My Supports

I have so many supports I could include in this blog.
My sister is a huge support for me. She inspires me to want to set goals and achieve them. She is a special education teacher, and that would be my career goal I am trying to reach. She is always there to tell me I can succeed in what ever I set my mind to.
I also have support from colleagues at work. The director I work for is very supportive of my education and my future career endeavors. She encourages me to become more of a leader and she asks for my opinion on ways to improve how we work together as one unit.
As a parent, I have support in my community with before school programs offered by the schools. These programs are wonderful for parents who may have no other alternative for their children. They offer the children activities to do and offer help with homework they may have.

My Connections to Play

One quote I loved was 

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

“Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” Mark Twain

When I was a child, play was definitely a huge part of my day. I remember going outside and playing for hours with my siblings. We would not even want to come into to eat. Playing was a great time for my family, we rode bikes, played in the creek, did gymnastics in the yard and just anything to be outside. 

I use to love playing kick ball in school or at home. I loved sports. 

My siblings and I use to do gymnastics as children and we would use a parachute just like this one in the picture. 

When I was younger, I can remember my mother telling us to go outside and play. It did not matter if it was hot or cold. We played in the snow and in the summer outside. My mother encouraged us to play outside as much as possible. 

Play today is somewhat different than when I was a child. I use to love playing outside. My mother did not allow us to sit in the house playing computer games or any video game for that matter. We spent most of our summers riding bikes, playing in the creek, working in the garden, rolling in the grass or playing some type of game outside. I used my imagination for play and I learned how to play with others and play was a huge part of my childhood. 

References

http://planningwithkids.com/2009/04/14/10-quotes-on-the-importance-of-play/

I have many relationships that help and encourage me. The first relationship is my sister. She is a strong, young woman who I look up to and admire her for all her achievements. She is always there for me and I do not know where I would be without her. The second relationship would be with my children. My children love me unconditionally and they are always there for me. I love to encourage them and I help them to understand they can accomplish anything if they set their minds to it. Everyone needs to build relationships, ones that encourage and support them.

It has been a pleasure reading all the posts on Blogs and the information offered in the Blogs have been very rewarding. Thank you so much for the information offered during this course and I wish everyone the best of luck.

Children allowed to develop at their own speed will usually win the race of life. 

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Fred O. Gosman

 child development, general | advice to parents

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There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in. 

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Graham Greene

 child development, general | on childhood | childhood

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Read more at http://quotes.dictionary.com/subject/child%20development,%20general#Gg5sjLEIEz4rJJRy.99 

I enjoyed both of these quotes. Development does depend on the child and when they are able to do expected things. It is great to have guidelines to follow, but children need support and guidance through all their mile stones. Children are amazing beings and it is a wonderful time when a child has discovered they can achieve goals and succeed in life. 

Assessment for children should be not limited to just mental assessment. A child can show extreme intelligence through books but may have no social skills what so ever. Children should have some type of assessment but it should be a broad range of assessing. The schools in my area have an assessment for children but I think the assessment does not show the child's full potential they are capable of doing.

South Korea trys to incorporate instructional learning along with play activities in their Kindergarten programs. If a weakness is found in a child's knowledge or skills the teacher must try to overcome the weakness.

I would like to talk about violence. I have experienced violence as a young child from a family member. I have unconditional love for this person and she still is a huge part of my life. As a child, I learned to cope with the abuse by trying to stay out of trouble. When I became a teenager, the abuse became more frequent because I was a mouthy teen and this added fuel to the fire. I spent most of my life trying to do things to please this person and make her happy. I wanted approval from this person and it seemed I could not get the approval I wanted, but when I became an adult it brought a different type of relationship with her.
 I would like to learn more about children of Israel. How do they live with all the disaster and violence within their country? How do their parents protect them and provide for them with the violence and poverty among them.

The public health topic I chose to blog about is breastfeeding. This has been a topic of conversation between my colleagues and I. She informed me about a plan the Mayor of NY would like to put into affect for many hospitals in September.
 Mayor Michael Bloomberg would like to have the baby formula in many participating hospitals to lock up their formula and allow nurses to distribute the formula only upon a mother's or doctor's request. The mother will need to be well informed of why experts believe that breast milk is best for their babies. They will be treating the formula as any other drug, they must be locked up and the staff must sign it out in order to distribute it.
I believe breast feeding is the way to go, but I am not quite sure how the public will respond to such a demand. I have five children, four of which I breast fed. I bonded with my first child just as I did my other four children. I chose to breast feed because it was easier, and it seemed to be the healthier way to go. I believe that many mothers may be scared with their first child or maybe they do not have adequate information regarding breastfeeding. Many places in the world may not have a choice of whether to breast or bottle feed their infants. 

Women of Afghanistan feel ashamed to ask their mothers anything about labor and deliver because they are too ashamed. Many women have midwives to help deliver their babies, but do not have the proper equipment to do so. Some women would have several days to travel to make it to the closest clinic for deliver but have a difficult time finding a way there other than on foot.

I have 5 children and each one of them was a wonderful experience, but the one I think about so often is my daughter who is now 13 years old. When I was a couple of months pregnant, the doctor thought I was having a miscarriage. He even did an ultrasound to check the baby for any movement and the flutter of her heart. There was nothing, just a small, lifeless being. I was devastated, but I had a sense of peace fall over me. As soon as the peaceful feeling happened, my little girl flipped over and her heart began to beat once again!!! Babies are amazing and true gifts.

I would like to thank everyone for making this course so interesting. I have enjoyed reading the discussion postings and blogs. I was hesitant on how to create a blog and I think I still could use much practice but everyone was terrific about my lack of knowledge in this area. I hope everyone has much success in the early childhood development field. Good luck to all.
Teresa Harris

I-1.3—To recognize and respect the unique qualities,
abilities, and potential of each child.

* All children are different and that is what makes each of them unique. I appreciate and agree with this ideal because if we, as teacher's, could step back and look at what each child has to offer it would amaze us. Children are our future and it will take all different personalities and abilities to make our future a bright one.

I-1.4—To appreciate the vulnerability of children and
their dependence on adults.

* Children depend on adults to keep them safe and to teach them many different things about our world. Children desire and need our guidance, protection, nurturing and teaching to become successful adults.

I-1.5—To create and maintain safe and healthy settings
that foster children’s social, emotional, cognitive, and
physical development and that respect their dignity
and their contributions

* Children need to have a safe environment to grow physically, emotionally, mentally and socially. Adults should desire to keep all children safe. As a teacher, I desire every child to have the opportunity to develop and grow in a safe and healthy setting.


Article: NAEYC. (2005, April). Code of ethical conduct and statement of commitment. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from
http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSETH05.pdf

WK4 Blog

http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/studies/earlychild/video/milkenvideo.cfm

Course Resources

Course Resources

• NAEYC. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, fromhttp://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/dap
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on child abuse prevention. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/ChildAbuseStand.pdf
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on school readiness. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/Readiness.pdf
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on responding to linguistic and cultural diversity. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/diversity.pdf
• NAEYC. (2003). Early childhood curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation: Building an effective, accountable system in programs for children birth through age 8.Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/pscape.pdf
• NAEYC. (2009, April). Early childhood inclusion: A summary. Retrieved May 26, 2010, fromhttp://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/DEC_NAEYC_ECSummary_A.pdf
• Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. (2010). Infant-toddler policy agenda. Retrieved May 26, 2010, fromhttp://main.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_pub_infanttodller
• FPG Child Development Institute. (2006, September). Evidence-based practice empowers early childhood professionals and families. (FPG Snapshot, No. 33). Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~snapshots/snap33.pdf
  
  Note: The following article can be found in the Walden University Library databases.
• Turnbull, A., Zuna, N., Hong, J. Y., Hu, X., Kyzar, K., Obremski, S., et al. (2010). Knowledge-to-action guides. Teaching Exceptional Children, 42(3), 42-53.
  Use the Academic Search Complete database, and search using the article's title.

• Article: UNICEF (n.d.). Fact sheet: A summary of the rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Retrieved May 26, 2010, fromhttp://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf
• Websites:
• • World Forum Foundation
    http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/about-us
    This link connects you to the mission statement of this organization. Make sure to watch the media segment on this webpage
  • World Organization for Early Childhood Education
    http://www.omep-usnc.org/
    Read about OMEP's mission.
  • Association for Childhood Education International
    http://acei.org/
    Click on "Mission/Vision" and "Guiding Principles and Beliefs" and read these statements.

• National Association for the Education of Young Children
  http://www.naeyc.org/
• The Division for Early Childhood
  http://www.dec-sped.org/
• Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families
  http://www.zerotothree.org/
• WESTED
  http://www.wested.org/cs/we/print/docs/we/home.htm
• Harvard Education Letter
  http://www.hepg.org/hel/topic/85
• FPG Child Development Institute
  http://www.fpg.unc.edu/main/about.cfm
• Administration for Children and Families Headstart's National Research Conference
  http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hsrc/
• HighScope
  http://www.highscope.org/
• Children's Defense Fund
  http://www.childrensdefense.org/
• Center for Child Care Workforce
  http://www.ccw.org/
• Council for Exceptional Children
  http://www.cec.sped.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home
• Institute for Women's Policy Research
  http://www.iwpr.org/
• National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education
  http://www.ncrece.org/wordpress/
• National Child Care Association
  http://www.nccanet.org/
• National Institute for Early Education Research
  http://nieer.org/
• Pre[K]Now
  http://www.preknow.org/
• Voices for America's Children
  http://www.voices.org/
• The Erikson Institute
  http://www.erikson.edu/

http://www.balanceyourchildsbrain.com/The_Science2/index.asp This website discusses how chemicals are released into a child's brain for proper growth

http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/notebook/2010/01/11/partnership-will-provide-model-education-begins-birth This website is about how this organization received a grant to start a program for starting educating early in life 

Personal Childhood Web

Patty, my mother, is the first person who had the biggest influence on my life. She made me feel very confident in my education. She wanted me to strive to do my very best with all of my school work, and she still shows interest in my education today. She is a strong woman and she has made me the woman I am today.

Mrs. Elliot, my sixth grade teacher gave me a passion for teaching. She showed much interest in her students and she had a desire for all children to learn and be successful. I still compare myself to her, and want to strive to be like her as a teacher. 

Blendine, my grandmother, loved and nurtured me and my siblings. We lived very close to my grandmother, and I enjoyed helping her. She was very artistic, and I wanted to learn everything she knew how to do, such as playing the piano, singing, painting, sewing, and crocheting. She had a kind heart, and wanted the best for her grandchildren. She passed the love of art onto me, because I enjoy learning about different artist, painting, drawing and much more. 

Rob, my father, worked very hard at taking care of me and my siblings financially. He made sure he worked so my mom could stay at home with me and my siblings. He has instilled in me great work ethics, good morals and values. 

William, my grandfather, was a wonderful, loving man. He loved being around his grandchildren and I always loved to talk to him. He desired to tell his grandchildren stories of when he was a boy and the things he did as a child. 

This is me and my youngest daughter, Gabrielle. She was probably 4 weeks old. She is now 5.

This book is my all time favorite book. I can not read this book without having tears come to my eyes. It reminds me of my children and how fast they grow up.

Mother's Day Card made by my 13 year old daughter when she was 5.

My children!!! I love them so much.

Today was a great day. I went to the Children's Museum at Pittsburg with my 6 year old son!!! We had a wonderful day.

Wow!!!

I did it!!!! I created a blog.