Sharing Web Resources

As I continued to scan the NACCRRA website this week, I was impressed to see that they have a section where they provide links to media sources such as newspapers and magazines that have current articles related to child care. This week they posted a link to the Startribune.com on the subject of overcrowded child cares and the problems it causes. They also have links to several states with informational facts about child care needs for that state.  A fact that caught my attention is that in Indiana they list that only 2% of the child care that is requested from residents is for nontraditional daycare hours.  I am researching further to see what they define nontraditional child care hours as. In my community there is a high demand for day care providers that have 2^nd and 3^rd shift openings.  I would have thought that they percentage would have been higher for the state. Overall this week I have utilized several of the resources that the website makes available. I encourage everyone to check out the website to see if it can be beneficial to you also.

NACCRRA’s agenda that is posted on their website seems to have children’s best interest at hand. They are pushing for more accountability for child care providers in order to ensure children are receiving quality care. Some things mentioned were background checks for all providers, more frequent inspections for providers that receive government subsidies, and higher income limits for families so they are able to get help in paying for quality child care.  They want a child's environment to be safe and a place where they have security while they  spend so many hours away from their parents.

Reference: http://www.naccrra.org/

Getting to Know Your International Contact

Part 1

As I blogged in week 1 about my podcast that I listened to already, I chose to go back to the World Forum Radio and listen to another podcast from Barbara Jones whom founded Pine Grove school in Maine in 1985. Pine Grove is a preschool based on the theories of Montessori, Piaget, Rogers, and John Dewey. It is a preschool dedicated to child-centered learning.  Her school was featured in Exchange magazine in 2010. I enjoyed listening to how she discovered an old school house in the woods and wrote a letter to the owners that she wanted to buy it and what her dreams for it were. It wasn’t available to be purchased so she waited and they contacted her years later and she began her dream. Barbara Jones podcast was inspirational in that she knew what she wanted to do with her life and her education and she pursued her goals until she made it happen.  You read more about her little school in the woods on the website http://www.pinegrovecenter.com/index.html. As talking about poverty this week, and looking at the tuition rates for this school, children from low income families probably would not have access to an early learning experience here despite the partial scholarships available in limited quantity.

Part 2

The country that I researched on the website http://www.childhoodpoverty.org was Mongolia. Some interesting facts I learned about poverty in Mongolia are:

1.       In 1998 a survey showed that 36% of the population was living below poverty guidelines despite continuing increased macro-economic stability and growth.

2.       Many of the poorest population live in female heads of household or are children.

3.       Due to more demand being put on children to help support the household, fewer children are entering school to get an education.

4.       CHIP is researching in Mongolia whether families that choose to migrate have a better chance to get out of poverty and children have a better chance of getting an education.

NACCRRA: A Resource and Referral Website

The website that I chose to learn more about is the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. They soon will be changing their name to Child Care Aware. You can locate their website at http://www.naccrra.org/. NACCRRA's mission states that they want to "... promote national Policies and partnerships to advance the development and learning of all children and to provide vision, leadership, and support to community Child Care Resource & Referral" (NACCRRA, n.d.). You are able to sign up for a Capital Connection newsletter on their website. An issue that was mentioned in their April 23, 2012 newsletter was how NBC's Dateline show exposed how simple it is for people with violent backgrounds, criminal histories, and even convicted felons to obtain a license to provide child care to children. This opened my eyes that parents need to be aware of who is caring for their child. Ask for background checks and thoroughly investigate where your child is going to be spending most of their time when they are away from you. I am thankful that I am able to have my son with me and don't have to worry about his safety. Reference: http://www.naccrra.org/sites/default/files/default_site_pages/2012/capcon_april_23.pdf

Expanding Professional Contacts

This week for the blog assignment, I attempted to email and make contact with 15 of the contacts listed in the resources only to find that I was getting a vast amount of failed deliveries. Therefore I listened to the podcast on the World Forum Foundation Radio from Susan Lyon. She brought the “100 Languages of Children” exhibit to California. She also started the Innovated Teacher Project which is inspired by the Reggio Emilia School. From listening to her talk about how a young child inspired her to do her research and bring these projects to America I was inspired that I can make a difference in my community like she did. The innovative project was designed to provide resources to teachers to build their professional development where otherwise resources might not be available. The schools utilized the Reggio Approach and would meet with other teachers on a weekly basis to work together and share ideas about what was working for them. I enjoyed researching Susan Lyon and her innovative teaching project because we share the same idea of what quality early childhood education should be. A quality program should support learning of all students and have successful partnerships with families and communities.

For the second part of our blog assignment I chose to explore the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies website. I chose this website as I have a child facility and thought the resources available would benefit me. You are able to sign up for a variety of weekly and monthly newsletters distributed by the website. Providers are able to view professional development trainings available to them. There is also a section for parents and support for them to help them find quality child care for their children. There are also activities that they can do at home with their child. I enjoyed the parents’ part of the website because it is a good resource that you could share with your parents to help extend learning to the home environment. Parents and educators are able to keep up on current legislation as it relates to the early childhood field on the website. There are links to view policies and agendas.

The website is changing its name to Child Care Aware if you need to access it as a resource in the future. There are links to the new web address on the website. Overall this website offers a variety of resources to parents and child care providers. You are able to find information about your local resource and referral agency. I am familiar with my local agency and I am able to borrow learning materials for the children from their lending library, attend trainings, and keep my openings updated with them for them to match parents whom are looking for quality providers with my facility. 

My Supports

Some factors in my daily life that provide support to me are my fiancé who provides emotional support. He is there to listen if I am having a rough day, provides encouragement, and is empathetic. He also provides physical support if I need help completing tasks around the house. Another emotional support I have is my mother. She also is there whenever I need her and always provides reassurance. She also provides physical support because we do family child care together. We are there to work together to complete a common task, which is providing quality child care and support to our day care families. My children also provide emotional support. You always can count on unconditional love from your children. Some other supports that I have are my job which provides my family with financial support. Without this financial support there would be a burden of making ends meet. I think that I would become more stressed because I would feel like I am not contributing equally. Some practical support I have in my life is my daily planner and my cell phone. I think these are practical supports because I can keep in contact with anyone throughout the day and I also know what is going on for the day so I don’t feel overwhelmed. My planner and cell phone help organize my life to make it run a little smoother.

I think that if I lost any of these supports then I wouldn’t feel whole. All the supports in my life complement each other and make us who we are. Life would be tougher if you didn’t receive emotional support from family and friends. Physical supports make life easier, but aren’t always necessary. We sometimes take for granted how good we have it. Monetary support is essential to be able to live life comfortably. I am very fortunate to have such a good job and not have to worry about where my money is going to come from to pay rent and utility bills.

The challenge that I imagined myself having was being paralyzed. If I were to become paralyzed I would require many supports both emotionally and physically. Having a disability such as being paralyzed would cause me to have to change things like being able to drive to work or transport the kids to their activities, being able to get up and down off the floor with the children at the daycare. Things that I do naturally everyday would change and I would need a lot of emotional support from my family and friends.

My Connection to Play

Quotes:

Here are two quotes that best represent the importance of play was to me as a child.

Ø  “Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning…They have to play with what they know to be true in order to find out more, and then they can use what they learn in new forms of play.” ~ Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood)

Ø  “Play is not only our creative drive; it’s a fundamental mode of learning.” ~ David Elkind (psychologist, author)

Essential Play Things When I was Young:

                                                                            

My Connection to Play:

As a young child, I can remember playing is what made my days go by so quickly. Play was a way for me to interact with my siblings, friends, and neighbors. We played on our own making new adventures as we made our way over the entire neighborhood. I don’t necessarily remember an adult playing a supporting role when we played except to call us at dark when it was time to come home, or when we needed to take a break to get something to eat. My mom or other neighborhood moms would also be there if you got hurt. Other than those times adults didn’t join in play or initiate play like we sometimes do today.

Play is very different today than it was when I was a child. Today parents have to be more concerned with their children’s safety. When I was young safety was my mom telling me that I was going to fall out of the tree and break something if I wasn’t careful. I also think that video games and other electronic media have taken precedence over children going outside and having unstructured play time. It was hard for me to think of three significant play things that I had when I was younger. Play to me was more about being active and using my imagination to play school, beauty shop, or outside making mud pies for my restaurant. I had toys but they weren’t things that I played with every day. Play today seems more complex and less interesting to children. They need a video game or television to entertain them. Children do not engage in creative play as much as I did when I was younger.

Relationship Reflection

I feel that relationships are important in your life because it is good for your health and no one wants to go through their entire lives alone. I have several relationships that are important to me. My relationship with my children is important because I have a mutual bond with them emotionally. My relationship continues to grow daily with my children as they grow, develop, and accomplish new things in life.

Another relationship that is important to me is the relationship with my brothers and sister. This relationship is especially strong because we share so many memories and stories since we were children and will continue to do so for a long time. I know I can rely on the relationships with my siblings because they are so strong and the bonds you develop with them won’t be broken. I am very fortunate to have such strong relationships with my family.

I also have relationships with people that I can call partnerships. My first partnership is with my fiancé. We have committed to a partnership and making decisions for our family together. We have trust, respect, and an understanding of the different roles that we are going to contribute to the relationship. These are all things that are required of a partnership.

With my mom I feel that I have a personal relationship and also a partnership. I have a personal bond with my mother. I can share anything with her. When I was younger she used to do things that got on my nerves, but now that I am older I can see she did what she did because she loved me. I find myself patterning some of the things that I do with my children after things she did.  The relationship I have with my mom is the most important relationship to me. I also have a partnership with my mother as we own a child care center together. We make mutual decisions about the business. This relationship is separate from our personal relationship and we do not let the business come between our personal relationships.

I also have partnerships with my child care families. We work together on caring for their children and providing them with opportunities to grow and be successful. We share responsibility in teaching the child new things and helping them grow emotionally, cognitively, and developmentally.

I couldn’t imagine if I didn’t have the relationships or partnerships I have in my life. I think that if I didn’t have these relationships then my life wouldn’t be as fulfilled as it is. I am grateful for the many types of relationships that I have and the opportunities to strengthen and grow each one.