Who Will Care For Our Children?

My Child Is Sick And I Have To Go To Work, Who Will Care For Her?

I was a single mom working as an assistance in a pre-school. There were times when my daughter was running a high fever and throwing up and I couldn’t afford a baby sister for her. The irony was I had to leave my own sick child by herself at home with no one to care for her while I had to go to work and care for someone’s child. It was 30 years ago. But does our government since then has provided more parental leave for our single and both parents family? When my children were young, I have never heard of Open Doors and Child Care Connections. Child caring for my own children were only among me, myself and I. Nowadays, the low-income working or going to school parents can qualify for our state’s subsidiary in the child care cost. But I know since April of this year in our program for the full-day full-year program, our families had a substantial cut in their assistance from our state government. Some of our families had lost their jobs due to the down turn of the economy. They had to settle with lower paying jobs and yet they have to pay a higher child care cost for their children. Hawaii has the second highest cost of living in the U.S. The average all-day child care in Hawaii is approximately $650 to $850 a month. I am saying this is $650 to $850 take home money that goes only for one child’s day care. If you are in a large extended family, you may have family members to help you in caring for your children. But not every one is so lucky. Sometimes caring for our children fall solely on the family’s shoulders.

In “It’s All Of Our Business”, I was furious to find out before 1978 it was perfectly legal to lay off a mother due to her pregnancy. If you ask any mother who had just given birth to a new baby, what is the most precious time of their motherhood? I am sure the first bonding with their new baby is one of the most memorable time of their motherhood. Hawaii is one of the six states in America that provides T.D.I. for our pregnant mothers. We live in a state that value our pregnant moms.

“Parents can’t afford to pay and teachers can’t afford to stay-there has got to be a better way”. How can we find the better ways to improve our childcare providers’ pay? It is really depressed that some of the childcare workers are making below poverty. It is sad that we live in a country that do not value the important teaching of early childhood education. But I know in our program and some of the private high quality preschools, the teacher’s pay is link to their education. In Head Start, all staff have the access to free higher education. We even have three to four hours a week of education leave to attend classes. There are some non-profit and for profit preschools in Hawaii. They may not be as fortunate as us. How can we help other preschools administrators to realize that in order to have a successful preschool program, they need to provide the funding and the time for their teaching staff to further their education?

Gay and lesbian families

Do Gay And Lesbian People Make Good Parent?

I work in a community (I am not exaggerating) that may be 90% of my families in my classroom belong to the same “ward” of their church. The majority of the family structures are mom and dad and children. One year at the beginning of the school year, I have invited all the families to come to our Orientation day. The purpose of the get together were to have families get acquainted with the teaching staff and the other families as well. Malie came with her mom, Maria, her older brother and her mom’s partner, Stevie. Maria is a Mexican from California and Stevie is a local Hawaiian. On the Orientation day I asked all the family members to wear a name tag. I had also asked them to put their child’s name under their name in parenthesis. I started a game to encourage the families to get to know one another. Stevie went around and introduced herself as Maria’ partner in their family. But I could tell Maria wasn’t that comfortable with the social gathering. She sat down on a chair with Malie on her lap. She did not get up and walked around to talk to other people. At the end of the orientation, there were two moms left to help me to clean up the classroom. I overheard one of the moms was talking to another one. One mom commented, “Oh! Poor Malie! She must be so confused. Which one is her mom? And how come her mom has a girl partner instead of a dad? Who is going to be the head of the family? Poor child! Just look at her! She is raised in a two-lesbians family. Who is going to discipline her? Mom or Stevie? Ha! Ha! In my family my husband is the head of the family and with my kids! Oh! They are so scared of their dad. He only looks at them and they are so afraid of him.” I was very up-set of this mom’s bias conception of a lesbian family. I have seen children that are raised in a nurturing lesbian family. I think the children themself accepted the fact of being raised in a lesbian or gay family. They seem to adjust it well. But sometimes it is the other people who have difficulties accepting the reality that there are non-traditional families. They live the normal daily lives as we do and have a loving and caring family relationship. But are those children confused of the gender roles of a father or a mother? Do traditional mom and dad’s family is the only ideal one to raise a happy family? Are children raised in a gay and lesbian family less respectful as they don’t have a “male” household figure?

Anti-Bias Curriculum

How Can We Help Our Children To Develop Positive Attitudes Toward An Anti-Bias Learning Environment?

“Hey! Come here! Look I Caught a lady bug!” Jeremy yells to his peer as he finds a red lady bug with black dots on her back. As more children find more lady bugs on the tree, they start to cross-examined them. They identify that some are smaller and some are bigger. Bob said, “Hey! My mom said you have to put them back. Otherwise, they will miss their mommy.” So some of the children put the lady bugs back to the tree. Mary suddenly yells from the other side of the tree, “Hey guys! Come quick! Look at this one! He is bad!” I walk over and am curious to find out the “bad” one. It is a brown lady bug with a some black dots. I asked Mary, “Why this one is bad?” Mary replies, “Cause it is not the same color like the red and black one.” I continued to find out what is consider “bad”. Mary’s answer is: “ It is different. It does not look the same like the others.” She tells her peers not to touch it. It may bite them. I explain to the children that the brown lady bug is just different and it is not “bad”. So after we play in the outdoor area, we all go inside the classroom. I choose to play the song by Uncle Wayne: “Fishy Fish.” We sing together: “Is she crazy? Is she lazy? No! No! Is she a weirdo? No! No! She is different and being different is cool.”

After reading Why An Anti-Bias Curriculum? I realized that we are so accustomed to use the tourist curriculum on our calendar that we do not see the backgrounds and the experiences that they brought from their own countries.

Who Is Better?

Jasmin says, “Juliet, I want to have curly hair like you. My mommy uses the curling iron every morning to have her hair curly before she goes to work. I have straight hair and I want to have curly hair too.” I ask Jasmin, “Why do you want curly hair? You have beautiful black hair.” Jasmin replies “Cause curly hair is better, my mom says she looks more pretty with curly hair.” Are we as adults teaching our children the bias conception? Do we brain wash our children and set the standard of what is considered being desirable? Just as the spotless snow white swan in “The Ugly Ducking”.

Anti-Bias Curriculum

Fun-filled Childhood or Know All Your ABC's

Fun-filled childhood or know all your ABC‘s?

After reading the Scripted Prescription A Cure for Childhood, I found myself just as guilty as Vivian’s kindergarten teacher. In my school, three times a years I have to do the observations and then make the evaluation of my children in my classroom. I have to turn in the levels where they are at in fifty different area. My job is to help them to reach another higher level of developments. Well, it is ironic even some of my children had just turned four years old. I have to write down the upper and lower cases of Alphabets that they are able to recognize, know how to write and the letters-sound connections. Needless to say, the academic part of the daily curricula takes up a sizable portion of our day. I have to constantly struggle to balance a fun filled and yet academic schedule for our children. We do parents’ survey every year. After I have collected all the surveys, I was disappointed when I read the results of what we can do to improve our program. A few parents wrote: Give my child homework to take home daily. Isn’t early childhood years are the time to learn how to play, to socialize and to develop competency? As an early childhood educator, are we sometimes so pressure to do what our school officials expect us to do or we let our kids be kids and enjoy their fun-filled childhoods?

After reading What About Play? I want to know why the United States early childhood educators are not adopting the success recipe as in Finland? Starting the children to read until they are seven years old seems too late for me. I know some children know how to read at an earlier age. But the question is do they comprehend and really savor early childhood literacy?

Block area is one of my popular corner in my classroom. I also enjoy observing the interactions in this space. My children exhibit their creativity, imaginations, compromising and negotiating skills in this constant visited area. These oldest geometric wooden pieces are still the most popular toys for our children of different ages.

Social Equity In Our Classroom

“It’s Mine! I Don’t Want To Share It!” How do we teach our children equity?

Among all of us, I am sure one of the biggest problem in our classroom is to teach our young children to share their toys. I have half of my class four-year-old and the other half three-year-old children. The older children tend to build with the classroom materials either the Lego pieces or any manipulative toys in some degree of higher complexity. Just like the Hilltop Elementary School children, I experience everyday of “Power, Ownership and Equity” in my classroom. Sometimes I suggest some sort of rules and regulations to ensure the fairness to children all ages. But sometimes nothing seems to work. Then the last resort: Take the toys away. Ha! Peace at last! Problem solved! But after I read “Why We Banned Lego” by Ann Pelo and Kendra PeloJoaquin, I realized the importance of helping our young children to put the true meaning of power and ownership under the magnifying glasses. In our everyday life, we experience inequality everywhere. Whether it is our gender, our race, our age or our religion, we see inequity prevalent. Should we just silently accepted that this is just the way how it is or should we stand up for the injustice? Sometime we are so afraid of “Rock the boat” and we hesitate to fight what is being just. Our upbringing and our past experiences manifested our definition of equity. But if we are aware of them then we will instill in our young children what is just and how we would like to be treated justly. I read somewhere of this saying: When the power of love overcome the love of power, that is when the world sees peace.

“Pono” Doing the right thing.

I can’t believe all the negative criticism Ann Pelo and Kendra PeloJoiquin got from all the angry parents and even the Fox news. We understand that we are living in an unjustifiable world. But should we encourage our children to continue this social injustice? It may seems to be a small issue of teaching our children to share the Lego toys. But what we are teaching our next generation is the awareness of social injustice and how to become fair to all.

What do you mean you are not doing “This” way?

We are a culture that we think only our American way is the only right way and there is no other way. Other cultures may think that: Why your American way is better than our way? Because other countries do things differently that does not make them less important. As an educator, I always remind myself to have an open mind to accept other cultures different ways and learn from them.

How Do We Define Gender?

How Can We Be Gender Neutral And Not Gender Bias?

In Miles Of Aisles Of Sexism, Sudie Hofmann clearly demonstrated how the toys manufacturing companies produce the products to deepen the segregation of their young females and males consumers. The toys for the boys focus on “patriotism and superiority” p.30. Boys’ toys are war toys, 3-D dino adventure, word games and board games. Even at a very young age, the girls are brainwashed that they have to play with the trendy toys; Barbies and of course Kent, make-up, vanity and mirrors, hair brushes and products, and nails kits as well.

I remember when I was growing up, the toys that among my siblings and my friends play with were: jump ropes, Hop Scots, bikes, bean bags, Chinese Jacks, and Chess. We didn’t have Barbie or Kent. I do not recall my brothers had any of the double-shooter water guns or machine guns. We played a lot Hide-and-Seek and Duck-Duck-Goose.

In my classroom, I set up a lot of gender neutral toys and activities for my boys and girls. I have girls’ dresses and I have boys and girls Aloha shirts. I have cooking aprons for the chefs and either gender is welcome to make the meals for his/her friends. In the Block area, I always invite anyone to join us to make a house for the zoo animals or farm animals. And at the outdoor area, all the equipments are suitable for all the gender to have fun and to explore. All the activities are gender neutral to everyone. But I do have to say that the girls are less fond of throwing, catching or kicking the balls.

As an educator, we need to be aware of the toys gender bias and we need to educate our families. The toys companies create this gigantic gender segregation and it is up to us and our families to make the gender neutral choices for our children and the next generation.

In “Where Are The Game Girls?” Ann Pelo did a survey of what boys like to play and what girls like to play. Again the article concludes boys and girls have a lot of common interests. It seemed the outdoor activities are more gender neutral. Why can the games manufacturing companies do more research on the children’s interests and create a game that is more like game kids? Is it because there are more male consumers than females consumers when purchasing the electronic games? Will the toys companies listen to the consumers’ wants and create more toys that both genders can enjoy?

After I read “Playing With Gender”, I want to know: How many of us when doing our observations of our children in regarding to gender bias that our interpretations are fogged up by our own social and political contexts? I was amazed that how our upbringing and our past experiences had such great influence on our way to define gender identity. I was labeled as a Tom-boy as I never liked to play dolls and in fact I had never own one. I enjoyed all the active so called boys’ games. But after I read this eye-opening article, I tell myself: I was just different and I was just an athletic child.

Eat What We Grow

What is the essential element of early childhood education? How my views have changed now?

When I was studying at H.C.C. on my E.C.E. classes, I learned about child’s development, how to set up your classroom, do observations and plan activities. But after I read the 7 chapters of New Possibilities for E.C.E. my eyes have been opened and I realized that the interrelationships with our children and their families are far more important than teaching our young children. The ladies in chapter 6 shared that through the classes they took, they have learned to become a better parent. They became more self-confident, more aware of their relationships with their children. They had also expressed that through their learning experiences, they felt that they earned more respect and their voices and opinions mattered. Do our children and our families feel the same way as the ladies in chapter 6? Does having a respectful relationship and providing listening ears matter more than getting our children to become kindergarten ready? Are building and strengthening our children and their families’ self esteem being shadowed by our “We don’t want to get into anybody’s business”? Will the silence of their past be kept and never shared? Early childhood education is about teaching our children to love others. But before they learn to love others, they need to learn to love themselves.

How do we teach our children to eat what we grow?

In “A Pedagogy Of Ecology”, Ann Pelo shared that in our culture, we tend to move frequently and we find it difficult to build a stewardship with our home ground, our mother earth. A few years ago I was working in a community where there was a large taro patch one mile down the road. Three families in our classroom who operated the taro farm came with a tiler at the beginning of the school year. With the cooperation of our elementary school, our principal gave us a small patch of land to grow some taro. These families showed our children how to loosen the dirt with the machine and with our hands. We spend the whole morning under the hot sun. We learned, what is a “oha”, the keiki of a taro plant and “Huli” the parent plant of a taro. The children watched the uncles and the aunties plant the baby taro plants. I have never seen my children ever so enthusiastic of any activity. We all walked to the back of our school and watered the plants everyday. We measured the growth of the plants. And best of all, after we waited patiently for almost nine months, Uncle John harvested and boiled the taro for us. We learned how to hold the poi pounder with our right hand and wet with our left hand and fold the poi on the wooden block. We learned to enjoy and appreciate the harvest of our labor. We learned to eat what we grow.

How can we have a “zero-waste lunch program”?

In “Bringing The Earth Home”, Ann Pelo pointed out the importance of raising the consumption and sustainability of our environment. She suggested to have a zero-waste lunch program. I work with Head Start and every day I see so many foods are being thrown away in the large garbage bag. All the unopened milk cartons and the uneaten foods were disposed every day. I often make the comment,”Oh! What a waste!” I like the idea of having a zero-waste lunch program but how do I implement it? Send me some ideas.

How Can We Implement Change?

How Can We Implement Changes Without Imposing Into Other People’s Values?

In Unwrapping The Holidays, I have learned to obtain consensus before I plan to make any changes. I have learned to respect other people’s believes and values. I can never assume that others would agree and follow my point of view and put aside their own values. A few years ago I was helping my children to prepare for our annual May Day celebration. I was a new teacher, in fact it was my second year of teaching. I was very enthusiastic about making the costumes for all my children. We practiced the song and dance every day. The important day arrived. And as we were walking up to the stage, Kimo’s dad pulled me on the side. He said his family do not celebrate any events. And he did not want Kimo to go up the stage. As that moment, I was talking to myself,” What do you mean you don’t celebrate any event?” I was upset and I felt he should have told me earlier as Kimo had an important part to play in the May Day event. But now after I read this chapter I would ask,” What if you were Kimo’s dad and it is against your religion and believe, how would you tell your four year old that he cannot participate with his peers? How difficult the task would be for the father to explain to his child? And how should he explain to his son that he stands on his belief? We teach our children that we are all different and we are all unique. We have to remind ourselves to respect that we all have different believes and values.

How Can We Help Our Children To Cope With Death In The Family When The Family Refused To Accept Any Help?

In Staying Past Wednesday, Kate Lyman had suggested a few effective ways to help the children to cope with their painful feelings. Her courage to ignore what the principal told her what to do, she encouraged the children to share their true feelings on the bulletin board. Our Children’s fears and curiosity are real and they need to be addressed. But what if the families refused to acknowledge the fearful feeling that children have and respond as “It Is Nobody’s Business”. May was a four years old in my classroom a few years ago. She always walked in with a smile. One morning as she walked in the classroom, I noticed the emotionless expression on her face. During breakfast time she shared that her papa hung himself in the garage. The child was the first one who discovered him in the family. She described as her mother came home that she was screaming and crying. She described the police came and there were a lot of people in the house. We talked to her mom and explained that we could offer child the psychiatric help free of charge. We explained to her that May had a lot of fears and emotions that needed to be addressed. Mrs. Yee answered with a firm stiff lip,” No! We will take care of our own business.” We further explained to her that the incident would impact May in her later lives. Even after a few long discussions, Mrs Yee refused to accept any help for May. What can we do to help the children in a non-invasive way to the families? All I could do at that time was paying more attention to May and reassured her that her papa also loves her too.

What is the other important job of an early childhood teacher?

When I was a new teacher straight out from H.C.C. I had all the dreams of setting up my first fun, safe and nurturing learning environment. I got hired as a Head Start teacher and I was placed in a drugs infested community. I felt that all the things that I learned for the past 2 ½ years did not equip me to deal with all my children’s domestic problems. Through all the workshops and additional training that our organization provided me, I have learned to work with our community organizations. Teaching our children is important but we need to do a needs assessment for our children and their families as well.

Making A Difference

How do we make our special need child feel included in our classroom? Should staff be more trained in Special Ed in an inclusion classroom?

In the article Holding Nyla, Katie Kissinger shared the number one obstacle in working in a inclusion classroom. Our fear of not knowing how to have a relationship with the child. As a Head Start teacher, I was subbing in an inclusion classroom a few years ago. There were two D.O.E. staff and two Head Start teaching staff. I had never worked with special need children before. Keoki was a six year old child with Down Syndrome. There was one incidence that all the children were already outside at the playground. He was still struggling to put on his shoes. I stayed back and waited for him with another D.O.E. teacher’s assistant. I noticed that he was looking at his peers outside at the playground while struggling to put on his shoes. I asked if he needed some help. But the other staff yelled out,” No! Let him do it by himself.” At that moment I wonder if the staff understood that Keoki had tried for a few minutes and he needed some help. My question is should staff be trained and have more empathy when working with the special need children? Should we be more aware that the special need children needs more special attention? Another incidence was that Keoki had just finished playing outside. During lunch time he was hot and thirsty and he pushed the milk carton to me. I knew he wanted me to open the milk for him. As I was ready to open the carton for him, the other staff grabbed it from my hand and she yelled,” Say open please! Say it! You have to say it or I won’t open the milk.” Did the child really benefit in an inclusion classroom? I wonder. I bonded with Keoki with the two months that I subbed at that classroom. He liked to play soccer and we played every day. I got him to smile while and he caught the ball and kicked it back to me.

Who determines a teacher’s qualification?

In Talking the Talk by Cathie DeWeese-Parkinson, she shared that the indigenous teachers were relinquished to a lower level of positions, or dismissed from Head Start. Years ago when I first entered the early childhood field, a teacher’s qualification was a C.D.A or preferably an Associated degree in E.C.E. In Head Start as we are funded by the Federal government, we are mandated to determine the qualifications of the teachers. I have met some people who have a bachelor a degree from their own country. But we won’t honor their educational achievement, unless they have a valid and accredited degree from the U.S. They may not be able to teach. I know some really talented experienced teachers from other countries and yet they do not have the degree from America, they were being discriminated. Should we reconsider the experiences and the education that our foreign early childhood educators brought with them that can enrich our children’s learning?

Are We Making A Difference In Our Children’s Lives?

How many percentage of those women came from an abusive and seemingly hopeless background, obtained the strength, encouragement and determination to make the change? In A New World Is Born in chapter 4, we realize that as a wife and mother, we gave up our hopes and our dreams just to fulfill our obligations and duties to our husbands and children. We put our needs and wants aside. I also wonder how many of these women had actually finished and gotten an education. The journey of early childhood education is a continuum of constantly reminding us that we want to make a difference in our children and their families’ lives.

Why Do We Teach?

How can we use our own personal experience to offer to our children and parents?

The Emerging Stories in Chapter 3 of New Possibilities for E.C.E. demonstrated the bravery of these women. They had contradicted that “According a large body of research, these painful experiences were supposed to be predictors of a disturbed personality, of a person likely to be abusive to others.” (p. 29) They had broken the poverty cycle. If one is a non-White, growing up in a single parent family, and neither one of one’s parent has a marketable career, one has to beat all odds. Like the Lotus flower, it is usually grown in the muddy and murky water. When you look at a Lily pond, it is just a pool of muddy water. And yet when the pinkish brilliant colored Lotus flower pushes its way through the heavy muddy water and emerges to the top of the pond; you will stop and admire how beautiful it is. Like these women, they took a lot of courage, perserverance and resiliency to become the Lotus flower. I had the opportunity to become a teacher/case manager. Two weeks after I took over a classroom in the middle of a school years, I was faced with a sexual abuse case in my classroom. The text books never told me that I would be emotionally involved. The books told me about how to do the legal procedures. I held the hands of the victimized mother and child, together we went through the whole painful experience. I learned to look beyond our children and our parents’ silences. I learned to be empathetic. I learned to feel the pains that our children and parents went through and I learned to be a good listener.

Should I have taught my children to speak in Chinese?

In Strawberries Forever, I can relate to the experience that I had. As an immigrant, I had the hardest struggle while bringing my children up. Should I teach them my native tongue or should I help them to concentrate on one language only. One time my husband had invited a few friends to come to a barbeque, and he yelled from the patio,”Bring me some mayonnaise and ketchup.” I stood and looked at the fridge for a quick while. What were mayonnaise and ketchup? Feeling liked a dummy, I told him I did not know what he asked for. I told myself that I would concentrate on learning English. My cousin has a son who was the same age as my son. She only spoke Chinese at home. When the children went to kindergarten together, her son was always being teased of his poor English. So I was more determined to omit the Chinese language spoken to my children. When I took the ED classes, I learned that children could learn more than one language and they could master the languages when they were young. I regret that I had never taught my children how to speak in Chinese. I will work on my grandchildren.

Woven Words or Books that our children are interested in?

A few years ago our organization spent thousands of dollars and purchased a reading program to promote children’s literacy. We were told to read weekly and towrite in our lesson plan the small group reading activity. When I opened the big box, I was disappointed at the three sets of 20 newspaper printed books. The stories were long and I felt they were designed for the kindergarteners. My children were aged from 2 years 8 mos to 5 years old. Each week was a chore as the children were unable to sit through the stories. I did try to read only a few pages a day. Every time I told myself they were not interested in the books. But I did as I was told weekly. In addition, I had also incorporated a lot of children’s books that they were interested in and we read them together daily.

Cultural Divide and Cybertots

What are the prices that our early childhood immigrant educators have to sacrifice to pursuit their dream?

In New Possibilities for E.C.E. on The Cultural Divide, did they come to a land of opportunity? A place that they will find greener grass than their homeland? The story of Bertha reminds me when I left my family, my friends, my culture, my traditions, my customs and worst of all, my authentic Chinese food when I was nineteen years old. The feeling of being a stranger in a new land was difficult for any foreign born and raised American to fathom. The feeling of unable to truly expressed my wants and needs resulted in hopelessness.

Diane’s story made me feel that our country has not done enough to help our needy families. With my experience of working with Head Start, I learned that a few of my moms in my classroom had to work two jobs just to pay for the rent and the food for herself and her young children. I had visited the homeless families that I had at the beach. They are not lazy or ungrateful people. Some of them have a regular day job. It was the high cost of rent and food that they became homeless.

Olivia’s story showed the strength and the perseverance of some of our Early Childhood educators. The difficult journey and obstacles that they had to overcome to pursue their American dream.

In Cybertots: Making mud pies or clicking a mouse?

When my children were young, we made a lot of cookies. We hiked a lot of mountains; we camped at parks and beaches. We played a lot of board games: Checkers, Chess, Monopoly and Scrabble. We also played a lot of card games; Go Fish, Uno and Old Maid. We never spent a lot of money buying games. My children never had a computer when they were growing up.

As they went to elementary school, they acquired the computer skills. I visited my grandson last year in Washington D.C. He was only 1 year and 11 months old. One time we were waiting for our food at a restaurant, he became restless while he was sitting on his high chair. So my son took out his I-Phone and let him played with the puzzles and matching games. The gentleman at the next table has a child who appeared to be older than my grandson. He turned his head and looked astonished as my grandson moved his finger to fit the puzzle pieces into

the allotted space. I was a proud grandma. But after I read the Cybertots, I realized that the essence of make mud pies outweighs the clicking or moving of a mouse.

Focusing on Our Children's Academic or Social Development

Should we focus on our children’s academic or social development? Which one should we value?

If I lean more on the academic side, I will please my parents in my classroom, my supervisors, my program, and the kindergarten teachers in our school.

I remembered when I did my home visits during the beginning of the school year. One of the question that I asked my families was: What is your goal for your child? Eighty percent of the families emphasize the kindergarten readiness. They want their children to know the numbers and letters. Only may be four or five families shared that they just want their children to get along with their peers.

Since I work for Head Start, we assess our children three times a year. My supervisor tells me that if this term this child’s cognitive skill on patterning is at level 2. Then we have to aim at bringing the child to level 3 on the next assessment. I always feel I am overwhelmed with observations, data entries, set up activities so that I can test them, bring them up another notch. Instead of really enjoy my time that I can spend to do the fun science activities or “talk stories” with them about the family events. In addition, I have the children only four hours a day. I feel I have so many things to do but not enough time in the day.

Our classroom is on the D.O.E. campus and we have constant contact with the kindergarten teachers. Since this is a small community, everybody knows everybody. When my children go to kindergarten, I always hear the report card of my children from the teachers. “Johnny is from your class? Oh! He is very smart. He knows all the alphabets. Mary is from the other preschool teacher. Oh! She doesn’t know anything.” I feel I am pressured to focus on what the kindergarten teachers want me to teach and not what early childhood is all about.

I envy the New Zealand’s radical approach. We invite our parents to come in and have our monthly Parent Group meeting. And every month there are only may be two to three parents show up. I know the importance of developing a socially competent child in the early childhood years. But yet my dilemma is: Do my job or reinvigorate early childhood values.

How do we use what we have learned and apply them into the real world?

How do we use what we have learned and apply them into the real world?

Our perspectives may not be the same as our children and parents in our classroom.

When I was taking the ED. 135, I remembered one of the course taught me the importance of helping our young children to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle. I was sent to my classroom six years ago. Eighty percent of my children in my classroom were Polynesians. On average, 30-40% of the children were overweight. I talked to one of my mom in my class and informed her that according to our Growth Chart and the B.M.I. her son was overweight. I further inquired his diets and daily activities at home. She smiled casually," He is just a big boy! He has big bones. Ha! Ha! Ha!" I explained to her that according to our Federal guideline, junior boy is way over our standard. Staying fit and eating healthy and the right portion of food may not be our children and parents' priorities.

Susan Bernheimer shared on p. 99 in Reconsider Priorities. She pointed out that p.100 "the foundation of meaningful learning as emerging from life experiences of children." I ordered a bunch of footballs and basketballs. For the next few months, we spent a lot more time at the playground throwing footballs, basketballs and dodge balls. We had also made a variety of fruit salad in our Cooking class.

On page 101 Susan Bernheimer also pointed out in The Living Classroom. She also mentioned about how food helped to bond relationships together. During our monthly Parent Group meeting, I used some of our snack money for the classroom to purchase a large variety of fruits, low-fat cheese and crackers. I cut them up and displayed them in a beautiful platter. Ice water was the only drink. No fruit juice or soda. I invited the parents and families to come. Everyone commented on how sweet and crunch were the grapes and strawberries. I passed out the simple receipt to everyone to share.

Early Childhood education is alive! Our relationships with our children and their families should be changing constantly to meet their needs. Principles and fundamentals are only guidelines to applying to in our everyday teaching.

Aloha to all the educators,

This is the first internet class that I am taking. I am excited and yet fear that I may do something wrong. I hope I have set up my blog correctly. I am looking forward to exchange and learn all the new ideas and opinions from everyone.

Talk to you soon!

Ivy