Exploring my web resource

What specific section(s) or information seemed particularly relevant to your current professional development?

The Zero to Three website is totally a professional tool to me because they provide you with a lot of information for those who take care of infants and toddlers, and as you already know my goal is to open up a center that serves infants and toddlers. It shows you different things from recommendations of kinds of play at different stages all the way to advocacy actions and lessons online about child care.

Which ideas/statements/resources, either on the website or in an e-newsletter, did you find controversial or made you think about an issue in new ways?

Definitely the one issue that made me think about in new ways was the impact of child trauma. Recognizing the levels of trauma and how deep the trauma is. Even though we can’t give theraphy such as a specialized psychologist would do, we can learn how to treat the child with trauma and build resiliency for the child and his parents.

What information does the website or the e-newsletter contain that adds to your understanding of how economists, neuroscientists, or politicians support the early childhood field?

The website definitely made me think about the importance of the different fields. From an economists point of view they have different powerpoints talking numbers and statistics about this field. From a neuroscientist point of view they have a plethora of information about how the brain works and its developmental stages. Finally, from a political point of view they have resources on how to advocate for different causes regarding the early childhood field or just to stay informed.  

What other new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field did you gain from exploring the website or e-newsletter?

The one new insight that I gained was to know about the provision of childhood mental health. To be honest I haven’t heard about this issue as a strong one in my community. So, exploring more the issue and the challenges of funding this program made me more aware of the situation. 

Childhood Poverty

I haven’t received a response from my contacts yet, so I went and visited the Childhood Poverty Research and Poverty Centre (CHIP) website. In the article I discovered several things about what poverty involves. The three most relevant topics that I read about were: the emotional side of poverty for a child, causes for childhood poverty, and what can help to diminish poverty.

Emotional- a child who grows up in poverty not only lacks from basic economic and nutritional resources, but also from emotional and spiritual developmental needs that feed the soul. Some parents may lack the time or desire to spend time with their children, these leads to emotional destabilization for the child. In school, children could be stigmatized by their peers for wearing old or torn clothing.

Causes of poverty-  economic trends and policies, environmental stresses, epidemics, and/or poor governance. It also has to do with the expenditures that a poor country has and its liberalization on financial systems to make the country “competitive” in global markets (developing countries v.s. developed countries) such as: bringing foreign worldwide companies competing with national/ local companies, privatization, limited disbursement on public needs, among others.

Diminishing Poverty- responses from the government and private sectors should be: investing on positive impact programs and economic activities, access to primary health care, health services for mothers and their children, adult education, access to service for children with disabilities, among others.

There’s also our own contribution to diminish poverty, no matter how small or big. Being educated, means to give a helping hand and not being selfish, that's what makes us human.

http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php/action=documentfeed/doctype=pdf/id=46/

The Zero to Three organization

My chosen organization is called Zero to Three. It is a nonprofit organization that focuses on the development and health of newborns all the way up to three year olds. It has very interesting information about ways of helping the child develop to his/her fullest potential, making it easy to understand the needs of the child. It also includes topics about public policy and child maltreatment.

Event tough I haven’t received my issue, since I just subscribed to it, browsing the website one issue caught my attention, it was child trauma. It caught my attention because we don’t often talk about it, and the impact could be devastating. Such is the horrifying case of the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy (may God have them in his arms) the website provides with plenty of strategies that one can use to comfort a child in such terrible cases. They recommend not letting the child be aware of the media and give him his space when needed. Children might act out what they experienced, and we should let it happen as it is their way of confronting their own fears. If the play gets overwhelming for the child, just comfort him and redirect him to a different activity. It was very good to know what to do in cases when a child unfortunately experiences wounding tragedies.

http://www.zerotothree.org/

EC collegiality

It was easy to decide the countries I wanted to explore regarding education. I wanted to know more about our neighbors, Canada and Mexico. I sent them an email introducing myself and the reason for contacting them. It is of my belief that these international colleagues are too busy on their work and they might take a few days to answer my email. Since I live in a border town I think I can contact a professional in the field. In worst case scenario, I will have to use the podcasts of the world forum.

As my organization and website to explore; I chose Zero to Three and subscribed to the newsletters. Since my dream plan is to open up a center that serves infants and toddlers this website comes perfectly as a resource. I’ve also read several articles that come from this website and they’ve been very enlightened. I really don’t know much websites about infants, so if you know about others please let me know J

My Supports

The daily support that came right away to my mind would be: my daughters. They are my support when I’m feeling sad; they are my motivation for getting up early in the morning. Watching their beautiful smiles with their gorgeous bed hair in the morning is priceless. The other factor that I consider as a big support is having a house. I have a shelter were my daughters feel safe and can grow. Another factor would be having a car. Having a car allows me to move wherever I need to go. I can pick up my daughter from school, I can do the groceries, I can go to the hospital is case of an emergency, etc. I don’t even want to think if for some reason my daughters are no longer with me. If I had no house anymore I would have to go to my parent’s house and stay there while the situation comes back to normal. If I had no car I would probably take turns with my parents.

The factor that I chose to imagine would be: not having a house. I think having a house it’s very supportive because I can protect my girls, have our own privacy, gives me a sense of belonging, and a sense of authority. Without a house our lives would be a little tense. The first thought that comes to my mind is moving with my parents. For them I would be their little girl and they would want to treat me as such. I would have to live under their rules and my daughters would become their daughters too. They will want to educate my daughters and that’s one think that I couldn’t tolerate. My daughters would no longer see me as the one in charge. My husband will also be not so happy living there. Without a doubt having a house is a stress free condition, a home is a refuge, is a heaven of my own, where I do as I want.  

My Connections to Play

“The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.” ~ Plato (Greek philosopher)

“Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold.” ~ Joseph Chilton Pearce (author)

“For a small child there is no division between playing and learning; between the things he or she does ‘just for fun’ and things that are ‘educational.’ The child learns while living and any part of living that is enjoyable is also play. ~ Penelope Leach (psychologist and author)

 
 

When I was a child I remember I loved to play outdoors with my cousins. My mom tells me that before my sister was born I used to have an imaginary friend. I remember that I would play for hours on my own with my imaginary friend and the fact of playing alone didn’t bother me. But when my sister was old enough to play with me, I rarely played by myself. I always wanted a playmate. Of course, like any other 5 year old girl, I loved to play with dolls and I being the mom was the greatest feeling ever. I experienced what it was to have the control over what I wanted to do. My mom supported my play when she took us over to my cousins’ house and to the park. When we went to the store she would buy us sporting goods to use at our house with our cousins. I hardly remember her playing with us outdoors, but boy, she was mad about playing board games with us! During my childhood I played the same amount of time indoors and outdoors. But my favorite was going to my cousins’ house and play outdoors with their neighbors. Now, I rarely see a child riding a bicycle, playing soccer, playing hide and seek, or kickball. Now that I’m a mother in these times, to be honest my heart can’t let go of my daughter riding a bike on the streets because of the fast cars. She only plays outdoors in our backyard, when I take her to the park, or when we go to our ranch, but never in the streets. Play definitely is what freed my soul when I was a child, running, feeling the air in my face, my heart pounding fast, experiencing the adult world, and then going to bed thinking that I wanted to do the same things the next day. That was what play was to me, and it shaped who I’m today because I can freely express myself and feel free.    

Relationship Reflection

Relationships are important to me because they make me feel supported and loved. I know that someone loves me and it gives me the necessary strength to go through hard times. We can also learn through partnerships about experiences they’ve come through or simply guidance when we can’t find our way out.

The first person that comes through my mind as a partner is my husband. I know that he will be with me through hard times, and he will have me. We rely on each other because we know that we are priority. We’ve developed these partnerships mainly because of our daughters. But besides that we’ve always thinking ahead and think about the things that we like, and do them just to make each other happy. For example I know that my husband likes chocolate ice-cream, so I always try to have in our freezer chocolate ice-cream, just as a compliment to him. The other partnership that is important in my life is my mother. I know that she will always have her unconditional love when I need it the most. There are no words for this love but I know that my mom will always be there.  

I’ve learned that in partnerships you always have to be the first one to give a helping hand, and consider the little details that are important for that person. Most of all, be true to yourself and do what you feel is right. Past experiences in partnerships help me to be an effective early childhood professional because I’ve learn that there’s need to be a 2 way communication. I’ve learned that we need to have a common vision in order for us to work at the same performance level. Both parties should know that they are pulling the rope with the same strength.