Support is having anyone in your daily life that give you a shoulder to lean on. Since I am the boss there is sometimes days that I need to vent. My group teacher Sandy is my support. She not only listens to me she understands. Her years of expierence in the early childhood field gives her the understanding that I need to help get through difficult situations.
 Support in the early childhood field, when it comes to children means giving them the guidence they need along with their families to support their needs on a daily basis. For some it simply is an understanding ear, or time to spend with  a child that is having a difficult day and needs a little more one on one time. Giving children and parents this one on one attention is the differnce in many lives.

The support I recieve from Sandy can make the most difference in a day. She makes me feel that I am not alone and she gives me advice for me to consider. Sometimes I simply need someone to listen to me. Being the boss can leave you feeling isolated, and Sandy makes me feel like I am not alone.

Another form of support I receive is at home. My family understands that there are days that are mentally harder than others. There understanding and giving me my down time helps me extremely. Just having the understanding from them makes the stress in my life a little less.

I am a verbal person. I need people to listen to me and just let me talk! Even when I am rambling and they have no idea what I am talking about.  The most important part of talking is having people not judge, just listen and give constructive advice. Most of us do not need to be judeged,  just heard!!

If I didnt have anyone to listen to me, I think my life would be harder.  I would feel that there is not who understands and would burn out in this field. We all need support when our days are hard, my staff gives me that and I try to give them the same.

My Connections to Play

When I was a child, play was a part of everyday. My sister and I spent hours daily playing with the kids in the neighborhood. There wasnt a day that went by that we werent either outside, or playing in the basement. My parents encouraged our play by allowing us to play outside and with other children. There were no special toys or gadgets that we played with, just each other and anything we could find. We would play king of the mountian, chase tag, hide and seek. Inside we played school and house. Unfourtunatley in todays world is has become unsafe for children to freely play in their neighborhood, leaving parents the only alternative of keeping thier children inside for fear of abduction. This is the reason that parents should encourage chidren to play in sports, join boy scouts and girl scouts. This is a safe alterantive to playing outside and still allows the child to interact with other children and play.

Quotes about play

'You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of converstaion" Plato

Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consist of whatever a body is not obliged to do" Mark Twian

Both these quotes give the best example of what play is supposed to do. Children learn more about life while playing with each other than in any other activitie. This is alos true for adults. All adult have some form of play that they do with friends. This is how we bond, and enjoy life.

These are two simple toys that I enjoyed as a child! No high tech gadgeets just a jump rope and a slinky!

Relationship Reflection

My relationships throughout my life have formed the person that I am. I believe that everyone in my life have made me the person I am. The relationships in my life are important to me, they give me peace, love and acceptance. My huband is my rock. He is my partner in life and would not chose any other.

 While completing my BA he was the one that gave me the encouragement that I needed to keep going, I would not have finished my BA without him. My children are the reason I continue to better myself. I want to show them that anything in life can be achieved. I want them to work hard and achieve all their goals. In every realtionship the good and the bad times teach me about life. They teach me how to be forgiving, how to love and accept what I can not change. They make me a better person.
I have always been the peace keeper in my family. I was always making sure that everyone else was happy and walking on eggshells in tense situations, with family that did not get alone. What I learned was I needed to have relationships with my family and friends on a personal note and not worry about if they got along. Learning how to handle family relatioshis has taught me how to be objective in situations dealing with children. I have learned to listen to everyone and never pass judgment. The grass is not always greener on the other side.

Quote about children

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

"Children are great imitators, so give them something great to imitate" Anonymous


These quotes are relevant to all early childhood educators. We can never forget the importance of treating children like they matter and giving them positive role models.

I wish everyone success in their future endeavors. It has been a pleasure.

Intelligence testing is an old fashioned idea. There are many other ways to determine whether or not a child is progressing normally. Using standardized test only puts unnecessary stress on a child. Most teachers teach to the test anyway, so we are really not getting the correct date from these test. Observation is important is assessing a child's development. Children should be assessed on every level of their development, socially, physically, emotionally and intellectually. Only testing one way does not give a clear understanding of the child as a whole. Assessing children needs to be done early to help diagnose and problems and help address them. I say this with a little reserve, sometimes we over analyze situations and children are unfairly diagnosed with delays that they do not have. Their development is just a little slower than the "norm". If we assess the child as a whole we will have a better understanding of where they are.

Education in Italy

In Italy there education system is  not that different than in the United States.
From 3 to 5 there is optional education offered for all children. Children enter primary school at 5 years old and this last 5 years. From 11 to 14 they attend lover secondary school, a national curriculum is followed, which is mandated by the Ministry of Public Education.

Each term every student receives a teachers report outlining their aptitude, behavior and achievement. students do take a standard exam consisting of a written exam, and a oral exam. Students may not move into upper secondary school if they do not pass this exam. Upper secondary school is split between an obligatory 2 years of general studies and an optional 3 years of a specialised education. Either for college or a vocational trade. there is a state mandated curriculum and specialised courses begin the third year of upper primary school. For students to receive an upper secondary school diploma the mus pass a written and oral exam. There are 6 teachers that administer the exam.

Italys assessment of their students involves both written and oral exams. This helps the students who may not be good written test takers. By being able to communicate with teachers that are giving the exam a student has more opportunities to express there thoughts without having them be written.
I liked the idea of being able to express my understanding of a certain subject verbally instead of writing, sometimes your main idea gets lost in a word maze.


Reference
 Angloinfo: Italian Education and Schooling in Italy:
Retrieved from: http://angloinfo.com/f3hx5c

War

Fortunately in my life I have not had many struggles. I have witnessed friends and family struggle with many issues. War is an issue that seems to affect so many people today. I had friends that during Desert Storm and the War in Iraq, the husband was deployed. What I witnessed was a wife home trying to raise 2 teenage boys, work full time, pay the bills, and worry about her husband . She was spread too thin and the result was two teenage boys that rebelled. Her life was turned upside down and although the military offers support and help the best support and help that she could have had was her husbands. A family that had been whole was turned upside down. I remember the police being called to her house many times, the oldest boy running away, stealing from her and even becoming violent. Her two young boys needed their father and they needed a mother who was not so stressed. The youngest son seemed to do better and adjust. He did fine with his life but did struggle in his late teens and 20's. The older boy had children while in his teens, was on drugs, drank and eventually moved out. He is a grown man now and a father of 5, not married, can not hold a job and seems to have every excuse as to why. Although these children were not on the front line, there lives were changed due to war.

The Iraq war affected children in Iraq so much more. I read an article that spoke of children playing in the streets pretending to kill people. This is what they were exposed to so this is how they played. Children stopped going to school and many were orphans. The "Association of Iraqi Psychologists urged the international community to help establish child psychology units and mental health programs"( Guardian News, 2007). There is a lack of doctors due to them fleeing the country or being killed. Children have a fear " of kidnapping and explosions"(Guardian News, 2007) Parents reported that the "distress signals sent out by young people in their care from nightmares and bed wetting to with drawl, muteness, panic attacks and violence towards other children sometimes even to their parents"(Guardian News, 2007). Parents of chidren in Iraq have stressors in their life that most of us can only try to imagine. War is devasting to everyone involved, whether indirectly or directly.


     Guardian News-Media. (2007, February 7). 2012. Children of War: The generation traumatised by violence in Iraq. Retrieved March 23, 2012, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/06/iraq.topstories3/print

Nutrition and children

Childhood nutrition is a issue across the globe. South Africa has a huge issue of malnutrition.  If children do not have proper food and vitamins they will fail to develop and thrive as healthy human beings.  Unicef is an orginazation that is commited to helping children in the area of malnutrition. "Malnutrition is a major underlying cause of death in 64 percent of children in South Africa"(Unicef). It amazes me that in todays world with the wealth of so many, that children are still dying of malnutrition. Not only are children dying in S. Africa "One in five children is stunted and many are deficent in the vitamins and minrals vital to good health and optimal development" (Unicef). S. Africa has begun to add vitamins and minerals to its flour and sugar to help with the lack of vitamins and minerals. Another issue that they are trying to help with is breastfeeding babies. Unicef is trying to get women to breastfed exclusivley for at least 6 months. With the help of Unicef,  S. Africa will start to solve its problem of malnutrion with children. "Unicef also participated activley in developing a national policy and guidlines on infant and young child feeding which will set standards for communtiy based child nutrition programs" (Unicef). S. Africa is workin on improving their nutrition issues with children. Children need proper nutrition to thrive and develop. This needs to be a world issue not just an issue in S. Africa. All children across the world will one day be our leaders, it we do not provide there essentials, what will happen to us all globally?

Nutrition can affect children in the field of Early Childhood Education in many ways. If children do not get the neccassary vitamins and minerals needed their brains will not develop properly and this will have a lasting effect on them. In the United States the The National School lunch Program serves breakfast and lunch help give the essentials for chidlren to thrive.

"The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day. The program was established under the National School Lunch Act, signed by President Harry Truman in 1946" (National School Lunch Program).

 This proplem has been around for centurys and needs to be a world issue, not just in the country we live in.


Unicef-   Childhhttp://www.unicef.org/southafrica/survival_devlop_755.html

National School Lunch Act- http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Lunch/