My Connections to Play

The true object of all human life is play.

~G. K. Chesterton

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.

~Plato

The above photos are what kept me going as a child. While I appeared to be somewhat of a tomboy, and I did absolutley love playing sports, I loved Barbies with a passion. Even as an adult I enjoy playing Barbies with my nieces. Music was another past time that I had as a child as well as during my teenage years and now into adulthood. I was in the school band for as long as I can remember, and today, I still share my love of music with the people who surround me. I attribute so much of my social skills, academic skills and imaginary skills to the above hobbies.
As a child, play was the number one priority for me. In turn, school became a priority because I knew that in order to go outside and play, I needed to have all of my schoolwork completed. My parents were always very supportive of my play, as were my two older sisters. They were even nice enough to play along with me from time to time regardless of the six year age difference. My parents always really encouraged me to be well-rounded. I didn't only play sports or I didn't only play music. I was on sports teams, I was in the band, and I acted in the school plays. I truly believe that these things are what set me up for success during my teenage years and into adulthood.

Play today seems to have changed quite a bit compared to what is was when I was a child. It doesn't seem as simple. When I was a child, I could play by myself with little or no objects and be completely satisfied. Or a few friends and I could get a game going that we made up on the spot and play it for hours and hours. I did grow up in a time where technology was booming and the era of the nintendo was popular. I think I even had the very first gameboy that came out, although I also remember only have one or two games for it and really only using it on long car trips or plane rides. I never found myself particularly interested in technology. In today's society, I struggle to get kids to play. Recess is no longer a favorite subject among youth and they just want to play video games and watch TV. I hope that I enourage the youth I work with to play and I hope I display the positive outcomes of play.

Based on the outcomes of my life so far, I will argue that the role of play is critical not only during childhood but throughout one's life. Even as an adult, I enjoy play. Perhaps not in the same setting as I did as a child, but very similar. I play on intramural sports teams, I am active in my community, and I am physically active. Participating in these activities help me stay focuesed in work and at school and really satisfy my social interaction needs.

Relationship Reflection

  Relationships have proven to be a critical part of my life, as they have shaped who I am today and who I will continue to be throughout my life. The relationships that I have encountered throughout the duration of my life, both good and bad, are the reason I am here in my career as well as my educational journey. I currently have several positive relationships that foster my health well-being. First and foremost, Reilly (my fiance) is the most significant of my relationships. We have been together for 5 years and have made it through some pretty big accomplishments together. We met while we were in college and have started our professional careers together and supported one another through the good times and the bad. Our relationship has been a factor in where I am at professionally today and where I will continue to go. The second most important relationship in my life today is the relationship I have with the youth that I work with. I work a lot, and I have a tendency to let my work consume my life, but it is in good reason I do so. I cannot put into words the satisfaction that comes from my job. Being able to witness on a daily basis the contribution that I make towards youth becoming better citizens is rewarding on so many levels. The trust that these children have placed in me and the relationship that we have is priceless. As a result of our positive relationship, I have been able to build better partnerships with parents. The parents are able to see how happy their children are and have become more open to the idea of parent involvement. The third relationship that is important in my current life is the relationship between my staff and I. I have a wonderful staff who is dedicated to advocating for youth and they make my job much easier for me. They are innovative and always make sure that they are serving the children before themselves. These relationships listed are important mainly because this is was occurs in my everyday life. I'm either at home with Reilly, or at work with my staff and kiddos. While I often get teased about how much time I devote to my career and how all I talk about are the kids at work, I wouldn't want it any other way. The fact that I'm making a positive difference in the lives of these children is reason enough for me to continue on my career path. Having a supportive partner makes things even easier.

When I Think of Child Development…

As our last week of class comes to an end, a few of my favorite quotes come to mind when thinking of child development and its importance. As a closing note, I would like to express my deepest thanks to all of my colleagues that have gone on this journey with me. I am so thankful to experience this educational journey with you all and hope that we can continue to do this together throughout this entire program. For those of you who have been with me from the beginning, can you believe that we have completed our second course? It won’t be long now until we have our degrees under our belts. For those of you who I have just met through this class, it was truly a pleasure. Everyone’s comments and feedback has been well received and appreciated. Good luck to all of you!

"No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure." ~ Emma Goldman, author

“You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing.  What!  Is it nothing to be happy?  Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long?  Never in his life will he be so busy again.”  ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762

“If our American way of life fails the child, it fails us all.”  ~Pearl S. Buck

Testing for Intelligence

I’m not 100% sure on how I feel about standardized testing for young children. From a personal perspective, I tested very well on standardized tests when I was a child. That lasted up until about when I was in high school. Around that time, I became very anxious about test taking and always seemed to do poorly regardless of my study habits. Unfortunately, this also followed me throughout college; however, I was able to make up for my poor testing abilities in other areas. I don’t think that most standardized tests fully cover where a child stands developmentally. If a child is just tested on science and math, and isn’t flourished in either of those subjects, that particular child may not produce high test scores. Does this mean the child is experiencing cognitive delays? I don’t believe so. I would be nice to see our school take an approach from and individuality standpoint. Perhaps not in the same way as Montessori schools, but just enough to where we can grasp where a child really stands cognitively. I think there are several subjects that could be addressed other than the basic things we already look at. Reading and writing are important but I think finding a way to measure a child’s understanding of words would be good. Also maybe using art to measure their thought process, or even music. There are so many characteristics that make up the mind of a child, it is important that we look at everything, not just certain things. In Germany, students are required to test on many different things beginning at a young age. This includes a second language, Latin, art, music as well as reading, writing, math and science. It seems like a lot, but my German peers when I was a child always seemed to be a little ahead of the game.

Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

This week we were asked to pick one stressor that affects and impacts child development. Since I work with children whose parents are in the military, I witness children dealing with war and deployments on a regular basis. Having grown up on a military base myself, I have dealt with same situations as a child. In today's society it is being raised in a single parent household is becomming more common. As if that isn't stressful enough for a child, adding the worry and stress of war can be very deetramental to a child and their development. Most of the children that I work with have experienced a parent delploying at least once, some on several occaisions. I can see an instant change in child's personality when their parent gets sent off to a warzone. It is saddening and disheartening to watch however we try to offer the best support that we can. We have many programs that offer different activities that the children can engage in while their parent is away. We even have our computer lab equipped with Skype so the children can get on and see and speak with their parent.

Child Development and Public Health

Public Health continues to be an important subject around the world. When speaking to my friends and parents, they always have strong opinions regarding public health and their children. I have several friends who are against immunizing their children and I have several friends who don't believe in breastfeeding. These are all things that I find very interesting, at least finding out what causes people to choose one side or the other. Since I do not have children of my own, it is difficult to relate to some of the topics within the public health sector. However, I do have opinions and thoughts as to how I would raise my own children and what things I would focus on as being important. Nutrition is something that jumps out at my because I believe it is something that our society struggles with not just with our children, but even with our adults. When I think of nutrition, I don't automatically think of starving children in Africa, I think about America and what our society makes of nutrition. As a child, my parents were always very particular about what my sisters and I ate. Well-rounded meals were always encouraged and we always focused on consuming lean meats and vegetables. These habits have stuck with me through adulthood and I still find myself being very cautious about what I eat, especially since I gain weight extremely fast. It saddens me because at my work, the youth come in with all sorts of sodas and candy bars and they are not limited on their consumption or how frequently it is provided for them. I always try and find out why their parents are so easy to give them junk food but I really think they eat it just because they can. I did an experiment last week and offered free fruit one day and the children who would normally spend 5 or so dollars on candy and sodas at the snack bar opted for the free fruit. While we run a for profit snack bar (full of junk), I would much rather have fruit for the kids rather than giving them the option to buy junk. It was my recommendation to my boss that we get rid of our snack bar and just offer fruit to the kids on a daily basis. As technology improves, people are becoming more likely to eat based on convenience rather than health. There are often days when I work 12 hours or so and then go to the gym after work only to come home to find that I am not motivated to cook. I try and pre plan my meals so I don't make a habit of this because it would be very easy to fall into a bad pattern of take out and microwavable meals. Our children are just picking up our bad habits from watching the convenience of junk food take over our lives.

Early Childhood Development - Week 1

How exciting! It is time for a new class, and I’m very thrilled about this particular class. Early Childhood Development is something that I am eager to learn more about because I am less familiar with it and I find it so interesting. For our first week’s blog assignment, we were asked to write about a personal birthing experience. Since I do not have children of my own, I’m going to have to take a different approach than most of my colleagues. The only birthing event that I was privileged to take part in was the birth of my second niece Caroline. It was very exciting and nerve wrecking. My sister had been in labor for several hours before going to the hospital and by the time we got there, Caroline was on her way out. From the time we got to the hospital to the delivery time, it took a total of 8 minutes. This was somewhat of a relief because I had always heard stories about women in labor for 22 hours and I all I could think about was holding my baby niece. Because my sister was so far along when we got to the hospital, the nurses were unable to give her and medicine to help with the pain. Watching my sister go through that was difficult. I couldn’t even imagine what that would feel like other than extremely painful and uncomfortable. Lucky for her, it didn’t take very long. Before this experience, I had always heard people talk about giving birth and the birthing process as something really beautiful. I started to feel bad and wonder if something was wrong with me because I didn’t find it to be any of those things. It looked painful and uncomfortable and almost unnatural. My niece, on the other hand, she was absolutely perfect once she arrived. It definitely opened my eyes and allowed me to see, first hand, the gift of life. The birthing process is so crucial on child development because this is when a child in brought into the world for the first time. From birth, this is when we shape the lives of the little ones in our lives.

Finding information about other countries and their birthing customs was very interesting. I chose to research Europe and more specifically Germany. I spent a great deal of my life living in Germany. 16 years to be exact. As a child, I always noticed their birthing practices to be somewhat different than American practices based or stories from my childhood friends. One custom that is very popular in Germany and most parts of Europe is the use of a mid-wife during pregnancy and the birth process. It is actually common to make a bigger deal about your mid-wife than your doctor. In Germany, you don’t even need to have a doctor present during the birthing process; you can choose to have one in addition to the mid-wife. I suppose I acted as my sister’s mid-wife in a sense when she was giving birth to my sister. I was there giving her support and talking her through the process, until I looked under the cover and began to feel a bit queasy.