Sharing Web Resources

The website that I chose was National Black Child Development Institute. I enjoy going to the news section of the website, there are many articles and others web pages that offer great information that relates to my professional development.  I came across a great article called Child Health Talk this article was about getting children back to playing. I was drawn to this article because it tied in to what Dr. Grace’s video, when she talked on the importance of play and how we don’t allow children to do it like in the past. The article talks about how research about play shows its role in supporting cognitive, social-emotional, and physical development. How play also strengthens creativity and academic achievement, and relieves the symptoms of attention deficit disorder, anxiety, depression, and potentially debilitating health conditions like obesity and diabetes, among other major benefits.

          After reading this article, it has just reinforced my position of the importance of play. I didn’t find any specific articles that related to economists, neuroscientists, or politicians support the early childhood field. There were articles that discussed funding for the early childhood and also funding for the institute.

Reference:

Marshall, D. (2012) Playing Alone: How Unstructured Play Improves Children’s Health.

Retrieved from http://nbcdi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/CHT-Spring-2012.pdf

Poverty in India

In 2001, India was estimated to have about 1.03 billion citizens; India's population is second to China.  It is stated that in 1999-2002 there was over 200 million people living in poverty in India.

In India half of the children which accounts for over 62 million are under the age of five and are malnourished. More than thirty percent of their newborns are considerably underweight.

India accounts for more than 20 percent of the children who are out of school. India has the largest number in the world of children who are under the age of sixteen and working.

Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre’s (CHIP) India.(n.d.) Retrieved (http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/),

Sharing Web Resources

       The National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI) is a Black Women’s Community Development Foundation that was concern with the unsatisfactory conditions that faced families who wanted to rear healthy children, so they decided to organize a national advocacy group. In 1970, they began to organize groups within communities as a basis for creating a unified national voice to develop strategies to improve the life circumstances of the developing Black child through policy change.

         The NBCDI mission is to improve and advance the lives of black children and their families through education and advocacy. Their focus is on early childhood education, child welfare, elementary and secondary education, and health, the Institute accomplishes by their mission. They are a good source of information for educators and all people in the early childhood filed as well as the community. They provide services for early childhood education, family support and health care for children. They work to   create public policy and influence legislation that directly affects the lives of African American children.

        An article that I found on the website in the archives talked about getting children to move, “Let’s Move Child Care,” it talked about children being overweight or obese by age 6, and how as child care providers we can help instill healthy choices that could help prevent childhood obesity. It gave things that we can do to give children a good health start.

National Black Child Development Institute

 http://nbcdi.org/ 

Establishing Professional Contacts

To get some professional contacts I went through The Global Alliance of NAEYC, listings.

I sent emails to:

Ajoke International School in Nigeria

Step by Step/Tipa Tipa in Haiti

OMEP Comité Nacional Mexicano, in Mexico

Ps. Aura Rodríguez de Montes, in Honduras

I received a "could not deliver " message back from my Honduras contact

I’m waiting to hear back from my contacts, if I can’t make contact with any of these professions I will have to go the alternative assignment.

 Part 2, Expanding Resources

National Black Child Development Institute
http://nbcdi.org/

I love looking through the site, I chose this one because It was new to me and I want to learn more about what they are doing.

“My Supports”

Every day I am supported, I have a wonderful staff, and without them, I would be lost. My assistant director is amazing she is my right hand and main supporter; she can run the center without me, even if she thinks she can’t. But I think can’t run it without her.

It is nice to have someone in your corner, someone that you can bounce things off of and someone who has a good opinion. Also, most of my teachers have been with me for over five years. So, they know me and the center very well, they are able to keep our mission, to educate children.

It would be difficult if these supportive people were no longer here, because I would have to establish the relationships and find comfort with new people. It’s hard to get to the place where you trust people and people trust you that would be my biggest challenge.  

My Connections to Play

“Play is not only our creative drive; it’s a fundamental mode of learning.” ~ David Elkind (psychologist, author)

“Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child’s soul.” Friedrich Froebel (founder of the concept of kindergarten)

      In many ways play has stayed the same, children still go outside to run and jump, climb trees, play basketball and so on. The things that have changed are that children are not doing the outside play as much; this is due to the innovation of computers, internet, and video games. Children kind of play has changed they are not as physical as in the past. I am hopeful that families and teachers will encourage children to go back outside to become more physical and go back to the days when children dug holes in the back yard and climbed to the top of the highest trees.

   I was never an outdoor child but I can remember being outside running and playing, laughing and having fun. There were always children on my street playing something, you may have a group jumping rope and another playing hide and go seek. I remember not ever having any worries or cares. It was a very freeing time. Even though it was a good experience for me, I didn’t give my nephew the opportunity to do the same, I never encouraged him to go out and play. I think it was the fear of what might happen to him. But as of a last year I started to encourage him to spend more time outside playing and he does.

Relationship Reflection

Relationships are important because they help to mode me into the person I am today. I have learned from both positive and negative relationships. The negative relationships have taught me who I am and what I stand for, what I really need from someone and how much I will take. They have made me strong. My family is the center of my life they are the most important people in my life. We are very close; actually the child care center where I am currently the director is family owned and operated. We have been in business for over 10 years. Most of our employees are family and those who aren’t have come to become family. I also have a few close friends that are very special to me. I can’t imagine my life without them in it. I have always been selective of who I let into my life so my friends have some of my own qualities. To maintain a healthy relationship there has to be a common ground, honesty and mutual respect. I treat my families in my center as though we are friends because we are in a relationship through the care of their children it is like a friendship. I want them to feel comfortable enough to be able to come to me for anything. I want to feel comfortable enough to come to them with anything also.  I am still learning and growing so I am excited to see some new impacts that new people will have on my life.