Sharing Web Resources-www.zerotothree.org

At www.zerotothree.com, all of the information is relevant to my current profession as a daycare owner/childcare provider.   What stand out the most for me is the early care and education section.  I feel that in order for me to provide quality care, I have to understand the parent’s needs, the children’s needs, and seek out ways to improve the quality of care that I offer.   This section discusses the need for fostering positive social, intellectual, and emotional support for all children including high risk children.

I thought that the section on improving the lives of children in foster care was very interesting.  I have recently begun working with a child and her family from foster care.  This made me think about foster care in a new way.  I can already see that this child has some emotional issues that she and her family are tackling.  As her childcare provider, this newsletter is giving me some new approaches to helping her and her family.  It also makes me feel a little disturbed because apparently, the foster care system understands the need for addressing her and her families need early on.  However, as I speak with her grandmother/foster care mother, the family tells a different story.  They express that unfortunately they aren’t able to receive the intervention and support they need. What I am finding relief in as that at the zero to three web-site, the executive director has presented a challenge to policy makers to improve their services so that they reflect the need and support of foster care families.

The website emphasize on economists and politicians being in position to create policies that reflect children needs.  They also stress the ways the congress have already made steps toward improving the lives of children and families.  The web-site has several links on how the budget is split to help children as well as links to websites that can offer support directly to families.

This website has given me new insight on how everything affects children and their families.  The website and newsletters not only discuss the many issues and trends but ways that I can help to advocate for our youth.

I have chosen the alternative assignment for our international connection.  The podcast participant I would like to introduce is Mrs. Barbara Jones.  Mrs. Jones is the founder of Pine Grove’s School in Palmer’s Maine.  Mrs. Jones decided to open a Montessori school after studying and working at the University of Maryland. Mrs. Jones decided that the public school system was not her ideal setting for teaching.  She then travel to California in search of finding a school more like the one’s she had been studying in school.  When arriving at California, Mrs. Jones found an advertisement for a teacher needed at a Montessori school.  When she contacted the person on the advertisement, he confirmed that he had a vision that she was the person they had been searching for. 

One thing I’ve learned from the podcast is that nothing is out of reach or impossible unless you give up.  Mrs. Jones spoke about traveling from one side of the earth to the other side in search of alternative learning styles as well as standing up for quality early learning programs.  From the website, I am learning that early childhood issues and trends are a global concern for many educators.  On this website, there are monthly newsletters with information on what educators around the world are working to accomplish.  For the month of March and April, the focus of the newsletter is Africa.  The website has a link that discusses details of the educator’s trip to Africa.  What I have learned through the website and podcast is that we share many of the same issues such as poverty.  The result of poverty is children who are heavily burned by economical things that it interferes with their learning and development.  For example, on Bonnie’s blog, she discussed how many of the teachers in Africa have to teach hungry children which is hard to do.  The educators are also dealing with children who are being raised with one parent.  These are some of the issue’s that becomes an international problem for everyone if educators can’t find a way to help children through their circumstances.

Childhood Poverty in India from http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/

In India, about half of the children under age five are malnourished.  India has about 34% of their newborns enter into the world underweight.  India has the largest numbers of working children in the world, with nearly a third of children below 16 years old working.  India is working to make health and education better for their children.  Since 1990, the number of live births has risen as well as the enrollment of primary aged children.  What saddens me still is that gender inequalities are still prevalent in India.  This is limiting girl’s life expectancy in India.  From birth through motherhood, girls are not entering school as the males are.  They are also the highest in numbers for child labor. 

Sharing Web Sources

I chose www.zerotothree.org.   This is a national non-profit organization.  This organization gives newsletters and provides information on their website to support early childhood educators with updates for training.  They also provide support for early childhood policy makers and parents to promote the health and development of children.

This week news -letter and website is focusing on early language and literacy.  This caught my attention because in each of my courses, we have discussed the importance of language and literacy for the entire family.  We have also discussed incorporating the children’s home language into the early childhood classroom.  The webinar on early language literacy from the web-site, stated that around 8 months, children start to experiment with sound to communicate.  I have actually seen babies as young as 3 months start to observe adults mouths and attempt to babble and communicate.  Therefore, it is never too early to start developing a child’s language skills.  This webinar gave great tips for helping to develop a child’s language and literacy.  One of the first tips expressed in the webinar was to establish a positive teacher-child relationship.  I am finding out that in order to care for children, this is one of the most important steps of all and is normally mentioned in fostering healthy developments first.  Another tip that was shared through the webinar was creating individually appropriate and meaningful things through the use of books and toys.  The webinar was very useful and gave me a lot of ideas to implement in the classroom.

 If anyone is interested in listening to the webinar, you can go to www.zerotothree.org and follow the link at the middle of the page under the topic of early language literacy.

Issues and Trends

Part I.  Establishing Professional Contacts-

So far,I have been networking with the early chilhood professional I know to find and establish contacts from outside of the U.S.  My attempts have been unsuccessful.  Therefore, I then went to the NAEYC website to find contacts from other areas.  I have sent e-mails out to the selected areas and people listed on the website.  I am waiting for a response.  If this fails, my next alternative will be to select the alternate assignment for establishing contacts.

Part II.  Expanding Resources-

I chose http://www.zerotothree.org/ as one of my main resources.  I chose this site because of the newsletters that are published to the website as well as the ones they send out to your e-mail or home for free.  I like this website because they have a lot of information for professionals and parents.  I also love to read their articles.