Sharing Web Resources

Exploring the Early Literacy Tips and Tools on the Zero To Three website; I learned ways to improve my students’ reading skills by playing word games, reading stories and identifying words in the world around them.

A recent newsletter stated that pediatricians were taking on the challenge of improving Well-Child Care by promoting social and emotional health in parent-child relationships.  The goal is to reduce toxic stress in young children therefore to reduce the risk of later adult diseases.  I think that having the community involved in teaching parents to promote healthy development for their children is a great way to improve social and emotional health in children.  

Going through the Zero To Three website, I found an article about President Obama’s new budget plan for the early childhood field.  This plan will support early childhood field by increasing home visits, guiding and encouraging parents.   

While exploring the website, I also came across an article entitled PUTTING INFANTS AND TODDLERS ON THE PATH TO SCHOOL READINESS: An Agenda for the Administration and 113th Congress (Zero To Three, n.d.); it discusses the fact that early brain development is essential for cognitive, sensory and language development.  It also discusses the issue of socioeconomic status; actually, the gap in children’s language learning ability starts very early (from the first year of life). 

References

Rebecca Parlakian, Claire Lerner and Janice Im (2008), Getting Ready to Read: Helping Your Child Become a Confident Reader and Writer Starting from Birth, Zero To Three. Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/child-development/early-language-literacy/cradlingliteracy_ready2read_8-14-09.pdf

Zero to Three (n.d.), PUTTING INFANTS AND TODDLERS ON THE PATH TO SCHOOL READINESS: An Agenda for the Administration and 113th Congress.  Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/federal-policy/2013-federal-policy-agenda.pdf

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

          The first person I had a conversation with is my colleague; we discussed poverty in Saudi Arabia.  Even though we live in a rather rich community in the city of Jeddah, we encounter many homeless women with their children on the streets who came to the country illegally.  It is very common here to see them walking between cars begging for money, which creates a huge contrast considering the brands of the cars in the streets.  There has always been a considerable gap between people living in poverty and the higher class.  Actually, these children do not have access to any education.  Saudi children from low-income families have access to free health care and education; however the schools they attend do not provide a decent education, so most of those children do not attend college. 

I also had a conversation with a former colleague who now lives in Jordan.  She explained that education is free and compulsory for all Jordanian children (until the age of fifteen), and that most Jordanians have health care.  However, poverty is still present in the country, mostly among Iraqi and Syrian refugees who can rarely find jobs and who cannot afford education or health care for their children.   

Sharing Web Resources

The organization I have selected is Zero To Three (http://www.zerotothree.org/); it focuses on the child’s first three years by providing parents and early childhood professionals knowledge to nurture early development. 

                Recent newsletters provided parenting resources which encouraged getting children ready for school; they also suggested ways to promote healthy social-emotional development.   One part of the newsletter also suggested fun indoor activities for children under three. 

                 Going through the Zero To Three website, I have gained a lot of information which helped me improve as a teacher.  I found this website to be very effective while searching for topics as you can find related articles very quickly.    

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Since I do not live in the United States, I have chosen one of my colleagues as a professional contact.  I have also contacted a former colleague who now works in Jordan to discuss early childhood issues and trends.  I am looking forward to learn about trends in other countries and to share ideas with international early childhood professionals. 

            In order to expand my resources in the early childhood field, I have already subscribed to several newsletters (NIEER, NAEYC, Zero to Three and Save the Children).  This has helped me stay up to date with international news and trends in the early childhood field.  

My Supports

The people who support me the most are my husband, who is also my best friend, and my parents and siblings;  I am the youngest in the family so they were always there to offer their help and support whenever I needed them.  My husband and I went through hard times and we provided support to each other, otherwise we wouldn’t have got back on our feet.

One of the challenges we are facing is that we are trying to move to the U.S; my sister who already lives there is helping us through emotional support, she has been encouraging us for a long time.  Even though moving would mean being very far away from my parents, they are the ones who are giving us the most support because they want us to have a better life.  My sister's husband is also giving my husband advice for finding a job because they work in the same field.  Knowing that we have a family supporting us is a great benefit; we know we can count on them whenever we need help.  I think that we wouldn’t be able to take this step without them. 

My Connections to Play

There are a couple of quotes that sum up what childhood play represents for me.

“Play is the work of the child.” - Maria Montessori

“Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold.” - Joseph Chilton Pearce

“Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.” - Kay Redfield Jamison

 

As a child, I enjoyed playing with my brother and sister a lot, we did a lot of painting and art work; we also spent a lot of time outside riding bicycles in the playground.  My mother always encouraged us to find ways to play together by making up our own games.  My parents introduced us to many activities like sports, playing musical instruments, and arts; they let us decide which one we preferred and encouraged us to explore that activity further. They would also spend a lot of time with us to guide us through our play.

During my childhood, my siblings and I were not allowed to watch TV for too long, instead we were encouraged to spend time playing outside. This allowed us to make friends and engage in physical activities.  I feel that children today prefer playing video games or watch TV rather than spend time running or riding bicycles outside.  It  makes me sad to see children who spend all day watching TV because their parents are too busy to spend some play time with them.

Play is a way for children to develop social skills, and also to have healthy physical and cognitive development. It teaches children to be creative and broadens their imagination.  Children need to run and play to explore their abilities. I believe that children need to be happy to have a healthy development.  

Relationship Reflection

    Relationships and partnerships are important to me because they create support and trust between people.  Everyone needs at least one source of support in order to have the feeling of belonging to society.  Having healthy social relationships enables us to discuss issues we have, assist one another and also learn more about ourselves.   

      One of the positive relationships I have is with my husband;  we have been married for a little more than a year and we have been going through life together. We support each other's ideas and we help each other through tough times.  Because we are both working and studying to improve our lifestyle, I believe that our relationship can also be considered a partnership.      

       Another positive relationship I have is with my parents, they have both been very supportive and always encouraged me to do more with my life.  They have always guided me and helped me make the right decisions. 

     The relationship I have with my colleagues at work is also a positive one.  We spend a lot of time together at work to discuss any challenges we face or to exchange advice and information.        

      Contributing to these positive relationships helped me become a better person and teacher; I have learned a lot from my parents and I have received so much support from them, so I try to give the same kind of support to my students.  Learning to listen to others and understand their ideas or problems helped me become more understanding and flexible while talking to my students' parents.