Connecting to Early Childhood Organizations

I chose three agencies in Illinois that I feel have strong missions regarding the I,prove meant of the caref for, services for, and lives of young children. I am very familiar with two of these agencies. The third is new to me, but looks like a very interesting and positive entity in Illinois.

The first agency I chose is actually my employer, Illinois Action for children, www.actforchildren.org. The mission statement of IAFC is "Illinois Action for Children is a catalyst for organizing, developing and supporting strong families and powerful communities where children matter most.". Their vision is to make children and families a priority in Illinois. They work to make this vision a reality by providing various sorts of financial and social assistance to children and families. It is impossible to write here all of the services they provide and all of the advocacy work that they do, so I highly recommend thT everyone take a look at their website.

The next agency I cose is the Illinois Resource and Referral agency, or INCCRRA. Http://www.inccrra.org. The Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies is a statewide organization which – in partnership with its 16 partner Child Care Resources and Referral (CCR&R) agencies – is a recognized leader, catalyst and resource for making high quality, affordable early care and education and school-age options available for children and families in Illinois.

INCCRRA provides free training for Early Childhood staff, grants for Childcare workers to go to school or to stay in their current schools, assistance and referrals for families, mental health services for children and much more.

The final agency I chose is Voices for Illinois Children, http://www.voices4kids.org. Voices for Illinois Children champions the full development of every child in Illinois to assure the future well-being of everyone in the state. They work with families, communities and policymakers on all issues to help children grow up healthy, happy, safe, loved, and well educated.

I am actually very happy in my current job, but am always looking for ways to provide better care and education to my students. I think that the most important trait to have for any jobs in these agencies is a passion for providing quality education to young children.

Hope for the future

My biggest hope is that I can have a positive influence on children and families, and, therefore, on society. I think that spreading tolerance is the key to the future of humankind.

I have gained a real understanding of the importance of respecting and celebrating human difference, and of helping children to see their own worth as well as the worth of others. I have gotten so much out of reading the blogs and discussion posts of my classmates. I so appreciate the passion for anti-bias education that has been shared with me. Good luch to everyone.

Challenges of Young Serbian Children

My husband is Serbian, so it seemed natural for me, when looking at challenges of different groups of children around the world, to look at a group that is close to my heart. Serbia was once a part of communist Yugoslavia. In the 90's the region had a bloody civil war which, following carpet bombing by the Clinton administration, resulted in the break up of Yugoslavia into several smaller countries -one being Serbia.

Children of Serbia have faced many challenges since the war. Thousands of children were left physically and emotionally scarred. Even more were left orphaned. The level of poverty within this war torn country was unimaginable. The majority of Serbian children grew up in overcrowded orphanages with little food or resources. Even those who had families had very little sustenance in their lives. While the country tried to rebuild itself and adjust to a new form of government, many families and children suffered.

Things are looking up for the children of Serbia today, but their is still a long way to go. Under the communist system, every citizen was given a job and education was provided based on proficiency. Employment was determined at a young age, and education was provided as training for future employment. The system had to shift because now people must be competetive to survive. The idea of all inclusive education in Serbia is new, and many people with children who are disabled or marginalized are not aware of their children's right to an education or of how to obtain resources for their children. Currently UNICEF is working to change that, and to ensure that all of the children of Serbia receive an education.

Sexualization too soon

It is true that media has created far more opportunities for young children to be exposed to ideas about sex and sexuality at a far younger age than they have been in the past. This made me think about the children who are in my life, and about indications of this sexuality. I had a girl in my three year old room last year, for instance, who announced to the class that she was pregnant and that one of the boys in the class was the "baby daddy.". I have a girl this year who dances in a manner that even a stripper might find embarrassing.

These experiences combined with examples in the article made me think a lot about the exposure young children have to sex as well as the ease of access to sexual materials. It can even happen by accident. A person may be searching for something innocent on the Internet, and find sexual content instead. For example, I recently did a search for pictures of tacos for a class display, and many pornographic photos popped up on the screen. These things happen to children as well.

I think we are living in a time when adults must be open to discussing these issues even with young children when necessary. I am not a proponent of exposing young children to sexuality, but it is also important to not ignore the exposure that children are receiving and to be ready to answer questions in age appropriate ways. It is important to explain things to children so that they are clear about what they are seeing in the media, and are clear about what they should and should not act out at their age.

Experiencing Bias

I do know how it feels to be in an unfamiliar culture with people speaking an unfamiliar language. My husband is originally from Serbia. For this reason, we go to Serbian church, Serbian stores and Serbian restaurants. I, however, do not speak Serbian, and still, after many years, feel unfamiliar and uncomfortable with the Serbian culture. whenever I am with Serbian people, I feel very awkward and shy. I also feel very stupid and childish because I have a difficult time following conversations and understanding what is happening around me. I have my husband to translate and explain for me, and people are always kind and understanding, but the translation and smiles from people often leave me feeling more incompetent, and wishing nobody were paying attention to me. These situations do not last long for me, and I am able to leave these specific places and immediately return to the world I am accustomed to, but this has made me more sensitive to immigrant families who only have their homes and possibly a small community in which to feel comfortable, confident, and able to be themselves.

So, I already know what it is to feel awkward in different cultural situations. The assignment, though is to consider how it would be to be on the tail end of bias situations. I imagine that it would be so hurtful and damaging to my self esteem if I not only were left feeling uncomfortable but were treated with bias as well. Bias is hateful treatment of a person due to differences from self. If I were to go to a pace where I not only felt uncomfortable and awkward but was treated in negative ways due to others perceptions of me, it would be extremely difficult to even attempt to risk communicating or even drawing attention to myself due to fear of poor treatment. I would not want to return to that place, and if I had to return, I would keep myself to myself. I cannot imagine I would be able to do a good job or be at all productive within this type of environment.

Communication Observation

Today I observed a man who was out sledding with his young son. The boy appeared to be about six or seven years old.

The boy was talking excitedly and constantly about his experiences on the sled. He was telling his father every detail of his ride down the hill, watching other people sled and talking about them, making noises when it looked like people might crash or fall, and laughing loudly. The man, on the other hand was pretty quiet and stoic, but smiling and nodding at his excited son.

The little boy was trying different ways of riding the sled down the hill. Sometimes sitting, sometimes lying down, sometimes backwards, sometimes alone, and sometimes with his father. He would tell his father, each time, how he wanted to go down the hill, and then his father would help him onto the sled and help him start going down the hill. When the father didn't sled with his son, he would walk down the hill in order to help the boy drag the sled back up.

Even though the father wasn't doing a lot of talking, I thought their communication was great. The boy clearly felt appreciated and heard and free to talk. The father clearly listened to his son because he helped him sled in the different ways that he described. The father never told the son how to do things or how not to do them. He simply listened and supported his son in his ideas.

I thought a lot about the idea of stepping back and listening to children without looking for particular responses or coaching them into the responses we want them to have. This father stepped back, listened and supported, and therefore, his son felt happy and confident and willing to take risks and try new things. Also the fathers body language and facial expression showed that he was enjoying listening to what his son had to say.

Family Childcare Home

My actual home childcare center dream would be to have a co-op program on a large piece of land that would focus on nature education. I would choose to create a co-op program because it would give families the opportunity to volunteer time in lieu of money so that they could receive quality care at a discounted rate, as well as be a part of the culture of the program.

My vision is to have an outdoor classroom with a community garden, farm animals, a pond and a forested area. One thing that all cultures in the world do share is a connection to the earth for food, water, air and materials. Children need to spend time in nature in order to feel that connection for themselves. Once they feel that connection,they can really feel that they are part of the global community and they can better appreciate the contributions and connections of other cultures.

Another great way of sharing cultures is sharing foods. One way I would like to integrate this into my program would be to grow the foods from the families cultures that can be grown here. I would also ask the parents to share recipes or foods from their culture with the entire group. I would like to have family pot lucks where everyone would share family foods with each other.

Language and artifacts would also be a very important part of my program. I would ask families to share items from their home cultures and to teach us some of their home language and these things would be integrated into our program.

Of course, I would also include multicultural costumes, play foods, instruments, dolls, toy houses and material.