My Supports

 

 

As I embark on one of the greatest challenges in my life…a triathlon, I will need major supports from emotional to the physical a triathlon includes biking, swimming and running. ! I have NEVER run a marathon…let alone a triathlon! The first thing I would need would definitely be prayer! I would need to know I am making a good decision. Then, I would need a coach. Someone along the lines of Jillian Michaels to get me in physical and mental shape for it! If I don’t survive her then I wasn’t ready for the triathlon. If I survive her…the triathlon won’t be a problem! Some of the other physical supports that I would need would be a gym or place to train consistently. What good would it be if I did not have a place to work out? Finally my son, mom, friends to be there for the “sweet” emotional support. From what I see about Jillian Michaels I will need to see my son as a positive motivation to finish the challenge that I started. Afterall, we as parents talk to our children about finishing things that they start. He would definitely be there to remind me of that statement! If I DO NOT has all of these 3 supports in this order I will not meet this challenge. It is absolutely necessary to do it.

 

 

My Connections to Play

           

I am in my backyard with my 3 sisters, a cousin and our neighbor. We are pretending to have a cook-out. My youngest sister is cooking at the stove because she is not “old enough” to help “pat out” the food. My cousin and I are making pies, and my other two sisters are making hamburgers and hotdogs (everything is made out of mud by the way)! And our friend is picking flowers out of the yard and setting up the picnic table. She also has to go to the outside water hose to fill all the cups up with water (real water, pretend kool-aid) to go with our food.

The one adult that would be invited would be my mom. She would be there to tell us how much of what ingredients we needed to make our pies. She would also be there to make just pretend with us and set up our radio to play music.

The play that children experience today is very different than my play in the 80’s. Children almost don’t know how to play; like it’s a pastime or something. They are more concerned with game systems, Facebook, Twitter and Keeping up with the Kardashians. They don’t know what it’s like to collect lightning bugs in a jar or play tag or have a water balloon fight. I think it’s very sad, especially when “School administrators, many parents, and most politicians believe play is a waste of time, off task behavior, needless coddling of young children, messy and noisy, unstructured and uneducational – an unaffordable luxury in an ever-more competitive world” (Wardle, 1987); when play for me was just as crucial as me sitting behind a desk listening to a teacher. It gave me an out! It helped me to take those math equations that the teacher just told me about and implement them in making my mud pies. I learned my fractions by making mud pies with my sisters at home!!! According to Wardle, “Children do not play for a reward-praise, money, or food. They play because they like it"(p. 28).  Its funny Mr. Wardle, we played for food…even if it was muddy!

As Walt Streightiff once said “There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million."

References

1.     Wardle, F. (1987). Getting back to the basics of children's play. Child Care Information Exchange, Sept., 27-30.

2.    Wardle, F. (n.d.). Play as curriculum. Retrieved August 1, 2010, from http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=127

3.    http://www.childrenquotes.com/waltstreightiff

Relationship Reflection

The relationships that have been the most influential in my life is that of my son and my “Papa Friday.” The birth of my son was not one in which I was prepared for, I was just 18 years old but his impact will last me the rest of my life. Our relationship didn’t start the moment I found out that I was pregnant at 17 but after a couple of months when I decided to “buckle down” and be a mom. I just didn’t want to be a mom but I wanted to be a “good mom.” From that point to this very day the key to our relationship has been communication. My son has helped me to grow and develop into the woman that I am today. He has told me about selflessness and patience. In return I hope to rear him into the direction of becoming a good man.

Another influential relationship that I have is that with a man who is known as my “Papa Friday.” I love this man as though he were my own father. He has been a blessing in my life. I have known him since I was 13 years old and I met him through Vacation Bible School that I went to with my neighbors. Growing up without an “active” dad in the picture he has taught me so much about growing as a young lady and being a parent. As stated in the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) believes that for children and youth to be successful from birth through adolescence, there must be an array of learning supports around them” (2006). He has truly been one of those supports. He has taught me to change oil and change a tire (even though the first time he didn’t tell me that I had to keep the rim! He laughed at me for a couple of days. He always wanted me to know how to take care of myself. I really value this relationship because it fulfilled a void that I had and didn’t really know how desperately I needed it to be filled. The key to our relationship is communication as well. We talk on the phone or in person 4-5 times a week.

The way that both of these relationship experiences contribute to my work as an early childhood professional is that they have taught me patience, selflessness and to always have a since of humor. These are key factors in working with children. As the old African Proverb says “it takes a village to raise a child.”

References

Harvard Family Research Project. (n.d.). A profile of the evaluation of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers—national. Cambridge, MA: Author. Retrieved January 1, 2007, from http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/profile.

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/duneland/chesterton/it-takes-a-village-to-raise-a-child-old-african/article_c19bd62c-21bf-5c93-b243-bebe21074721.html

2nd Children's Quotes

"Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories."
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

"Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body."
Elizabeth Stone

"There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million."
Walt Streightiff

"Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted."
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

As I look at the above quotes and reflect on this course--it makes me grateful to be apart of the lives of many different children. We have what seems to me a small part...yet, such a powerful influence on each little person in some form or another. My personal favorite quote is "Children are not children of the future--but of today--and what we do today will affect their future." It makes me want to be ever so careful of the "seeds" that I sow in them.

 

Stress & Chaos Don't Mix

I can remember growing up in a home where my mother became a single parent after years of fighting with my dad and they finally decided to separate for good. Those were some good times as well as bad times. There were times when my brother who is the oldest would have to make sure the other 3 of us were ready for school and our hair was done, and that we ate breakfast and got on the bus and a similiar routine when we got out of school. There were times that the lights would get cut off and we had to use kerosene heaters because there were more bills due than money available...but as I said it was good times too. We all were very close, we made games out of it and my mother not one time allowed us to go hungry. She turned those times into adventures! Now as a parent, I am able to see the severity of it, but it sure didn't look like it when we were going through it. She worked through it and did what she had to do! Now out of her 6 children...5 have gone to college and gotten degrees or still working on their degrees!! So we evidently made it through it! I don't think that there is a country on the earth that is not dealing with these types of situations. I believe that a child's biosocial, psychosocial, and cognitive developments are based on the way the parents handle chaotic situations! I truly believe that a child will respond the way in which a parent responds.

Public Health

One of the public health measures that stuck out for me was Immunization. Here in the US, where Immunizations are accessible to all children regardless of their race or the parents ability to pay, many children go unimmunized despite these privileges. However, they are not as easily accessed in Nigeria. According to the PATH: Immunization in Nigeria website: “Northern Nigeria has one of the lowest rates of immunization coverage in the world. In many parts of the north, barely 10 percent of children receive all of their routine vaccines. A formerly strong primary health care system in northern Nigeria has weakened over many years. Polio outbreaks, rumors on the safety of the polio vaccine, and subsequent campaigns disrupted routine immunization services. Routine immunization services are either no longer available or irregular; limited resources for health services and gaps in vaccine storage and distribution add to the challenge of increasing immunization coverage” (1995-2013).

This particular topic sticks out to me for a couple of reasons: one being my best friend’s husband is from Nigeria and he often talks about the lack of sufficient medical supplies and shortages. The other reason is having worked with children for over 15 years it is so unreal that in America, so many children go unimmunized. The information that I have obtained will continue to encourage me to encourage all parents (especially young parents) to get their children immunized that they don’t have an excuse why they aren’t.

Reference

www.path.org/projects/immunization-nigeria.php

PAINFUL!!!! As much as I love my child it was O so painful. I had been in labor from the end of my fifth month until the day I actually had my son. I had been threatening a miscarriage for several months and the ‘day’ I actually was in labor I wasn’t in any pain until I left from a routine doctor’s visit and she told me I was “4 centimeters dilated and needed to go ahead and meet her at the hospital.” I got to the hospital at 4:00 and had my son at 1:30 in the morning! The labor itself I was told and I believe I handled it well, I remember getting in the Jacuzzi and told them “to get me out or I will pull it out of the floor!” After all of that…it was all forgotten when they put my son on my chest! The memory is priceless. No training or education can prepare you for labor in my opinion.

As I searched what other women did in other countries I came across an article that talked about how Nepalese women, for instance, are sometimes pressured to push the baby out before their bodies are ready. Hmong women must give birth alone, without expressing any pain or discomfort, as do women in Nigeria; one in 18 die during the process. Tibetan women often give birth in animal pens. In Bangladeshi women give birth in a hospital, they're often berated by the staff and prevented from reciting religious verses that they traditionally use as a source of comfort pain management. Women in Uganda and Bangladesh are looked down upon for expressing the pain of childbirth, which usually happens at home. Korean women are discouraged from getting pain medication but often have episiotomies forced on them.

Reference

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/09/health/best-worst-birth-places/index.html