Time Well Spent

Wow -I can't believe this program is actually coming to an end. I have to admit that there have been times when I felt overwhelmed, and when I felt like the weeks were melting one into another and times when they seemed to overlap. There were times when I resented the sacrifice of time with my children and family. However, now that the courses are ending, I realize what an important, enjoyable, major part of my life they have become. I realize now how much I will miss the discussions, the discovery of new ideas in ECE, and the words of encouragement from my colleagues.

I have learned so much in the past 19 months that it is difficult to narrow it down to three major ideas. However, there are some really important concepts I have come away with. The first is the idea of the international Early Childhood Community, and the realization that in every culture there is the common thread that people want what is best for young children. I also learned a lot about including and accepting different cultural and linguistic groups into my classroom. Finally, I was able to gain a lot of knowledge about all of the wonderful resources available for early childhood practitioners.

I have decided to go on and begin the PhD program in Early Childhood Education at Walden this summer. Eventually, I would like to work as an advocate for combining Early Childhood programs with nature preserves to provide quality environmental education and time in nature to young children.

I have enjoyed working with all of you, and have enjoyed the journey of self discovery this program has provided. Good luck to all of you on all of your undertakings. Please feel free to keep in contact. I am on face book under kristi yapp, or can be reached at mamaearth@comcast.net.

International Early Childhood

I always find looking at Early Childhood organizations internationally to be very interesting. This is because childhood looks very different around the world, but the goals of adults who work with young children remains very much the same. I found three organizations that have goals very similar to my own in the field of Early Childhood Education:

Association for Early Childhood International

http://www.acei.org/



The mission of the Association for Early Childhood International is to promote and support the optimal education and development of children worldwide, and to influence the professional growth of educators and the efforts of others who are committed to the needs of children in a changing society. They are committed to providing optimal services in order to help every child in the world have a healthy, positive start at life.


UNICEF

http://www.unicef.org/earlychildhood/index_action.html



My first contact with UNICEF was over twenty years ago when i went to a UNICEF store in New Mexico where they sold Native American made products, and then used the proceeds to improve conditions and education at the reservation schools. I didn't know at that time that UNICEF actually works to improve conditions for children all around the world. UNICEF focuses on three areas of intervention for early childhood development: quality basic health, education and protection services; good care practices for children within the family and community; and early child development policies.  UNICEF works with governments and other partners to achieve the following objectives to increase the likelihood of all disadvantaged children benefitting from interventions:

Save the children

http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6146355/k.24E9/Who_We_Are.htm


Save the Children is so familiar because they have had ads on TV for so long. Save the Children is the world's leading independent organization for children. Their vision is a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation. Their mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives.

I would love to work for any one of these great organizations. Unfortunately, any positions they have listed would require mobility, and I am pretty well rooted with my family right now. Maybe after my children are grown and my husband is retired.

No Child Left Inside

I am exploring the need of time in nature in young children, ant the effects of lack of time in nature for my Capstone Project. While researching this subject, I found several national organizations with the same goal of ensuring that children are provided with time to explore the natural world.

National Environmental Education Foundation

http://www.neefusa.org/health/children_nature.htm

The NEEF has specific goals for creating environmental education programs for all children:


Environmental education in our schools: Core environmental knowledge for America's children while improving their overall academic success. Program includes: Classroom Earth and EE Week.

Environmental education for the adult public: Baseline environmental knowledge for America's adults to make more informed decisions. Program includes: Earth Gauge (Weather) and National Public Lands Day.

Environmental education for health professionals: A stronger public health safety net through environmentally educated healthcare providers. Program: Health & Environment initiative.

Environmental education for business managers: Training and information to help business managers align corporate environmental values and day-to-day operations through employee education. Program: Business & Environment initiative.

Their website describes the many great Environmental Education programs they offer. The most interesting of these, for me, is the prescription for playing outdoors program, in which they are asking pediatricians to prescribe daily time in nature over medication for many childhood ailments.

The website also offers many activities, ideas and publications regarding creating environmental education programs both inside of and outside of schools.

National Environmental Education Week

http://eeweek.org/

The National Environmental Education Week Foundation is a group dedicated to raising the awareness of the importance of environmental education. They organize a week each year in April where they ask educators and schools to pledge to include environmental education activities into their curriculum. They also offer a great deal of information on the importance of time in nature for development, as well as ideas off lesson plans, activities, and making connections with families and local environmental agencies.

National Park Service

http://www.nps.gov/index.htm

The United States National Park Service also offers wonderful resources for teachers and students. They provide curriculum aides, loan learning materials, and offer distance learning opportunities via the Internet for students all over the world. For instance, if you live hundreds of miles from the grand canyon, you can still provide grand canyon experiences to students via the long distance learning programs they offer. Additionally, they provide lesson plans for discovering nature in your own neighborhood, regardless of where you live. It is truly a great resource.

I think the information in these resources will really help me to organize my capstone project and to add environmental education experiences into my own classrooms.

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.