"My Connections to Play"

“Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn.” ~ O. Fred Donaldson (martial arts master)

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father - Roger Von Oech, Contemporary American creativity guru

These are two quotes that summarize what play represented for me in my childhood. I grew up in a low income home where my parents did not have money to buy me many toys. I remember using my imagination very much during play. I was never into video games. I think because they were barely becoming popular and my parents would have not been able to afford it. Any object that I got my hands on would, in my mind, turn into some type of toy. I would turn household items into props. For example, I loved setting pots and pans out and would envision a huge city where my few figures could battle in. I would also use the green plastic baskets that strawberries would come in and use them as building blocks or cages for some toys I had.

(Plastic basket that strawberries came in when we would by them from the store. I dont see them anymore in stores)













(Pots and pans is where I would love to create my imaginary battle scenes)

I remember my mother being the most influential person in my play. She would throughout the day, spend time with me and go along with my ideas and sometimes help me be creative in the objects I had. She and I would create games with the props we had. I would say i owe my creativity to her. I enjoyed my childhood play days that I saved all of my toys and some household props in the basement as a reminder of those days.

Today's play is somewhat similar from the play in which I engaged in as a child. Children today ask for video games and I see many at school pretend they are a character for those games. At centers where I have been at, I see children expressing their imagination by themselves and with others. I often play with them and make up stories. I feel my play as a child comes out. Even as an adult, I really enjoy playing games with the children. Play is something that I will never be able to stop doing. I can't wait to play with my own children and suggest creative ways to play so that they too, can use their in=imagination Today's technology has 3 year olds walking around with ipads all day and I feel it is not letting children be creative as children use to be though. I feel they are being raised without the social benefits of child-driven play.

Relationship Reflection

Having positive relationships is a vital part of me. I am a very social person with my family, peers and coworkers. I need these relationships to maintain myself more at ease. My life has become easier at home and at work. The relationships at home keep us united just as the ones I carry at work. We share an understanding of our roles as dependent and interdependent beings. We are able to help each other out without hesitation and we help each other without expecting a favor in return.

There are a few things that I do that thankfully come natural to me to maintain my relationships. I do not expect anyone to be responsible for me or my happiness. I make and keep clear agreements and do not expect to agree with each other on every issue. I use a lot of communication to establish a common ground to understand the different points of views. One of the things that has helped me in creating and keeping healthy relationships is that I tell the truth. I remain truthful to myself and to others. I think that for any relationship to function, one must have trust.  I see trust as a special characteristic that makes a relationship into a partnership. Another characteristic that I see that must be present is respect for each other. I use all of these factors in the relationships I share with my family and friends. I do not have time to switch roles and become nicer to one person and not the next. I share my emotions and thoughts evenly. For example, my relationship with my parents are the same with my boss.

A challenge that I have encountered  in  developing and maintaining relationships in the past is to finding time to strengthen some relationships at work. One factor I see works for some is to spend quality time together  aside from work. It is very difficult with busy schedules  to meet up at a restaurant, catch a movie, or simply share hobbies. This time invested to know a person would help me in trying to understand someone's judgment  calls on a daily basis.

My experiences with relationships/ partnerships have had a great impact throughout and currently in trying to become a more effective early childhood professional. This professionalism is linked in overcoming a challenge. Being able to learn how to forgive someone for  not admitting to their mistakes has helped me in my life. In not doing so,  it has created animosity at the work place and I have found it better to just let it go and move on.  This makes the work place a warm and inviting environment and adults as well as children do not feel and tension in the room when they enter.

When I Think of Child Development …

This short poem captures the essence of how I feel as a teacher and foster parent. Feeling and acting this way allows me to nurture a child's development in a positive way.

 

Forever In My Heart

Although I'm not their father
I care for them each day,
I cuddle, sing and read to them
And watch them as they play.
I see each new accomplishment,
I help them grow and learn.
I understand their language,
I listen with concern.
They come to me for comfort,
And I kiss away their tears.
They proudly show their work to me,
I give the loudest cheers!
No, I 'm not their father,
But my role is just as strong.
I nurture them and keep them safe,
Though maybe not for long.
I know someday the time will come,
When we will have to part.
But I know each child I cared for,
Is forever in my heart!

~ Author Unknown ~

Testing for Intelligence?

An academic approach which  involves determining outcomes that can be measured solely on standardized tests is unfair to those children that are not from the same cultural background. Language barriers can impede a child to answer properly on test questions and will receive an overall lower score. It is hard to distinguish what concepts a child has already mastered and which he has not. Assessments like these only prove one thing, who got the test questions right, not who understands the material . I think children should be measured based on their own individual outcomes. A hoslistic approach allows the curriculum to evolve based on children's individual and group abilities and interests.  The assessments take into consideration children current and past knowledge individually.

In  Nicaragua, school aged children are assessed individually. Nicaragua is a republic of South America. Some village schools where poverty is at a high, combine children of all ages (5-17) in one classroom. Here, the idea of a standardized test is irrelevant as it will not do well to assess the many different levels of development. The teachers work with each child when there is time, but mostly just ask pre-set questions to different children. My neighbor, who was raised there, shares that it is up to the parents and teacher to scaffold the individual child. Tests are given to the individual or to small groups of children who have been working on the same material.

Poverty in my life

The stressors that came along with living in those conditions as a child have made me the person I am today. Psychologically, living in these conditions broke me down as well as other members in my family but we had each other to support ourselves. My family was and is united and this was the main factor that helped me cope with the poverty.  

My parents taught me that an education would provide me with the opportunity to have a job that would pay  a decent amount for me to live in better conditions as I had growing up. I value education as it was the able to prepare me for the job I have now and with the help of my sister, we both succeeds and brought our family out of poverty.

While growing up, my parents were never able to buy me new clothes. We would go to yard sales and second hand stores to shop for clothes. I was always embarrassed to go shopping for clothes. Before I was old enough to understand the meaning of poverty, I would resent my parents. I would think that they did not love me because they would not buy me the toys or name brand tennis shoes that I wanted. How I coped with it. I don’t know that it is because I just learned to make the best out of my situation or it’s just that I was lucky to have fallen in love with a certain style of clothing. I now enjoy going to various second hand stores to look for inexpensive used vintage clothing.  I typically dress in the style of the decades of the forties and fifties and I am no longer embarrassed to say where I shop.

The country in the world that I would like to know more about is the United States. I know many families that are struggling through life and trying to end poverty in lives through education as my family succeeded. The factor that hinders these families is that they are undocumented. Healthcare or any government assistance is either limited or not available to these families. In California, a bill known as AB 540 currently allows undocumented students to attend universities if they have attend at least three years of high school in the this country. This is great as I meet many classmates that were able to gain the knowledge and get educated. My parents as theirs taught them that the way out of poverty was to get an education and be able to succeed in a career where they would be financially stable later in life. The problem with these students is that after they received their degrees, they were yet in the same boat or worst than before. Since they do not have a social security number, they are not able to practice their degrees. They cannot get hired. These students did not receive financial aid for their education. The family must pay for all the expensive and go into an even worst level of poverty as they invested in the youth’s future. What the state of California is doing to minimize the harm is to pass more laws that will allow undocumented students to receive financial aid. California is the first state to enact a bill called the “California Dream Act” which allows undocumented students to receive privately funded scholarships to enroll in the states public colleges. A number of other states have considered implementing this law but as a country, I see that many families are unable to break free from poverty generation after generation.

Nutrition/malnutrition

The nutritional gain an infant receives from being breast feed versus by formula in a bottle is evident. Access to clean water can be linked to having a better nutrition and even if an infant does have the proper immunizations, if malnourished, he/she may not enough body reserve to protect itself from even common diseases. The public health measure that impacts children’s development all over this world is malnutrition. If chronic, it hinders brain and body development.

This topic of malnutrition is meaningful to me because both my parents came from an upbringing of poverty and malnutrition. My grandmother told me the hardships she went through as to have two of her children die due to not having the proper nutrition to help them fight off an illness.

More than half of Afghanistan’s children under the age of five do not get enough to eat, leading to developmental problems. They are a still developing nation with war making it harder to find abundance of food to eat. In comparison to the United Sates where the percent of malnourished children is less, sadly parents induce their young to poor food selections like fast food/junk food diets that have poor nutritional value.

This topic has and will continue to impact my work.  Since my family has experienced deaths and the pain associated with the deaths due to malnutrition, I feel I need to inform as many families of the risks they are taking in not providing adequate nutrition to themselves and to their children. I have created a reference and referral folder that I share with families that need support in these areas. An example of this is that I link families with food drive centers and agencies that provide nutritional guidance within the community. Improving the well-being of infants, children and their families has become important public health goal for me.  

Childbirth––In My Life and Around the World

The most wonderful experience I encountered during a birth took place two years ago. My older sister had a baby boy and I became an uncle for the first time. She called me around ten at night and she said that she would be going into labor. She was very calm. I was the person that was to drive her and I was so nervous. She had called our mother along the way to the hospital. Since she took all night, it gave our family time to gather in the lobby. It soon became a family reunion. She was in labor all night and had Jesse a little before noon the following day. During the first three hours of being born, baby Jesse got to meet three of his great grandparents, all of his grandparents, three aunts and uncles, five cousins his dad, mom and me. I felt my family got more unified from this point on as we had all not had welcomed a new addition to our lives for almost four years. Jesse was born in December since then we are all now meeting for the holidays in remembrance of his birth.   

I have several thoughts regarding birth and its impact on child development. I feel that if the baby comes into the world with welcoming arms, this will assist him or her to bond better to others, as their first reaction to others is a welcoming one. I think that from the first moments that the child id born, it reacts to its environment. Birth complications can definitely have an effect on the child’s development where in some instances cause long term handicaps.

My dad was born in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. I had the opportunity to visit this small town last year. It is 15 minutes from the coastline and is about two hours away from the closest city. Babies are born in the same conditions as my father was born in, 53 years ago. No signs of modern medicine have been introduced to this region of the state. Not one family owns a car so to transport someone to get medical checkups is not done. There are no hospitals near by so babies are born within the home. Usually the oldest woman of the home serves as the midwife. In the case of my father, it was his grandmother who assisted his mother. The families are usually composed of more than five siblings. The town is known for its agriculture and farming. Since the land needs to be worked, men are boys are valued more than girls. Men do not partake in the birthing process. When the baby is born, the father goes out to kill a pig or goat to make a feast to welcome the new addition to the family.

In comparing my experience of being apart of my sister giving birth in a hospital and that of how a child coming into the world where my father is from makes me wonder how women and their families in that area cope with the loss of an infant due to no or immediate medical attention? After so many generations, is it part of culture and a part of life?