Week 4

The orgainzation I have been reading about is the NAEYC website. This website is provided with alot of of useful information to use in the Early Childhood field. They are many sections that can be helpful to you as a teacher. They have a variety of topicds you can pick out and read about a certain issue type you may have. There is a section that provides opportunities to get involved in the organization. It gives you a list of affiliated offices in different states that you can contact. NAEYC state policy efforts focus on researching and tracking national and state trends and informing NAEYC affiliates, policymakers, collaborting organizations, and other interested parties. NAEYC positions on state public polices and their impact on children brith through eight and families. This website is good for me to keep updated on any changes according to the NAEYC guidlines. It gives you standards that as a teacher you must meet and what you are suppose to be doing in the classroom to give the students you serve the best learning experience possible. It also gives you a great list of publications that you can use and order. Looking at the website I really didn't see anything that I really didn't agree on. It provided me with helpful information since I work in a center that is NAEYC accredicated.

Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre's Page

This website gave alot of useful imformation about childhood proverty. Childhood proverty is everywhere we look. It is affecting the unexpected and we need to be more prepared to be aware of what is happening around us. There are alot of children living in poverty, more than we ever expected. Children are dying from preventable disease because living in proverty their families have no means of getting them to the doctor or getting the help they need. This website had many publications that you could read about proverty. This website has a section where it can be used as a resource for policy makers, practitioners, and activist concerned about childhood proverty. It also gives some important elements of policy changes for children in proverty and ways this website outputs can be used. There is also a section that you can read about different case studies from different parts of the country. I read a few of these and they were quite interesting. It gives you a view of what things are like in other parts of the world. I would recommend this website to others to read because it provided useful information about childhood proverty. I hope and pray that one day the cycle of childhood proverty will be broken and there won't be such thing as this and families won't have to suffer from this. Today's poor children are all too often tomorrow's poor parents(www.childpoverty.org).

Organization

The orgainzation I choose was NAEYC. This organization was founded in 1926, The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is the world's largest organization working on behalf of young children with nearly 80,000 members, a national network of more than 300 state and local Affiliates, and a growing global alliance of like-minded organizations. NAEYC is the leading membership association for those working with and on behalf of children from birth through age 8. NAEYC convenes thought leaders, teachers and other practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders and sets standards of excellence for programs and teachers in early childhood education. NAEYC members include teachers, paraeducators, center directors, trainers, college educators, families of young children, and the public at large.

My Supports

Thinking about my support system in my life many people come to mind. The first person on top of the list is God. Without him so many things would not be possible. He is the one person you can always count on in any time of need. My family is a great support system for me. They are understanding when things get tough especailly when I am up doing homework and trying to make it through school so that I can better prepare myself for them in the future. Everyone needs to have someone special they can always count on and have to talk to when things get tough.

My mom would be a number one fan on my support system team. She has helped me so much during my time going to school. She has been the glue that keeps me together. She has been there and help me with my childrren by making sure they were feed and bathe when I came in from school at night. She was also working full time and then she would pick up my kids from school or daycare and take care of them for me. Without her doing this I would have never made it through school during my time.

Now that my children are older they are a good support system. My boys who are 19 year old twins help alot with their younger sister. If I am doing my homework and she is doing hers and has a problem and I can't get to it right then, they always set up on the plate and help her.

I am so thankful for all of those who have supported me in all I do and for helping me make the best of my career by giving me the courage to go back to school and help enhance my skills so that I can better my future not only for myself but for my family as well.

My Connections To Play

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” Plato

“Play is the beginning of knowledge.” ~ Anonymous

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)
“Play is the highest form of research.” ~ Albert Einstein (scientist)


This assignment got me to really thinking back into my younger days. We were never bored and always had plenty to do. We didn't sit around like kids do today we were always finding something to get into. I had to think back to the many things I played with growing up. I am posting a few toys I remember playing with back in my younger days but we also made up many things to play using things just lying around in the yard. For example, we use to take pinestraw and we would rake it up in different sections and have a walk way. We would call this our pine straw house. We would have so much fun pretending we lived in this huge pinestraw manison. Below is some other toys I remember playing with.



We thought we were something viewing many images with the viewmaster. We would watch different cartoons through these lenses.

We don't see paper dolls much anymore. I remember playing with these and having to punch out the clothes and placing them on the dolls and folding them back to make them stay. Today children have the barbie dolls to take place of the paper dolls. Times have changed.

This was a popluar game we use to play.

Etch A Sketch as been around for many years and is still around today. I remember spending many hours trying to draw something on this things and I never could figure out how to get my lines to do right.

This was the doll I loved. You would pull her string in the back and she would talk. I still have this doll today and my little girl laughed when I showed her the type of dolls we use to play with. I love my Miss Beasley and I took her everywhere. She wore the cutest little glasses.

When we were coming up we found ways to keep ourselves occupied. We had toys to play with but we would go outside and find things in the yard and invent us a toy with it. As I stated earlier we would make pinestraw houses and these would be our manisions. I remember taking items from inside to outside and my cousins and I would set up a dentist office. We would use our minds and be creative. We didn't have to have toys to play with we could always invent something to do. We were never bored. I remember after a rainy day how we would go outside and play in the mud puddles and make mud pies. We would have so much fun doing this.

Play is so different today. Children have video games, Ipods, laptop computers, portable DVD players and so much more. They don't get outside and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine but instead they stay inside and don't do anything all day but use these new technology items we have today. Children really don't know what play is about in today's world. I sit and tell my children about the things we use to do growing up and they laugh and say I wouldn't be caught doing that. We had lots of fun when I was growing up.

Quotes!!

Dr. Seuss, author
"A person's a person, no matter how small."

While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about.
~Angela Schwindt

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.

It is easier to build strong children
than to repair broken men.
Frederick Douglas 1818 – 1895

Children are like wet cement
whatever falls on them makes an impression.
Haim Ginott 1922 – 1973

Children learn what they live.
If a child lives with criticism
he learns to condemn.
If he lives with hostility
he learns to fight.
If he lives with ridicule
he learns to be shy.
If he lives with shame
he learns to be guilty.

If he lives with tolerance
he learns confidence.
If he lives with praise
he learns to appreciate.
If he lives with fairness
he learns about justice
Dorothy Nolte 1924 - 2005

Moving on!!!

It has been great reading everyone's post and it has also been a great 8 weeks and they have really went by quickly. I want to take the time to wish each of you the best of luck in your journey. We are dedicated professionals wanting to give the children we teach the best learning experience possible. I hope to see you all again in some of the others classes. Again, the best of luck to you all.

Vicki