For this Blog assignment I decided to look at
childhood poverty in Russia. Russia is in the spotlight right now because of
the upcoming Olympic events; therefore I was interested to see where this
country stood on poverty. The first insight that I found to be a profound
statistic is that the highest rate of poverty and deterioration is that of the
age group 0-14yrs. The children, the future of their country, are living in
deteriorating, poverty stricken environments. During these young years is where
development is the most vital and the children are growing up in poor
environments with an idea that this is the norm. The second insight that I found
to be interesting is that parents are actually looking at poverty rates and
considering that having more than one child could be a factor. Because of this
parents are electing to not have more than one child. This can and will have a
huge impact on the future of their society. The impact on the country’s
demographics could be irreversible. There also seems to be an assumption by the
policy makers that policy and practices that will work for adults will also
help the children. It seems as though the elderly are better protected from
poverty then the children in this country. To me this article states that the
key component that is missing is the idea that the children are the future of
this country and it is already off to a really bad start.
No matter what country you are in the children need
to be at the top of your priority list. They are the future policy makers,
leaders, and educators of society and when left to such deteriorating
environments their development is negatively affected. We must promote healthy and
nurturing environments that will ensure the progression of positive
development.
The beginning stages of life are the most vital in relation
to development. The Zero to Three organization is a non-profit organization put
together to bring knowledge and resources to families, educators,
professionals, and policy makers to help them further their knowledge in the
development of children from birth to three years of age. This organization
also emphasizes the importance of the role of the adults in a child’s life in
these stages.
All of the areas that this website covers are vital to the development;
however the one area that caught my eye is that they cover the subject of
maltreatment. This is more common in infants and young children and the Zero to
Three organization explains how this affects their growth and development. This
brought to mind a documentary that I had watched about feral children. This
story that I have posted below shows how a child who was severely abused and
neglected had missed important milestones in language development and it
permanently affected her.
There are a lot of tools on this website for various areas
of development. The main goal of this organization is to bring awareness to the
importance of the first three years. These vital developmental years can have
direct effect on the future of the child, even into adulthood.
I have contacted Australia and Germany. I chose Australia because it is a country I have always wanted to learn more about. I selected Germany because of an experience I had as a little girl. My father sponsored a man from Germany when I was about 5 years old and he stayed with us in our home for a few weeks. I was very intrigued by his presence in my home and I wanted to learn more. I am interested to see how these contacts expand my knowledge in the Early Childhood field outside of the US.
For expanding my resources I chose to work with the Zero to Three website. This is a website that I have used in the past but I hope to dive deeper into the knowledge they provide. I have four children of my own and I feel this website will not only encourage my further knowledge for my educational field but also for my own personal use as well. You can never have too many resources or enough education when it comes to children. The world around us is constantly changing, evolving and so our practices should be doing so as well. As an educator it is my job to keep up with the changing world and learn new tools for implementing proper practices.
Support, my personal definition is a
collaboration of people, literature, self-help, and resources that work
together to help you through adversities and even the encouragement through
good times we face in our life. These entities work together only if you allow
them. If you accept the support and work together with them to promote a
healthy life style you will become victorious. I believe that self-support is
the first obstacle that many of us have to accept as a way to work through
adversities. We cannot wallow in guilt and pity and expect others to do all the
work for us. We have to put in a little work ourselves. When we decide we want
to work our way through the day and be an active participant we can then accept
the support from others and have an open mind to look for resources and
consider what those resources have to offer us.
In the past year I have faced an adversity in my
life that has caused heartache and many obstacles. There were mornings I would
wake up and want to stay under the covers and not emerge for the day ahead. I
had support myself and have the determination to get out of the bed, once I did
I then had to look to my support to help me cope with the day or sometimes even
just the next hour ahead. I would call my support group which consisted of
close friends and family members. The people in my support group listened, gave
non-judgmental words of encouragement, asked what I needed, and also asked what
they could do to help me. When I needed time to myself without those specific
supports I could look to literature and other resources that would help boost
my energy to keep fighting through the day. The best quality of a support group
of people is that they know when you need them and how to be there and they
also know when it is time to back off and give you room to breathe. When I
speak of literature I am referring to books, online literature or even taking
to writing in a journal of your own. Resources are those support groups online,
music, or groups that gather in support of one another.
The benefits of support are to rely on another
person, place, or thing in order to help put one foot in front of the other.
When we cannot find the answers we are looking for, when we just need a
shoulder to cry on, or when we need a pat on the back to say that we did the
right thing, that is what a support system does for us. For me without the
support I would not make it through many of my days. I would suffer mentally
and I would say also physically. I would feel alone, become depressed, and
ultimately physical illness would affect me. If we are not of sound mind, mentally
and emotionally healthy we cannot be physically healthy as well. For me I need
to seek within myself to take on the day and know when to use the support
system that I have established.
Share the challenge you chose to imagine and the
thoughts you have with regard to supports you would want and need. Again,
describe factors within your daily environment would be supportive to you,
including the ways in which these factors would provide support. Describe what
you see as the potential benefits of these supports. How difficult would it be
to exist without these supports? The impact they would have on your life if
they weren't there?
We were asked to share a challenge we do not
currently have. Let me first say that the adversity that I have been discussing
so far is that I have a close family member who is afflicted with the disease
of alcoholism/addiction. So the challenge that I chose to imagine would be if
this person falls victim to this disease and ultimately dies. This is an
imagined challenge but it is also a very real possibility for me that I have
thought about more times than I care to share.
Before I go any further I want to acknowledge why I
chose to share this challenge I face on a day to day basis along with the
imagined challenge. Alcoholism/Addiction is a disease; it is also a family
disease that has a stigma that has clouded the judgment of many people. When people
and their families are affected by the disease they hide in shame and embarrassment
when in reality the statistics are that 15 million of Americans are affected by
the disease (http://alcoholismstatistics.net/).
Think about that, 15 million people, now think about all of the family and
friends around them that are affected, how common does it seem to be now? If I
can share and help one person, then I will feel like I have accomplished
something at the end of the day. Sometimes speaking out can save a life and you
do not even know that you did.
So now we think about this real possible challenge
that many people face on a day to day basis. If this scenario ever hit home for
me, the support system I have now would be my life line. I would need emotional
and physical support. I might even literally need the physical support to
remove myself from the depths of sadness I would for sure face. This would
affect our entire family and we would all need support to help one another
grieve. We would also support each other in the daily activities and trying to
move on with our lives without this most important person in our lives. The benefits that the support system would
bring me would save my life. Daily living skills would be supported by those in
my family and close friends, while they would also meet my emotional needs. I
know that I would have to find the strength to move on and support my family as
well, but that is what defines a family unit, love and support.
For anyone who is need of help I will refer you to
these resources.
Play
energizes us and enlivens us. It eases our burdens. It renews our natural sense
of optimism and opens us up to new possibilities.
Stuart Brown, MD Contemporary American psychiatrist
It’s 1984 and I am 6 years old. When I wake up in
the morning I get dressed and quickly eat a bowl of cereal. Before my mom can
get me to brush my hair or my teeth I am out the front door. I do not need many
material things to keep me happy and engaged because I love to be outside and
the neighborhood is filled with children my age. Also my grandparents live
directly across the street and my cousin who is a year older than me often
comes to visit. Our street is only two blocks long, everyone knows each other,
and the road is barely used by cars except for those who live on the street.
This is our playground and there is an abundance of things for us to do. One of
my favorite things to do is take my boom box outside with me and set it on the
front steps and listen to music. Two of my closest friends live about four
houses down and that is where I begin my day, knocking on their front door
waiting for them to come out and play with me. Once they are permitted to come
out and play we go back down to my house and put on the music. On this
particular day we decide to listen to a song and create a dance to the words of
a song. Yakety Yak by the Coasters is the song we like. We play the song over
and over acting out what we interpret the song to mean. I even take the broom
from my mother’s kitchen closet to pretend to sweep. We do this for what seems
to be hours.
When my friends and I have become bored with our
dance project we decide to play kick ball. To play kick ball we have to get the
rest of the kids in the neighborhood to come and join us. The boys from down
the street come over and we have a game going. With all the kids in the
neighborhood we have about 12 kids so we can evenly split the teams. Of course
the boys do dominate the girls, but we still hold our own. My dad comes out and
volunteers to pitch the ball to us and helps us make bases. We had bases made
out of pizza boxes, someone’s shirt, or even a broken down pop can. Our field
is in the street, but there is never a time that we get worried about cars.
Even when a car did travel down the road we would pause the game and
immediately go right back to where we were. We all got along and there were
hardly ever any conflicts between us while we were playing, above arguing
whether we got the guy out at second base. It is time for lunch and some
parents try to get their children to come home but most just figure we will eat
when we are hungry. My mom would sometimes let everyone come out to the back
porch and she would make us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
On hot days we had a pool and of course we were the
house to gather at. We could swim for hours. There were many games we liked to
play such as Marco Polo, catch, or creating a whirlpool were everyone worked
together walking as fast as we could around the edge of the pool. We never
stopped moving during the day. We would take a break from the pool and ride our
bikes around the block and then get back in the pool. On most days we had to be
in when the streets lights came on. We would cry and argue while begging for
just a few more minutes. However, there were some days that our parents would
light the tiki torches and allow us to go night swimming. It is funny to me
that as active as we were throughout the day we were still up early in the morning
to start again.
When
children pretend, they’re using their imaginations to move beyond the bounds of
reality. A stick can be a magic wand. A sock can be a puppet. A small child can
be a superhero.
Fred Rogers
American children’s television host
For me adults were involved but not actively. We
were left to our own imaginations. We figured out what to play, how to play it,
and what materials we were going to use to have the most fun with it. We were
not just physically active. We were using the tools in our mind actively
creating scenarios for play. If you told us back then that we were learning and
growing while we were playing, we would not believe you, and it might have even
taken the fun out of it.
I believe that play today is extremely different
than when I was younger, for many reasons. Electronics and media use has grown
and children rarely ache to be outdoors. When I was younger the most television
we would watch is Saturday morning cartoons and maybe a movie here or there
when my parents allowed it. Children today have their eyes glued to the
television, video game, computer, Ipad, Ipod, cell phone, or etc. Physical
activity is not at the top of their priority list. I feel children need to
learn how to play and use their imagination. It seems to me that these media
outlets are not leaving much imagination up to the children and it seems to be
desensitizing them as well. My hope is that parents start getting more involved
and guide their children to more active play, limit their time with technology
and show them what fun they can create outside.
For me, play has taught me many things. When I was
younger we played from the time we opened our eyes until we passed out in our
beds at night. Our minds were constantly engaged and our imaginations ran wild.
I was physically active and stayed physically healthy. Staying physically happy
is not the only positive aspect. When we played we were using our minds,
creating, and building on the learning foundations that were laid by parents
and teachers. Little did we know at the time that while playing kick ball we
were using mathematical tools. Today in adulthood I still know how to play. I
have four children that I am always playing with. Their technology time is limited,
but there are moments when I come in and shut the television off and say it is
dance party time. We dance, laugh, and sing. Playing is not only good for the
mind in terms of development and learning; it is also good for the emotional
and mental well-being of a child or adult. Stress is a fact of life, we all
face it at some point in time and some face it more than others. When we play,
even as an adult, we lessen the impact of stress in our lives.
If
you want to be creative, stay in part a child, with the creativity and
invention that characterizes children before they are deformed by adult
society.
When a person says the word “relationship” the assumption
is that they are talking about a man and a woman. However, relationship is a
bond, interconnection, or a kinship that you hold with any other person or even
pet. My relationships that I hold dear to my heart are those with my husband,
children, family, and friends. These relationships are important to me because
I rely on them in as many ways as they rely on me. In these relationships we
support, respect, and love one another unconditionally and through good times
and bad. Relationships between these people keep my head lifted high when I am
having a good day and they know me well enough to recognize when I need to be
cheered up or just have a shoulder to cry on. Above all else the relationships
that I have with my husband, family, and friends are the reasons I wake in the
morning and strive to be a better person every day.
My husband and I have a very close relationship. We
have struggled through tough adversities and come out the other side when most
couples would have probably thrown in the towel. He and I stand by each other
no matter what the situation may be. We are partners in life and in parenthood
and we share the responsibilities of raising our four beautiful children. We
might not always get along, but that makes us stronger to recognize our
differences, know when to apologize, and then remember to move on and not hold
a grudge. We know each other well enough to know when the other one either
needs extra attention or just time to themselves. Our relationship can be
challenged by the many different diversities that life can bring to the table,
but in the end we know that together is the only way to overcome them.
My children and I have a relationship that only a
mother can understand. Even though children love their parents unconditionally,
it is still a one sided relationship at times because they are not old enough
to appreciate the relationship and what it stands for. The respect that
children find for the relationships with their parents usually does not come
until they become adults, or even parents themselves. The bond that a mother
has with their child is something from a story book. I take long moments to
just sit back and watch my children and I am in awe of them. I cannot believe
how full they have made my heart and how much I want to do with myself in order
to provide a good life for them. I want to be a positive role model in their
life and I want to make sure that when they do become parents they can look
back and be proud of the mother that I was to them.
I have many friends, but two of these friends are
very close to me now. These relationships are relatively new as well. I had
close friends growing up and unfortunately as an adult you learn that when your
lifestyle changes, your friends might not hang around for that change. The
thing about these two friends that I have now is that I was willing to confide
in them when I needed help and guidance and they took me in with no judgment. I
was facing rather trying time in my life and I did not know if I could trust
them, but I put myself out there and I will always be glad that I did. Stacey
and Alison are two people that I would do anything for, they are like my
family. They have been by my side when no one else wanted to be and never once
hesitating to be there. That is an example of a true friendship. Even if we do
not talk for a few days we can call each other and pick right back up where we
were. For example, last Sunday I needed desperately to separate myself from
life and just take a break for a minute. I called Stacey up and she said I am
on my way. And then in ten minutes she was at my door picking me up just so we
could go somewhere for me to whine and vent.
Developing relationships can be challenging when you
are not willing to take chances and trust other people. Being open with others is
how to form a relationship and also how we maintain that relationship as well.
We need to be great communicators when it comes to our relationships. People
are not capable of reading minds, even in our best relationships, we might know
something is wrong but the other person has to open up and share what is on
their mind. When this communication exists it makes it possible to help one
another and also to strengthen the bond that the relationship holds. I have had
relationships that have grown in opposite directions, but from my point of view
if those people ever wanted to have the relationship grow back together again I
would be more than willingto
communicate.
There are characteristics that maintain a
relationship and there are also characteristics that make a relationship a
partnership as well. My husband and I sometimes good or bad have brutal honesty
with each other. I am able to tell him when I need him, he is able to tell me
when he has just had enough, and we are able to relate to each other as a man
and woman and also as parents. We work together in life and on a daily basis to
keep the house running and the kids on the right track to success in their
future. Besides honesty I feel compromise is another characteristic that works
well in our relationship in order to make it a partnership. If I cook dinner
tonight then you have to do homework with the kids, or I will feed the baby if
you give the other kids a bath, these are just some examples of our compromises
on a daily basis. And there are days where either he or I might feel burned out
and the other will pick up the slack. For example, I had surgery not long ago
and my husband took care of me, the kids, and the house. He did the best he
could to make sure I was rested and the house was close to my standards.
My knowledge of working and non-working
relationships will help me become a better communicator, active and reflective
contributor, and positive role model for the children that I work with. I would
even hope that my colleagues would take note to the open communication lines
that I display. Children need to see that honest and active communication is
how positive relationships are formed. Even when we think that they are not
watching they are soaking in all of the activity in their surrounding
environments. If I talk to a colleague disrespectfully, children will witness
it and question whether that is appropriate or not and in turn whether it is
vital to have a positive relationship or not. We as educators and parents need
to role model for the children positive relationships and how we handle
diversity and work through adversities.