynamic nature of life.” Lieberman, L. (1982) I couldn’t describe how the world naturally influences a growing, playing child better. Whether or not adults see children learning through play, play is essential to enjoying and creating meaningful experience for life.

 

Reference

 Lieberman, L. M. (1982). Itard: The Great Problem Solver. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 15(9), Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Relationship Reflection by Ms. Jay

                The top two pictures represent the top 3 relationships on my list that are important to me. Family and Marriage. The very first relationship that is important to me and I have been slacking quite a bit is building my personal relationship with my spiritual beliefs (God) because ultimately I believe I have absolutely no control over the events that will happen in the future and my future plans. I can personally make plans and goals but my plans don’t always follow through and may change. I know situations occur based on my relationship with the "one above" and he teaches me that my life is in his hands.

                The second relationship that is important to me is family. If there is one thing I have learned is that: when all the material possessions are gone, situations in life become difficult to handle, and I feel like I have nothing I remembered that having a personal relationship with those who care about me highly matters.  Some readers may not know that I have the pleasure of having several family members from two different cultures. My mom is from the Philippines and my dad is African American born and raised mostly in Tennessee.  I have an older sister and a younger brother. The positive twist within this family is that I also grew up with my father serving in the United States Air Force. Growing up as a military family has several challenges and puts a strain on family bonding.  The family relationship was shown through different ways. Like simple home movie nights, sitting together during family meals, and now that I live far from home occasional phone calls. Even though my parent’s cultures were different my parents did their best to work together raising three children.

                I would describe my relationship with my parents as “tough love.” By tough love I mean my parents did not just give me the things that I wanted just because I asked for it, or just to show their love, or just that they cared. They not only did those things considering the majority of the time I had to earn and work for the things I wanted. I had to show them that I deserved to have those things.  I know they love me and they care. I didn’t realize the situation then, but I know now that this was the only way my parents were teaching me to be independent. Occasionally I would receive certain things and advice that I didn’t ask for. Personally they knew what I desperately needed like guidance and discipline. (A must with three kids!)  I also learned that if I really needed something they would always provide and take care of us (kids). I came to a decision that my relationship with my parents and family members is important because family relationships between members is needed. Although I am the middle child my parents instill in me that I am the glue that holds my siblings relationship together.Hence I get along great with my sister and brother independently, but my brother and sister always argue and still do growing up. My relationship with my syblings as well as my parents has to stay constant. Without constant positive contact with them the relationship will fall and the group called my family is broken.

As I continue to grow and look at situations that happened in the past I know my family and the relationships that still continue to change has provided me a foundation of what it means to become a positive family within the one that I’m trying to raise. My parents and siblings have set examples for me. And I'm going to apply those experience tools to build a positive relationship within my marriage and raising my own children.

This picture was taken years ago!

The next relationship I would like to mention is marriage.

A promise made and not meant to be broken.

Marriage is special to me because it is definitely a partnership between two people especially when it comes to raising a child. Not to mention my husband was also serving within the United States Air Force. The special characteristics within this relationship are love, communication and support, despite confrontation. My husband is my "rock" and I recieve his love and support as well as I support and love him. We have gone through several difficult milestones within our marriage and continue to work together. I saw how my parents worked together,though part of my dad's duty was to travel they bonded in ways to guide my brother, sister and I.  I often look at my parents long, ongoing love and partnership as encouragement to want to build a strong relationship with my husband. I want to set positive examples just as they did for me for my children. Marriage is a partnership that can be challenging to maintain but it takes both people to keep the marriage relationship strong, healthy and continuous throughout the years.

The last relationship is the relationship between me and my daughter

My daughter is definitely a blessing. Remember my statement on making plans and that plans change? When she came into my life she definitely changed my plans for the best! Her birth symbolized a change in my attitude towards life and she made an impact in defining my personal goals. Instead of quiting school and everything to stay home to raise her (which was a difficult decision)I continued to work hard to obtain my Bachelors degree to become an early childhood educator. I use the practices of early childhood and caring for children along with raising my child. I think learning about children helps me view her thoughts and current development differently. And because I have some knowledge of child development I relate almost everything I see and do around her. She impacts my world and contributes to my work as an effective early childhood professional. She sets my tone as an early childhood professional by watching my interactions with other children within my role as a caregiver for school age children. She is developing a distinction between “mommy role” and “caregiver role” , while I’m constantly developing within my different roles from: wife, parent, student, to professional. I watch the way that she continues to grow and hope our relationship as mother and daughter builds to a healthy relationship even when it comes time to let her go out into the world.

As a person I play different roles within the world of relationships: daughter, sister, wife, mother, student and caregiver just to name a few. Each relationship is special and contributes to different sections in my life. All these relationships are essential for me to function. They represent a piece of my life puzzle. If I lost any of these relationship pieces I would not be complete.

My thoughts on Child Development

During my research for a favorite quote about children is difficult because I can’t recall a favorite quote about children. There are so many quotes I have read and heard in the past and have such passion and meaning behind them that I wish I could pull from every one and post a variety of them, however I can recall a quote  by Jean Marc Itard. He displayed his motivation for child development when he stated from his article “Begin with the nature of the child and his interests.”(Lieberman, L (1982) working with children the focus has always been the child. Part of my philosophy is to find out what interest the child and work on ways the child can learn based on what the child enjoys. From this course I have learned from the readings and observations of children. The observations of children opened my eyes to their world. My focus changed from the child, to the child’s domains of development to trying to achieve a better understanding of “the child’s world” and factors as to finding levels of where they stand in development. Even in my own work environment I try to find out the interests of the children in our program and work with them. Many times I find activities run smoother when the environment is child-centered and children respond well when they are involved in learning that is fun for them and now activities that are closer to their physical, social and emotional development. Finding a balance at this time is difficult. I also try to find out what interest children with special needs. However, it is not an easy task. A relationship must be built between caregiver and child. Caregivers must set time aside to observe a child in order to want to encourage or help them. These skills I will most likely take with me as I move throughout my career. I’m delighted to have experienced and learned more about child development through a different perspective.  I believe I will continue to develop a passion for this field as my knowledge of children grows. I just wanted to set some time aside to send my professional Thanks! to all of my colleagues. I greatly appreciate all of the shared efforts, personal insights, stories, and positive comments throughout this course. I also want to thank each one of you who found interest in the course assignments including discussion and featured blog posts that I posted. I found other colleagues post rather exciting to read than my own. And to Dr. Kien thank you for feedback and your constant efforts to instill in me as well as my colleagues proper ways to complete assignments. (I still struggle with it) It has been a pleasure to be in an online environment to not only meet people but communicate with those in this profession that share similar passions for young children in the field of early childhood. I hope to keep in contact with most of you as I try to stay on this path of learning. I was also excited to read familiar names of colleagues that shared the previous class with me hope to see everyone in future courses.I wish for everyone to continue to stay encouraged and motivated in our field of study.

Lieberman, L. M. (1982). Itard: The Great Problem Solver. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 15(9), Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Teacher: “Today’s surprise a POP QUIZ!” Student’s response: “Aw man, Why?!”

                I’m going to be honest, as a child growing up and attending the different levels of school, college, entrance exams certification exams, proficiency, aptitude and skills test or whatever testing it might be whenever I heard my teacher, professor, recruiter, doctor or driver’s test administrator say “Test is on this day, short quiz on that day, pop quiz, pregnancy, and even blood testing I responded with terror and nervousness. My world feels like it is coming to an end when it comes to testing. I have test anxiety especially if testing has a time limit. No doubt about it every time there is some sort of testing involved I always ask myself “Why does everything I want to do involve testing? I also ask myself “am I intelligent? If I fail does that make me stupid?” Most of the time no matter how much time I spend preparing for a test majority of the time I choke and fail them. Out of the different types of testing I listed throughout my life I have failed more than half of them at least twice.

I favor and prefer child portfolios, verbal, written, social expression and hands on work from child’s perspective that is proof of a child’s progression. I know firsthand how difficult it was for me to pass my high school proficiency test I failed it two times I cried. I was so upset to know that to graduate high school passing the test was a standard. “You need to pass your test for your diploma” Even though I passed all my classes with high grades and was a top student and worked my way to graduating with honors I had difficulty passing the test. No joke I needed a tutor’s help to pass. I believe testing is better measured through experience especially if the child is a visual learner. Growing up I developed my own system that still helps me a little today with testing and assignments. I have to see the work, and then attempt to do the work hands on and then wait for results. It’s almost like a routine.

            I understand standardized testing and what the different tests are supposed to measure however yes, I agree that this type of testing does not consider the entire child. I lean more towards the variety of learning styles human beings have in the multiple intelligence theory by Howard Gardner. I think early childhood professionals can learn from different approaches to measuring the mind of children using this theory as a foundation. Every child has a different learning style and when early childhood professionals use this tool it can encourage positive learning. For example say a child has a musical ability or is considered to have “musical intelligence” businessballs.com (2011) but is having difficulty reading and writing a clue in encouraging reading and writing for the child maybe the early childhood educator providing an opportunity for the child to sing the alphabet with flash cards to begin recognizing letters or finding musical instruments that represent almost every letter of the alphabet. I believe it is using the intelligence in the child’s favor to encourage a meaningful learning experience.

During my research to find how other school age children are tested or measured by intelligence I came across the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology by Sternberg (2002) and some of the research testing done around the world and found an instance where these young boys from Brazil that lived in the streets are “the same children who are able to do the mathematics needed to run their street business are often little able or unable to do school mathematics”(Sternberg, paragraph 2, 2002).  Further into the article it expressed how children from different countries differ in intelligence depending on the culture they live. I also considered from the article that most of the intelligence testing done around the world for school age children is compared to that of what the article calls “Western Patterns of Schooling” (Sternberg, paragraph 9, 2002) and that it depends on the ways of their society. In this case parents are more concerned more on how their children are developing skills to be successful working on the farm fields than the skills learned and taught in school.

Reference

Link:  Retrieved 12/10/11 http://www.businessballs.com/howardgardnermultipleintelligences.htm

Link: Retrieved: 12/10/11

 http://orpc.iaccp.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=74%3Arobert-j-sternberg&catid=23%3Achapter&Itemid=2

Experiencing Stress as a Military Family child

Experiencing Stress as a child

            Earlier this year on June 27, 2011 in the small city of Minot ND there was a massive flood effecting most of the school buildings within the town. Below is a link to their website with additional links to pictures and video on the town’s dedication to rebuilding the city. Within 15 miles away from the city is a military base. Not all military families live on base; a majority of the families had houses within the small city of Minot. So many people and military families were affected by the flooding. Within the city of Minot there was a need of shelter, clean water to use for drinking and eating, and a need for children to learn. The flooding affected the military base too. Even the water was not safe to drink or use because it was contaminated from the flooding within the city. Working on the base at one of the child care facilities there was a base wide order to boil the water before drinking or using it to prepare meals for the youth. The contaminated water affected the water lines. At the time I worked with children as young as 5 years old. This happened to be summer vacation for most of the youth. Their stresses began with just transitioning from the child development center to a School Age Program, making the transitioning from maybe staying at home to beginning kindergarten and starting to make connections of having more choices at the program or what’s sort of normal for children of military families are dual service families (meaning mom and dad are both in the military) and handling a situation where one parent or both parents getting deployed.  If these transitioning situations wasn’t enough what added to this was the realization that some of the children that lived in a house in town lost their homes and all of their belongings. I saw a major change in the behaviors of these children in frustration such as:  being clingy, defiant, destructive, some sad, unhappy and uncontrollable. I believe this is partly because when flooding happens it is an event that even adults have no control over, I knew it was a very tough time for them and their behaviors became a difficult time for the parents and caregivers. These children would ask questions such as “Why did my house get flooded?” and other children that lived on base would ask “What does flooding mean?”   I housed one of my co-workers who lost his house. He slept in my 4 year old daughter’s room.  She was asking questions about why he was staying with us and I did my best to explain it to her why. This was a difficult time for everyone here and because of the flooding school started later. Even now some of these families are still struggling, winter is here and these families are living in trailers, hotel rooms, staying with other family friends’ houses that are located miles away from town. I even witness families that made a choice of not staying in the state and decided to move away to other place. I also know a family that flew their children to a relative’s house to stay for w while because the children could not stay with the military parent because they lost their house in the flood and one parent were being deployed.  

            Nearly after the flooding the children participated in a “Masters of Disasters” Program” That taught the kids what to do in case a natural disaster happens where they live for example: fire safety, storm and tornado safety tips and how to prepare a disaster survival kit. On the other side of the program as a caregiver looking after the kids during the summer program the only thing that we could do in this situation was to provide fun activities for the children at the program so they would have a mindset that when they attend our program they feel safe and know this is a place where they can play.

            When participating in researching on natural disasters for children living in china and japan I came across a slide show from the Roland Catellier Disasters Relief Foundation titled “We’ve got a New Project” written and posted around the same day flooding was happening in the city of Minot. They are in the process of rebuilding their small town as well. I found similarities within Minot and China/Japan, with water shortages, floor plans for new homes, and ideas for placement for children attending schools.

Links:

The first two  link is to the flooding rebuilding of the city of Minot

http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/556140/Flooding-makes-victims-of-Minot-schools.html?nav=5642

Before the flooding and after the flooding pictures of Minot

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/environment/minot-nd-flood/10252/

The last link is to Disaster Reflief Foundations and pictures and information on disasters in china and japan.

http://disaster-relief-shelters.org/

Breastfeeding

It is said that breastfeeding immediately after birth is the best way for a newborn to get enough nutrition for the infant’s brain and body. This topic became so important to me while I was pregnant with my child and I was determined to breastfeed my child immediately after having her, however on the day she was born and the week after  she did not latch. I became frustrated because I had to result in bottle feeding her formula the first two days and (it may have been part of post-partum depression kicking in) but I cried. I knew she was getting nutrition from another source but I wanted her nutrition to come from my milk because it contains many nutrients that formula does not have. Thinking back from attending the parenting classes and watching the videos of mothers breastfeeding their babies and reading pamphlet after pamphlet on the “Benefits of Breastfeeding” I just cried because I felt the bonding between mother and child was not going to happen. The one way I kind of still “breastfed” her, was pumping the milk and bottle feeding it to her. It eased the pain of knowing she was getting her nutrition from me one way or another.  The nurses told me to keep trying. Then finally a breakthrough! After two weeks of trying she finally latched. I was so happy I couldn’t believe it.  The downside of this situation is that I had to do a mixed feeding (formula and breast milk) for a while because of the timing and amount of milk she would drink and how much I would produce.

                I decided to research breastfeeding in the country of the Philippines and found a link to explain a change in “pro-breastfeeding laws” in the countries government. I was unaware that midwifes created an alliance to communicate around the world about child nutrition.

Retrieved November 6, 2011

http://midwiferytoday.com/international/Philippines.asp

     Here is another link to unicef.org listing data on the benefits of breastfeeding in the Philippines and other tabs explaining breast feeding benefits.

Retrieved November 12, 2011

http://www.unicef.org/philippines/children/breastfeeding_2.html

This information impact my future work by maybe giving mothers an “intervention” should their newborn not latch right away.  To encourage them to keep trying until they see progress.  (Of course the choice is up to the mother) Breast feeding is important for a developing child.  As a new mother breastfeeding at first looked easy and I assumed my baby would latch right away. I know that day I felt I was the only mother that experienced this situation but should I decided to have another child I’m prepared and I would hope to prepare those who may experience the same situation.

Childbirth: Different Point of View

                The only birth I can explain from personal experience is my daughters. She was born on a military base at a hospital. I was also born on a military base but at the time the “hospital” was not really considered a “hospital” but a clinic. For the purpose of this week’s topic on childbirth (not to sound self-centered) I want to talk about my own

 I was sort of confused as to why the place I was born at was considered a clinic and not a hospital so I called my parents to figure out what exactly happened because I was born premature. According to my dad I was born two months early. The Air Force base I was born at did not have a premature ward so as soon as I was born (he said I was about 3 pounds 3 ounces) the clinic placed me on a helicopter and flew me to the nearest military base that has premature ward. The nearest base was an Army base. My dad explained the doctors said my hemoglobin levels were low and needed blood. He said I was not brought home until I reached five pounds. All along this conversation I wondered “Why was I born so early?” I kept thinking there must have been something that may have triggered my mom going into preterm labor. According to my mom hours before she had me she was having pains in her teeth. My mom kept saying to me (talking to me in her belly) “You are not coming today!”  “Repeating it over and over” says my dad. Then my dad said the doctors did not want to give my mom anything for her teeth pains because she was pregnant. My mom said she was having contractions and the doctors injected her with something to stop the contractions. “Obviously it didn’t work because you were born within the hour” says my dad. He also explained that as I was flown to the nearest base toward the preemie ward my mom had to stay at the clinic so that they could work on her teeth.

 My mom claims I’m  a stubborn child for  not listening to her and coming out  anyway but according to my view and the readings from this week I believe at the time of my birth my mom was stressed and in pain. Not just from being pregnant with me but with other pains in her body such as from the pain in her teeth. I don’t know what the doctors injected my mom with. Whether it was to stop or induce labor pains all I know is I am alive today to share this story with everyone.

I was not surprised to read that the united States have almost 100% in births that take place in a controlled environment partly because I was born in the united states in a controlled environment then moved to the next controlled environment so that I could survive. I chose my birth as an example to show some of the other factors that may contribute to child development. Such as changes in the mothers health conditions.  According to my knowledge my mom never smoked or had an alcoholic addiction. I believe at the time of my birth my parents concern was if I was going to be healthy. I don’t think they were any other concerns at the time.

I chose the Philippines as the other country to find out how births happen there.  Below is a link to Midwifery Today which is an article, a short story of a mother going to a place to have her child for free.

http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/philippinesnight.asp

                In a sense there is one similarity between the United States births and the Philippine births. mine was at a controlled environment. I would consider the mother in the story having her child in a controlled environment also because she went to a place where women have children most of the time. The midwives knew what they are doing and had the right tools. . I came to a conclusion from this comparison is that if a mother thinks the place to go to have her child (home, hospital, a provided no birth fee clinic) and she determines the place has the right tools and the right people by her side she can very well make that choice. Although child births sometimes do happen unexpectedly hopefully the goal is to have a healthy child(ren).