My Play Connection

 The Barie Doll-many hours were spend dressing up, fixing the imaginary house with washcloths for beds and hand towels rolled for the furniture.  The happiest times of my life were spent on the living room floor with my dolls all laid out and ready for play.

The beloved kitchen set-royal dinners were cooked in the kitchen and served on the very best of fine china.

The box-many hours spent in a box.  The box could be transformed into anything you could think of.  It could be a house one day, a space ship to Mars the next, or even an evac helicopter over the Pacific.  There was no limit to what a box could be.

Favorite Childhood Quotes

When we play, we are engaged in the purest expression of our humanity, the truest expression of our individuality.

—Stuart Brown, M.D., researcher, psychiatrist, and play advocate

I have worlds to explore and things to uncover, give me my sandwich I am busy. 

            -----Kenzie Turner-brother

“The ability to play is one of the principal criteria of mental health.”

—Ashley Montagu, anthropologist 

My Support System

My grandmother gave us everyday items to make into props to use in our play.  We were given few tips or suggestions on how to use the items.  We were not allowed to spend all day in the house in front of the tv, but were “encouraged” to be outdoors and involved in an activity.

My mother always encouraged us to use our imagination to make our own fun, she would make puppets and castles with us and help me to find “princess” clothing when needed.

I don’t feel that play is the same now as it was when I was younger.  Maybe I feel that way because I was raised in a small town with no water parks or large recreation parks.  Maybe it was that I was raised by two parents and a grandmother who were all teachers.  I do know that I did not have access all the video games and internet access in which to use.  My parents did not feel the need to buy expensive or excessive amounts of toys.  I used what I could find for my play time.  A good mud puddle and grandma’s best roses made for a great mud pie party.  Imagination was the key component for my play.  Children today do not seem to have a well-developed imagination in which they rely on.  They want easy premade fun at their fingertips.  I would not give up my afternoons under grandma’s crabapple tree for all the video games in the world.  I treasure my adventures in my backyard.

The Role of Play in my life

My thoughts on play throughout my life-I treasure each and every minute of the play time I had.  I have a wealth of knowledge from the books I read and the time I spent acting out the adventures of The Boxcar Children, Pippy Longstocking, and such others.  Through play I was able to make sense of my world and the events in it.  Play helped a child with anxiety unwind and feel at peace with her world.  Even as an adult I do love to play, it just looks a little different.  It still helps with anxiety and to give peace and refreshment to my world.  Now I value the time I spend playing with my son.  We build tents to go camping, dig in the sandbox for lost treasure, and race our cars in derbies.

Relationship Reflection

Relationship Reflection

Relationships are important for support and guidance.  People were not meant to wander this earth alone.  We are social beings who need others around.  We also need others to guide us in decision making and to listen.  It is often helpful for me to have someone who is a sounding board.  I may think ideas sound great in my head but when others listen to them they pose questions that make me rethink and evaluate my ideas.  They help me to clarify and solidify programs and decisions.

My support team

Mother-She supported me throughout my childhood and adult hood.  She has guided me emotionally and educationally in every way she could have, even if I did not agree with it.  She helped me by listening and questioning when things did not sound just right.

Diane- She is a colleague who has experience in the field as well as in life.  She can look at a situation from the perspective of a community member, parent, and teacher.  She helps me to look at my life as a professional and where I can make adjustments and refine my skills.  She is also willing to have me look at her professional skills and critique her as well.  We both understand the process and know that we are being objective observers.   

Donna-She is a good friend who gives emotional support.  She can be objective and is really good about listening to the whole idea before asking questions or finding the “holes” in the plan.  She helps me to back away from a situation and look at all the parts before jumping back into it.

Relationship challenges

Insights that I have gained from maintaining relationships over the past decade or so have been:

·         Life happens-people get married, move, have children, die

·         When one person moves on in life the others may not follow and that is hard

In my experiences I have realized that when you grow as a person whether professionally or emotionally not everyone accepts it.  You have to decide if that relationship is really meant to go anywhere.  When you grow some people get jealous or don’t understand why you would want to move in that direction.  I hope that as I grow and learn I will be accepting of others paths.

I hope that my experiences with others would make me more understanding and accepting of others.  I would like to think that I have become a reflective individual and I can look at myself as a person and professional and be objective.  I would like to take that reflection and use the information to become a stronger more educated professional in hopes to share my experience and insights with others who are willing to listen as well.  I would also like to listen to what they have learned and apply it as well.

I would also like to take this experience and work with parents who may not have the life experience that I have and guide them through some of the pitfalls that I have landed in.  I would like to help them avoid some of the hardships and hurt if at all possible.  I understand that a certain amount of pain is necessary in order for us to learn and I will be there to hold their hands and lend a shoulder when needed.

Favorite quotes

They (children) may not remember what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel. -Dr. Moorehead Professor of Educational Psychology

Educational Testing

I believe that children should be assessed by their mental capacity-IQ testing and their mental state (emotional testing). If you are able to see where a child is at in mental capacity you can determine what they are capable of.  If they have a low IQ or mental capacity then the school system needs to provide a curriculum or job training reflective of that.  If there is an emotional issue such as RAD-reactive attachment disorder, schizophrenia, etc., then these issues need to be addressed.  I realize this is not the system that will meet every child’s need or will find every child but it is a start.

In reading about the education of special needs children in Africa, I was unable to find much in the way of testing.  Most special needs children are hidden and do not attend school.  The social stigma of having a child with special needs is devastating to the family.

There are very few schools that are capable of taking special needs children mostly due to the lack of funding.  Many teachers are not trained to work with children who need modifications.  There is a push on to better serve students with special needs. 

http://www.education.gov.za/Programmes/EarlyChildhoodDevelopment/tabid/437/Default.aspx

http://www.info.gov.za/whitepapers/2001/educ6.pdf

Poverty

Poverty- is living with a lack of resources financially, medically, etc.   Living without enough food, clothing, appropriate shelter, or security is devastating to a family.  If as a child you have known nothing else it may be easier to deal with but I doubt that.  As a teacher I have had the unfortunate experience to watch families struggle with this.  The parents would go without food for a day or so just so their children could have something to keep the hunger pains away for a little while longer.  As a school we provided food backpacks to go home with the students on weekends that had snacks and some basic supplies to help get them through the weekend.  Most parents appreciated the offer; one particular family demanded that it come home more often.  We even offered our time and abilities to help parents fill out welfare forms (some parents could not read or write), apply for insurance, or other resources that we knew might help.  The families took advantage of the meals provided at school to help feed their children.  There were still the families that would not let us help them.  I understand the issue of pride and the feeling of embarrassment.  The devastating feeling that you are unable to support your family on your own is one that can send you into a depression that can make things worse.  The families that I was fortunate to be able to help were grateful and worked very hard at keeping the children from knowing what dire situations they were in.  They loved their children more than many families who had everything they needed.  Unfortunately I had the displeasure of working with families who did not work hard to get out of the situation but expected the school, church, and others to support them.  They encouraged the children to beg for handouts and did not use the money they did have wisely. 

Living in poverty can cause a wide range of medical and psychological problems.  Living without clean water to drink or wash in does not help keep an individual healthy.  Germs and bacteria flourish in this environment.  Depression can set in and cause and individual to give up.

The stressors that are a part of the daily life of a child in Africa due to poverty are hunger, lack of health care, lack of education, and improper sanitation.  BUT change has begun.  It may be slow but it is in motion. Organizations such as African Union, donor nations, and NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) have made some great progress. In Kenya they have started free primary education which has allowed 1.2 million children into school.  Tanzania has built 1000 new schools and has recruited 18,000 teachers.  Also there is a movement to provide basic health care for free where the countries choose (Fighting Poverty).   

Resources:

Fighting Poverty-What is being done to help Africa.  Retrieved from http://www.fightpoverty.mmbrico.com/facts/africa.html

Clean water in Africa

Clean water in Africa

We are put out when we get the notice that our water will be shut off for a couple of hours or if the water smells a little “funny”.  We complain that we can only drink “mountain spring water” or bottled water because of the imperfections.  But what would we say if out water was brown instead of clear?  What if you had to carry your water over ten miles to get it back home?  Clean water is something that we take for granite.  We don’t have to carry water in pots on our head.  We are able to go to the sink and get a drink of water.  It may have a taste that we are not fond of but it will not make you violently ill. In Africa people’s health is put into jeopardy by drinking what water they do have access to.  They don’t have an abundance of clean water.  In Kenya young girls spend their days carrying water to their homes from water sources far away.  They are not able to attend school because of this.  Schools are not able to provide education because they don’t have clean water to support students and staff.  Children cannot attend school in some cases because they are at home managing the household due to illnesses of the parents.  The parents are sick from the unclean water they have ingested.  With such basic needs not being met education is not at the top of the list.   Un-developed areas of the world remain in poverty because of unclean water.  If you are sick from drinking unclean water you are unable to work.  Without clean water poverty is a fact of life.

The topic of clean water my not affect my teaching in the big city areas, but if I decide to teach on the reservation near my family it may.  Some families living on the reservations do not have running water or sanitation in their homes.  The topic of clean water does help me understand how devastating an earthquake or other natural disaster can be.  Without clean water public health can be put into jeopardy. 

What clean water would mean-

HIV/AIDS might be manageable with access to clean water.

Infant mortality rates have dropped by 50% where parents are able to have access to clean water.

With clean water people can grow food, build proper housing, stay healthy, and get to school or work.

Resources:

http://thewaterproject.org/poverty.asp#ixzz1GLxCTDP3The water project

Birth Experience

The birth experience I chose was the birth of my son.  This is the only birth I have had experience with that I remember.  He was an unexpected C-section birth.  After many hours of labor and the epidural wearing off, he was stuck.  I decided to go ahead with the C-section and another epidural.  He came out and had an Apgar score of 8.  We did not find out the sex of our child till they delivered him and the nurse said “Well Dad, tell her what we got!”  It was at that moment I knew that my suspicions were right, that we were going to have a beautiful baby boy.

I would like to believe that the birth experience has little to no impact on a child, but I know that I am wrong.  The birth experience has a huge impact on the development of the child, especially if the birth was a traumatic one.  Medical attention needed, the stress level of the mother, the alignment of the stars all have an impact on the development in later life. 

The region I chose to research was a birth center in Rid De Janeiro Brazil.  They use birthing centers to provide a more social event than a medical event.  They want to provide a more home like birth than a sterile birth.  The medical community is not as excited about this as the community.  Some of the centers are being closed due to lack of sterility in the setting and lack of medical equipment.  The centers are run with nursing assistants, social workers, and nutritionists.  The centers provide many services to the community such as classes and prenatal checkups.  The centers do only accept women who are in good health and little risk of complications.   The advantages of giving birth at the center is that your family is with you, you are allowed to get up and move around, give birth in any position you want, and can eat what you want.  You are not separated from family or restricted to a hospital bed and monitors.  The argument against the center is that if complications do arise medical intervention is 20-30 minute ambulance ride away.

I do like the theory behind the centers, have a natural experience for birth.  The experience does sound simple and more relaxed.  My experience was a combination of both worlds.  I was able to have my family near and could get up and move around as I pleased until the epidural.  I was not strapped down to the bed until the C-section began.  I had the sterility of a hospital and medical intervention just seconds away. 

Resources:

Frayssinet, Fabiana. (2011, March) Birth Centres vs. Hospitals. Health Brazil.  Retrieved from http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47318