Three Things

If I were every uprooted from my home country and sent some unfamiliar place and could only take three things I would have to take my quilt that my mama gave me, pictures of my family, and my bible.

The quilt that my mama gave me is much like a child's security blanket. I take it on all vacations and its the one blanket that I sleep with every night. I feel that I can sleep anywhere as long as I have that special  quilt.

The second item that I would take with me is my photo album with family pictures. Pictures are such a treasure and I love to look back on the "good times".  It always brings a smile to my face to reminisce on the old times, fun times, and my great family. I feel that those feelings would help me get through being in a foreign land and outside my comfort zone.

The third thing that I would take with me is my bible. The bible would show mty faith and help me push through the trials that I may have to face being in a strange land. The bible gives me strength to continue going.

If I was forced to just take one of the three items I would have to choose my photo album because the pictures can never be replaced and the other items can. If I was forced to let everything else go but still had my family photo album to flip through and remember where I came from then I would be able to make it.

My Thoughts on Research

These past eight weeks have been stressful and time consuming. I did not realize how much time actually has to go into research until this course. With that being said I do not hold back in saying THANK GOODNESS this course is coming to an end. :) I work full time, have two small children and this class has been hard on me. My challenge has been time management. I tried to "wing" it  but research is much more demanding and takes a great deal of time.

In the course I did learn that there are many ways to conduct research. I often found myself going to the internet to read more on the topics discussed in class because I am not good at research and wanted a more clear understanding on the different types of research. There is a lot of preparing and organizing that go into research which in my opinion makes it that much  more time consuming. The one thing that I take away from this course is that research is not something that is taken lightly and thrown together. It is time consuming, requires a great deal of preparing, and proper time management.

I wish each of my classmates the very best as we strive to finish the task set before us.

International Research

For this blog assignment I chose to explore the Early Childhood
= \of Australia website. (www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org/au)  As I explored this website there were many research topics available-some of the ones that stood out to me the most were learning through play, diversity, childhood obesity and childhood health and bullying  to name a few. As I read the articles on childhood obesity/health and bullying, my eyes were opened up on these issues. It seems that of here lately these two topics have been hot topics for early childhood professionals. I defiantly enjoyed the site and will be revisiting it soon.

I found an article on the Importance of Play. Play allows children to express themselves and make learning their own. Learning doesn't just have to be through a strict rigid schedule or curriculmn but learning takes place through hands on learning and play. The article that I found was titled The Vital Rold of Play in Early Childhood Education. It stated " Adults are convinced that we need to “teach” young children. It is certainly true that we need to set an example in all kinds of activities. We also need to create appropriate spaces where children can play and learn, and we need to lend a helping hand--at times intervene when things are going wrong. But mostly we need to honor the innate capacity for learning that moves and fulfills the needs of healthy children." (Alamon).


I found this article to be interesting because many times we just think of play as a form of entertainment for children when in reality it is more than just fun. Children are learning during the times of play. It is during these times that children tend to learn the most because it is free play that allows them to be creative, free, and enjoy what they are doing without the pressures of a strict curriculum.

http://www.waldorfresearchinstitute.org/pdf/BAPlayAlmon.pdf

Research topic

The topic that I have chosen for the research is lowering childhood obesity by increasing physical activities in the school system. There are a lot of articles on childhood obesity and the need for more physical activity. I have always been interested in this topic, since my cousin dealt with obesity on as a young child.


The American Heart Association recommends:

• All children age 2 and older should participate in at least 60 minutes of enjoyable, moderate-intensity physical activities every day that are developmentally appropriate and varied.
• If your child or children don't have a full 60-minute activity break each day, try to provide at least two 30-minute periods or four 15-minute periods in which they can engage in vigorous activities appropriate to their age, gender and stage of physical and emotional development

The National Coalition fo Promoting Physical Activity stated that nearly 63 percent for children are not participating in physical activities by the time they reach high school. This is a high percentage of students that could face childhood obesity among other health issues.

As I start working on my research project, I am open to any suggestions, ideas or words of advice concerning my topic.


Resources: http://www.heart.org

Http://www.ncppa.org

Final blog

I have enjoyed this class and learning from my classmates. I have found many resources that will be helpful for me once I am in my own classroom. The consequences that I have seen during this course have been rather positive ones. The first one that I see is that governments internationally are involved with in the education process. Everyone values education and has much of the same goals for the children. Governments around the world are making sure that children receive the education that they need and deserve. The second consequence that I notice is that families want their children to have success and have a better future than they have had. I also realized that families turn to Early Childhood programs so that their children can receive an "early" start on education and gain a better start than what the parent may have had.

UNESCO website

Unfortunately, I did not receive a response from my international contacts so I reviewed the UNESCO website to learn a little more about early childhood in the international realms. 

The first insight that I gained from the website is that education in most countries is considered a privilege that the rich children take part in. The children in poor families must stay home from school in order to help work the fields, or do other jobs that contribute to the basic needs of the family.

The second insight that I gained from the website is that  on literacy. It seems that I take things of this sort for granted many times but the other countries have no idea what literacy is. The numbers are shocking to me. The website said that 1 in 5 adults are not literate and 2/3 of them are women. UNESCO has tried to keep literacy at the top of their list when it comes to important topics but with 793 adults still not literate, reaching to goal of all becoming literate is a hard target to reach.

The third insight that I gained from the sight is that the governments have issues with dealing with early childhood. Education is placed in different sectors such as health and social sectors. Effective coordination must exist between the two but in many cases does not exist. The issues seen with developing and developed countries is finding a holistic approach to early childhood education.

Source -

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/access/