My Connections to Play

Quotes about play:

Play is our brain's favorite way of learning -Diane Ackerman-

Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning -Fred Rogers-

The toys I loved to play with when I was 5 were:

 balls

babies


tea set

How was my play back in the day?

At the age of five, I was the only child still my sister came a year and half after. My play was usually by myself especially with my tea set. Mom and Dad worked, I remember setting up my stuffed animals in a line and adding water on the tea pot and setting the table so everyone had a cup of tea. My mom when she had time would come and play with me. On the other hand my dad loved to play ball with me or soccer. My mom always tells me how fascinated I was with balls. With my babies, I was very careful. I always carried a special baby, but often would put it down for a ball.

How does play differ from back then to nowadays?

Play differ not a little but A LOT.  I remember when it was ok for children to go out and play, explore their surroundings, explore nature. There was no game systems and if there was, my parents could not afford it therefore it was not noticed or missed. As children, we have to use our imaginations, use props like boxes, sticks, rocks, grass, mud, dirt, etc. Nowadays, children are more restricted from that, they rather play in their  systems, computer, phones, etc. Using their imagination has become more restricted in a way. Props have turned into the real stuff.

My role of play throughout my life was very interesting. As I got older, I had a sister and 13 other cousins. I was the older one so my job was to take care of them and entertain them of course. I remember every sunday we would get together at my grandmas' home where it was located in one of the biggest school in Lima, so we would go over to the big open play area and just run, play chase, hide and seek, visit the pets school out, etc. I loved to play volleyball, so my aunt would come and play with me, loved it. As I got older, I would play teacher and students, barbies, etc. My sister would join me but did not quite understand my play role, she was very young. Sometimes I think about it and so wish we can go back in time for our own children to experience that life.

Relationship Reflection

Healthy relationships are built of love, care, trust and respect for each other. They are meant to come into our lives with a purpose. Some are meant to challenge us and other to change our lives for ever. Therefore, my main three people whom are the most important to me are my children, one is 17, 13 and 7. We have a very solid trusting relationship, they come to me for any problems they have, our relationship has a strong open communication.

Somebody else special to me is my fiance, whom we have shared 11 years of our lives together. We have been able to learn about each other, learn about our culture, share our dreams and hopes. A relationship becomes stronger when we overcome struggles, learn from our mistakes and accept each other for who we are.

Another very special person in my life is my best friend Patricia. Patricia and I met working and doing what we love, serving children and families. She is very special to me because she led me believe in me again, led me to believe and trust God.

Life puts people in our lives who we choose to learn from. Some will become part of your life for many years to come  and some will not. Relationships are there to learn from, learn to grow, learn to now who you are and what you want to become. The best of relationships are those who no matter what, they are there for you until the end.

When I think about child development

                                   

Every child is special in their own unique ways, our job as teachers is to nourish them with guidance, support, sympathy and love. When I saw this image, I imagine my children I serve presently, how different each one is, not only themselves but their unique life and family situations. Let's prepare them with the tools to make this world a better place for our children.

                                              
...to all the support, feedback and encouragement I got  from your replies on my posts, hope to see some next class.

Testing for Intelligence?

                                                     

                                                         Testing for Intelligence?

Here in the state of Washington, we used to have the WASL, now they have taken this testing and named it MSP which is given to middle school's and the HSPE which is for the high school's, not to mention other testing the high schools have to give to students for them to pass in order to graduate.  I still remember comments from my sons' teachers when the WASL was around, how stressful it was at times for the children as well as for the teachers. First, the child is getting taught to the test. Second the teacher is being pushed to teach the material in a certain way cutting off her or his possibilities for incorporating their teaching styles nevertheless learning about their students ways of learning. The main idea as we know is that students get pushed so hard to pass the test because not only benefits the teachers scores but the school gets money from the government.  I am not to keen about testing children for these purposes, what happens with the children that have fallen behind through the years?, what happens to those that need special help of maybe learn things in a different way?, what about assessing children and use that information to learn about each one of them, learn other ways to teach them and be successful? On the other hand, I think that teachers should also be assessed, do they have the passion and dedication to their students or is it just a job for them? I have known too many teachers between my children and I can tell you which ones are the ones who are so dedicated to their children and love their job with the ones that do not have that drive to make their learning experience interesting, very monotone. As Berger mentions in the textbook with regards of intelligence that children can inherit many different abilities some might be high and some low (2012). So why not harvest their minds by learning their styles of learning, for teacher to observe and re-plan their ways of teaching in order to serve to their full potential and abilities.

Testing children in other parts of the world 

I found this article that caught my attention because the study was made with Peruvian children. Children that live in poverty and those who do not, children who live in the city but have migrated from the highlands and maybe go or not go to school. Their finding stated that children who live in poverty for the most part do not attend school rather they go to work so they can help their families(Stevenson, 1989). There was this comparison they did which reminded me a lot when I was going to school over there and that is the cost of school supplies. Many of the schools are not well equipped specially public schools where are the private ones are. Many families can not afford to pay monthly fees for their children to attend school. I remember my mom having to work two jobs in order for me to attend a private school. Education is different in that aspect, in public school there is a problem often with teachers going on strike because they don't get paid therefore children fall behind, etc. On the other hand there are those schools that do very well. Teachers, parents and students must come together and work building a partnership which can benefit not only the children but their future educational system as well.

References

Berger, K. S. (2012). The developing person through childhood (6th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Stevenson, H., W. (1989). Schooling and achievement: A study of Peruvian children. Retrived from deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/.../1/0000686.pdf

Consequences of stress in child's development

For this assigment, will talk about racism. Growing up, I went to a girl only catholic nun school. There was about 20 of us from the first graduating class since it was a very brand new school. There was a problem, perhaps one that is was not put to much attention when I attended. The class started to get divided into the ones that were popular and the ones that were not. The popular girls were the ones who had colored eyes, blond, light skin, better homes, lived in good neighborhoods, high status, etc. The rest of us came from middle to low income families, our parents worked very hard to get us a better education in a good school since they had to pay for it. There was a particular nun whom she would always listen and do what the popular girls said, hanged out with them and so on. There was an occasion where there was going to be a play put together for our families for mother's day. This nun had put this girl in charge to get the girls who had good voice in to the play and maybe some others one t do something else, so of course as you can imagine we all wanted to be part of it, me and several girls practiced so hard and tried to do the best so we can get picked. Well, she ends up picking of course her friends first, then she picks only one more and tells us that we are not good enough and we sang horrible. We became very distant and started to have anger towards them, it was devastating for us at that time. We brought it up to the nun and nothing was done. Many things like this happen for many more months, so we started believing that because of our status and the way we looked, we were just not good. Then, a teacher came to work there, I can say she was what we needed, she treated all of us as the same no matter where you came from and what you looked like. This teacher was not liked very much by the popular girls but for us she was our role model. Neath less say, looking back to those teen years, it was tough to deal with that. You start doubting yourself, trying to look different just for the fact that you want to fit in. Many of us deal with racism one way of another no matter who you are, is very important to educate and guide our new generations with eyes of equality and compassion.

Poverty affecting children in Peru is raising. There is 28 million people living in Peru, were 38 % is made up of children between the ages of 0 to 17 and 68% of them live in poverty (UNICEF, 2007). Poverty affects children's nutrition due to lack of food and nutrients their body needs to grow and develop normally as they grow it also affects their schooling performance, if they are lucky enough to attend a public school safe and good enough for them to learn. Sometimes poverty becomes part of their life cycle as family generations have long live this way. Every region in Peru is different but the most troubled are in the highlands area of Peru.

Reference

UNICEF (2007) Situation of children in Peru. Retrieved from

www.unicef.org/peru/spanish/Folleto_ing_correc_1.pdf

Child Development and Public Health

Breastfeeding

For this assignment, I choose to focus on breastfeeding. As a mother of three, I breastfed all my children. Maybe not as long as I would have liked to with my first two children, but with my last one, I felt more ready, better educated, had more support and was able to breastfed the longest . With my first two, I was young, did not have that support and encouragement, life style was bit more hectic, making the situation more stressful. 

Breastfeeding in my culture is very important overall. Growing up I saw my mom breastfeed my younger sisters, mu aunts breastfed my cousins, it was part of the culture. I believe is all about how the mom feels about breastfeeding, how much she knows and understand about it, support from either family or partner and  patience you can have to really do it. Circumstances can differ from moms to babies. 

Nevertheless, how long you breast feed your child can also be a personal choice. With respect to the length of time moms around the world  breastfeed according to the World's Health Organization and the UNICEF mentions that breastfeeding usually starts within hours of baby being born and can last up to 6 month in most cases it can last more than 24 months and up. Therefore, after 6 months breastfeeding is accompany by other supplement foods (Bosco, 2012). Countries like India and Rwanda, a high percentage of mothers breastfeed their infants up to the age of two. I found that in my country of Peru the UNICEF mentions that  47% of mother will feed their infants up to or past the age of two (Bosco, 2012). On the contrast, reports were not found for the US due to the fact that statistics have not been collected for prolonged breastfeeding past 12 months. One of the reasons is that initiation and continuation for breastfeeding is not much supported in the US (Bosco, 2012). Educating our moms to be from the beginning is essential as well as letting them know of the great consequences it has in their babies. This information brings me back to my own personal experience, when I was very young, not very well educated, not enough support,etc., was not able to continue past the five months of breastfeeding. Looking back and have learned, experienced much more, I am able to help manycof my mom's who are expecting at this time by supporting them by talking about the importance of breastfeeding and what a great way to form those bond and attachments with their child.

Reference

Bosco, M. (2012, ). Fitzgerald Health Education Associates, Inc.. Around the world, how long do women 

breastfeed?.Retrieved January 18, 2013, from http://fhea.com/main/content/breastfeeding/june2012.pdf

Personal Childbirth Experience and Around the World

Out of my three birthing experience, I decided to pick my first one. I was 19 at the time, very young and married. At that time, I did not know what to expect, it was all so new and unpredictable. I remember going to all my doctor's appointments, following their suggestions the best I could.I got to attend birthing classes even though I got to do them by myself. I was also advised by my moms own cultural beliefs on what to do, what to eat, etc., as well as by my in-laws. My goal was to not have any pain medication and have my bay the most natural way I could. At childbirth, after 12 hours of labor and pain my son was born. My mom was there as well as my baby's dad the entire time. I was very fortunate to have had my mom live with me the first couple of weeks to help with my newborn and new schedule. When he was born, all I could ask was if he was healthy and yep sure after that he gave a big cry, it was all good.

For my around the world childbirth information, I decided to look back at my own place, Peru. I am glad, I did because I found an article called :"A case study: The impact of maternal health in Peru" (CARE, 2006). In general this article talks about the life of two expectant mothers whom live in the most remote poor areas in the highlands of Peru, where there is no doctors at times or suitable health clinics that can deal with childbirth complications, etc. One part of this study mentions the lack of importance given to the women in this areas where men tend to be the one in control. Another issue is the lack of prenatal care before and after childbirth, not available for these moms. In order to fix this terrible problem, the CARE's Foundation to Enhance Management of Maternal Emergencies, has been working very hard to decrease mother's dying when complications occur at time of childbirth. 
One other information I learned was that quechua women in other words, women from the highlands give birth vertically, standing up. 

I encourage you to read this article, although I am from Peru, I learned something very new to me, so glad I found it

Reference

CARE (2006). A Case Study: The impact of maternal health in Peru. Retrieved from: 
            
            http://www.care.org/campaigns/mothersmatter/downloads/Peru-Case-Study.pdf