If children receive care too late will it be too late for them?

It is not mandatory for non-elementary children to be at a certain place every week where they are cared for, taught, and provided opportunities to play and socialize with their peers. Many children enjoy attending school and often look forward to seeing their friends or going on excursions. On the other hand there are many children who do not enjoy school so much and often will choose not to go. There are many reasons why children would not want to go to school but often the reason is because they do not feel confident in their academics. Perhaps this could be from a lack of help outside of school or a late start. By late start I mean not receiving such skills and information that many children do early on in life. This kind of scenario is often seen in low-income families, Families who have to work to survive and sometimes there is not enough time to help children with schoolwork or pay for a private preschool or day care for younger children. These children are often in frustrating situations, as they may not always be receiving sufficient care due to their financial situation. This is very discouraging because early development is so vital to a child’s success. If it is never to early to learn then why do children have to wait until they are in Kindergarten before they provide and require the children with care and an education? That is 5 years of time that could have been spent working on developing children’s perceptions, skills and abilities. All children should be provided with adequate care especially the younger they are. There are many families that are aware of their role and do things such as play their unborn baby classical music in the womb and are able to pay for childcare and a preschool education and then there are others who are just not able to go to such lengths. It should be mandatory for all children to be provided with sufficient childcare as early as they need it. If a child does not receive sufficient help early on in life, there is a very good chance there will be some academic and non-academic struggles later on in life.

How can we teach acceptance of non-traditional families?

It is no surprise that the “typical” family is not so typical anymore. It is very important for teachers to be aware of this fact as to not offend or exclude anyone. By teaching children about the different types of families they will understand that not everyone lives the same way. Often children assume that the way they live is the way everyone else lives. By talking and reading about different types of families children become more aware that there are many different forms of families in the world. Another way to increase awareness about family differences is to have the children in the class share their family composition. Something the book suggested that I really liked was changing the phrase “Mom and Dad” to parents or guardians. We may not always think about how children may feel when we say things like your mom and dads will love all your artwork and they do not have a mom or a dad.
Something that may be beneficial for the children in a class would be to make a family board or something that would show the children’s family composition. It would be good for the children to have the opportunity to share their families with their classmates and be proud of their family.
Having discussions about gay or lesbian families may be upsetting to some families so talking to them about it first may be a good idea as to not offend anyone’s personal beliefs. However, it is important to talk about what gay or lesbian means if a child in the class has parents who may be gay. This may help that child to feel more accepted in the class and may help to lessen the confusion that other children may have when they see their classmates’ “non-traditional” family. The more children know the less they have to fear because of the unknown. This does not mean that you teach tell them all the information on what gay means but to give them an idea that couples are not all made out of opposite genders.

How to teach a love of skin?

Children are able to recognize that people are different and they look different as well. It is unfortunate when a child does not feel comfortable in their own skin. There is nothing that can be changed about skin color for the most part. We need to teach children to appreciate the differences of eachother even the differences of our skin.
One thing that can be done is to have children explore skin colors. They can see the different shades on their own body and look for any freckles or birth marks that set them apart. Then they could find the similarities in their skin, for example, everyone’s skin gets cold when it is touched by an ice pack and lady bugs tickle our skin when they crawl. There are also many books that explore different cultures and people from all over the world. The more children learn about eachother and themselves, the more accepting and understanding they are likely to be towards others. Sometimes there is a fear or dislike of people because of unfimiliarities, a fear of the unknown.
Children often have some very interesting ideas of why they are the color that they are. I heard one boy say he was white because he lived on the east end of the island. Another girl said she used to be white but then she ate and she turned brown. It is very important to teach children about acceptance and equality and we need to remember that they are young children who often have very mixed up views of the world.
Another important factor contributing to a child’s outlook on others and themselves is their family. Often a child coming from a prejudice household is likely to come out with some distorted views on the world. Sometimes families need to be educated and helped through some challenging issues that they may have.

Are we expecting too much of children too soon?

The early years of a child’s life are so important. It is a special time where children are beginning to explore the world. They are able to attain so much knowledge but that does not mean that their little brains should be stuffed with a bunch of information. Children learn best through hands on experiences and playing. In a school setting where children are mostly silent and playtime only accounts for 20 minutes of the day, children’s need for play and socialization is overlooked. Whatever happened to learning being fun? It seems that the fun has been replaced by worksheets and a tough curriculum. This does not exactly send the message to children that this is a fun, nice place to be. It is understandable to want children to succeed in life but by forcing them to do work inappropriate for their age, they are not likely to want to stay in school, furthering them from a brighter future.
I am not the type of person who learns well from sitting and listening to lectures. To tell the truth, I get a little bored and uninterested. I wonder if that is how children feel when they are made to do work that is not the most interesting. Children learn best through play, after all playing is what they do best. What is even better is that by having hands on experiences and taking part in activities that are interesting and age appropriate children are more likely to have a postitive learning experience and may be more enthusiastic to participate in future activities.
It may not always be the easiest task to come up with ways of teaching children but it is important to take into consideration children’s interests and abilities. Learning should be fun and more children and even adults would like school more if it was fun and enjoyable. Eventuall children will learn new things and skills, we do not need to have them perfected all at once.

How can we prevent gender stereotypes?

In Rethinking Early Childhood Education the author talks about the gender stereotypes children are exposed to and believe. It is true that in many if not most toy stores toys are obviously designated for the male and felmale role, not too many genger neutral toys can be found. What is worse is that not all of these gender specific toys are sending children the right message. What really stuck out to me was the Barbie scale of 110 pounds. Do little girls really need to start worrying about weight issues so early in life? It may seem harmless but recently I met a young girl who was in second grade and she constantly made negative remarks about her weight. Sometiems she did not even want to eat and would just sit there clearly sad and hungry. When playing with her barbies she once told me, “I wish I looked like this, she is so pretty.” I had to tell her that she was beautiful too and real so she was more special.

Children have many ideas about the world and how things work but not all their ideas are even close to accurate. They observe and begin forming their view of the world. If they can be taught that yes boys and girls are different but both are equally competent then hopefully the children will grow up having a more open mind.

Since it is not likely that the toy companies are going to change the way they make toys we need to make a conscious effort to include both genders in all activities and create encounters where genger role stereotypes can be broken. For instance, woodworking centers are great for involving all the children and everyone can see that carpentry is for girls as well. Boys can also be encouraged to take care of the babies or wash the dishes. These are more realistic scenareos for many of the children who will grow up and have children rather than shoot imaginary bad guys.

How can a place be so greatly valued?

In Rethinking Early Childhood Education the author spoke so vividly of her appreciation for a sense of place. This kind of thinking goes along with the saying of stopping to smell the roses. Our world is filled with so many beautiful features of nature that are often over looked and under appreciated. Children can become fascinated by these things in nature on their own but with an adult’s guidance and knowledge they could learn so much more. For example, a child may see a ladybug on a leaf and run to tell the teacher. The teacher can either say something like, “That’s nice” or can take this interest and turn it into a learning experience. If the teacher does not take that opportunity to teach the children on something that they are interested in then the interest may fade and a learning opportunity would be missed.

There are many benefits for appreciating our natural environment. The author mentions that by caring and appreciating for even one place can cause a person to find the beauty in another simple feat of nature. For instance, if a child enjoys going to the beach and playing in the water they can come across feelings of happiness that they may not find in other places. Their passion for the ocean may cause them to keep the surrounding environment free from things such as cans and plastic bags (often found at the beach). Later they may go to a waterfall or river and feel a similar happiness as the beach and may want to also take the same kind of care of that place as well.

In the classroom there are so many different types of lesson plans and many of them do involve nature, but how great would it be to be able to introduce a passion and eye for the simple beauties in nature. There are many resources out in our earth such as leaves, sticks, and sand that can all be used in the classroom. One idea would be to have a garden with the children. They would be able to practice science with growing seeds, commitments and responsibility from taking care of the plants, cooking skills with preparing edible plants, sensory from smelling the earth and the greenery, healthy eating habits from eating the seeds, fruits and vegetables and self-confidence from growing something that can be enjoyed by everyone.

In the New Possibilities book the author talked about the class being a valued place for the women in it. It was in the class where many of them had a chance to broaden their view on the world. It was difficult for many of them outside of the classroom but in the classroom was their chance to learn to hopefully better their lives.

Another thing that caught my attention was the mention that bookwork and tests do not necessarily prove that a person is qualified to work with children. A person’s temperament and personality plays a large role in the kind of teacher they are going to be. It was suggested by one of the students in the author’s class that things such as observations with actual children should be required beyond bookwork. I agree that just because a person passes a college class does not mean that they are ready to become a teacher. There are some people who are smart but I know that I would not want them teaching or being a part of my children’s class. There is so much more to being a teacher than people realize.

Why do we try to hide things from children?

In Rethinking the school did not want to spend too much time and effort on tragedies such as death. The school was hoping that after a couple days of mostly ignoring the subject, the students would just drop it. However, this does not seem like a very healthy way to deal with the tragic emotional damage as well as fear and confusion that may be going on within the students. We often fear what is unknown to us so if death is not something that we have ever dealt with it can be very scary and confusing. Feelings are real and suppressing them or changing the subject does not acknowledge those feelings nor does it help a child deal with such feelings. I really liked how the author had a discussion with the children and provided them with opportunities to share their feelings, questions and concerns. She even saw the opportunity to have two girls facing similar tragedies to talk with each other and a friendship came out of it.

What was the purpose for the other staff wanting to ignore the subject? Maybe it is because they did not have answers or maybe they were afraid themselves. Whatever the reason, death is real and is a part of life, the more a child understands about it the better they will be able to process the situation should it ever happen to them.

Also in the Rethinking reading the author speaks about a conflict concerning the Christmas holiday. One of the things a teacher said was that they do it this way every year. Just because something is done every year does not mean that it should continue to be done. I love the idea of learning about other holidays around the world. Not only is it a study of social science, but it also broadens a child’s view of the world. Everyone has different cultures, beliefs, religions and ways of doing things. Why not learn about the ones’ relevant to the class. Children should learn to celebrate their differences and teaching children about their own and other’s cultures and build a stronger sense of self-esteem.

Perhaps we as adults need to broaden our view of the world and learn more about others cultures and ways of life so that we could share them with our students. We are supposed to be preparing children for the world. Well the world is huge and filled with diversity. If children understand this early on they are more likely to be accepting of others differences.

The New Possibilities author sums it up pretty well when she says, “Educational philosophy is always a work in progress.” Things and times are changing. Just as we must be sensitive to the diversity of each child’s family set up, we must also be sensitive to their cultural and religious diversity as well. Years ago we may have been unaware of how important it could be to discuss things such as death, AIDS and different cultural practices. However, now we know that children are people and they must deal with difficult situations. We can help them by teaching them about unfamiliar, scary subjects such as death rather than trying to hide things and pretend as though everything is okay when often it is not.

Who deserves to be included?

In the Rethinking book the author talks about a little girl named Nyla who had some disabilities. Her mother wanted to take her out of the classroon she was in because she did not think that her needs were being met. However, she changed her mind when she overheard another child telling Nyla that she was her best friend. Sometimes adults forget that children can be very accepting of new things because so much is new to them. By keeping children with disabilities or other kinds of special needs separate from typically developing children, they will not know how to deal with people who have such differences.

It may be challenging to have children with specific need in the class because it does pose an extra chllange but there is much to be gained. For instance, a new appreciation for life often arises when working with children who have to work harder at things that we can do on a daily basis. Being prepared and informed before working with children with disabilities is very beneficial.

If there were more training offered on how to work with certin disabiities then maybe there could be more inclusive classroomssss. Children who may have some disabilities still deserve a chance to be included and involved in a classroom with other children. All children deserve a chance to be involved.

Also in the Rethinking book it talks about children who were from migrant families and some of the language barriers that were faced. It would be easier for teachers to say that the children and their families need to able to speak fluent English before entering the program but all children deserve a chance to learn and be a part of a classroom.

The New Possibilities book talked about the struggles that many women had to face on their journey to bettering their lives. They pursuesd their dreams and pressed on even when it would have been easier to give up. Their rocky past gave them strength and experience. Their past may have been dark and filled with many unfortunate experiences but they made it past all of that and are able to provide care and love for the children in their class that they may have not receive growing up.

Even these women deserve a chance to make more of their lives. They deserve just as many opportunities as anyone if not more. No one should ever be doubted or excluded because of their differences or background. Sometimes it is those factors that can create incredible characteristics.

Are we teaching them what is appropriate or available?

In the book Rethinking Early Childhood Education, the author talks about her difficulty with her son not being happy in school due to his reading abilities. First of all some schools feel that it is okay to group children together into different reading level groups. Even if it is not said out loud the children will figure out who is in a higher reading group just by talking with eachother. It is not a good message to children to let them know who is “smarter” than the others even if it is unintentional. Many children may become so discouraged by the fact that they are in the “lower” reading group and may take on that “lesser” role not wanting to even try anymore. I have knew a child who did not receive as many reading stars as her classmates and she broke out into tears telling me that she was not smart. This broke my heart. This was a very discouraging thing to hear from a sweet, curious little girl. Secondly, learning starts out so fun and colorful and then turns into photocopied, often black and white picture books with meaningless stories. Reading should be enjoyable for children. The pictures should capture their attention and the story should spark their imagination. Giving our children curriculum that is not really teaching them but only sound professional is silly. Often, teachers and parents want to see results. They try to find the quickest way to teach children something and may often end up stressing out the children or giving them work that is inappropriate for them.

There was also the instance of the teacher teaching immigrant children. She felt that it was important to teach them their first language before teaching them another language. Children are very capable of learning they just need to be allowed to do it at their own pace. By first learning their native language they will become more confident and learning a new language will be easier.

Teachers need to remember that not all families are alike and there are families who cannot help their children with their homework and those children will probably not be able to get as much out of their work. I have known families where the parents were unable to help their children with their homework and their children really struggled.

To compute or not to compute?

In Rethinking Early Childhood education the author talks about computers and young children. There are many reasons mentioned as to why using such technology at such a young age is really not necessary or appropriate, especially when considering all the other things children could be spending their time on.
When it comes to the classroom I feel that it is more appropriate to not have a computer. They are really fun and I know many children enjoy them but it is not the best learning technique. There is so much a child will miss out on if they are simply staring straight ahead at a screen. Many children go home after school and are baby sat by the television or video games. School is where they should be coming to learn social skills, motor skills and things that cannot be taught by a computer.
There are some things that children can learn from computers but it does not mean they could not learn something equally or more importantly from their teacher, peers or themselves.
Computers are also very expensive and there are many other things that the money could be used for, that will actually end up benefiting the child with whatever it pays for. Art supplies always need to be replenished and the natural ware and tare always requires upkeep and replacement of other toys and equipment. Also if a computer gets bumped and broken it will be an expensive loss, on the other hand a toy truck can get dropped a bunch of times and will still roll on.
One thing the author did not talk about was the potential damage that staring at a screen for so long, at such a close distance, could do to a child’s eyes. Even adults should take breaks from looking at a computer screen to avoid getting dizzy or to re-adjust the eyes.

Why change the norm?

The author of the New Possibilities book shows how experience in teaching outside of her usual element actually ended up benefitting her class for the better. She was able to find a new way to teach her students that were more understandable. If she were to have stayed in her usual manner of teaching both she and her students would have probably not gained as much.
The thing that stuck out to me the most was the section on tests in the Rethinking book. I remember as a child absolutely hating the SAT tests. I always felt dumb after taking one of those tests because I felt like I knew so much but when I took my tests there were many questions that I was unable to answer. I know some kids who would just fill in random dots, not even reading the questions. Everyone learns differently so a basic test given to everyone will not accurately measure their intelligence. Another thing about the standardized tests are that they are timed. As a child I felt very pressured to answer all my questions before the time was up. I would constantly look at the clock to see how much time I had left. Whenever I or another classmate did not finish before the time there was a feeling of disappointment and discouragement.
It is not only standardized test that cause great stress to students, just about any test can do that. What is not always fair is that people remember different things so the test may not contain all the information that one child remembers, but that does not mean that the child did not learn anything. The purpose of tests is to see that the students are learning. There are other ways to find out if a student is learning. Discussions are a great way for everyone to collaborate and talk about the things that they learned or things that they found interesting. If children enjoyed school more they would probably not mind going so much.
Something to think about: How much more fun is school when there are hands on activities and interaction. As we get older it seems that school becomes a bunch of lectures, book-work, tests and quizzes. How could we make adult classes more fun?

Why is the field of childcare so often belittled?

It has never felt good to hear people say, “All you do all day is watch kids.” First of all what do they mean, “All you do.” Working with children is a lot of work and definitely not given the credit it deserves. Working with children requires a lot of patience, understanding, improvising, creativity, and challenging different techniques that may or may not work.
Something that can often be very hard for an early childhood educator/caregiver is to express their frustration appropriately at work. Working with children is very different than working with adults. When working with children you cannot just sit down alone whenever you want or vent out to a co-worker all the time. A teacher/caregiver must learn to have control over even the strongest feelings and emotions and wait until an appropriate time and way to deal with them. Controlling one’s feelings is not always the easiest things to do.
Everything that is said and done must be done very cautiously. Just as the book New Possibilities gives the example of a fifth grade girl who was so excited for her blue ashtray and her teacher embarrassed her greatly when it blew up. Instead of creating a learning opportunity about how the air in clay can make it explode when it is being fired, she made her student feel terrible and it is an experience that has stuck with the student.
Also, anyone who says that this field is not very challenging has obviously never worked at an early childcare setting. Yes, it is very fun, and rewarding to work with children but the reward comes through hard work. Being an early childhood educator/caregiver means being able to not only think on your feet but to come up with solutions that are age appropriate and necessary. What is easiest is not always the best technique.
There is also the constant need to challenge things and find newer and perhaps better methods for different practices. This is truly a profession that should not be entered into lightly. A person who likes children will not always be the best person to leave in charge of children. This job requires a lot and there is not always anything given back in return. The reward has to be something.
To anyone who thinks that working with young children is a lesser job and that anyone can do it, you are seriously wrong and the easiest way to change your mind is to simply have you try it and see.

Kawai's Blog

Hello Everyone and Welcome to my blog. I am very excited for this semester and I think it is so much fun that we get to do our work on blogs. I think this is way more fun and we get to make our own page. I took a class with Jeanne last semester and we did blogs. It just seems more fun to check a blog than to check the regular messages. I hope you all have a great semester and try to have fun.

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Kawai