My Connections to Play

My Connections to Play

-          Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn.

-          O. Fred Donaldson

          

-          Children at play are not playing about. Their games should be seen as their most serious minded activity.

-          Michel de Montaigne, French essayist, 1533–1592

                When I was younger, play was the best time of my day. I had a lot of support in regards to play, because the town that I grew up in, I had family members all around me. Many of my cousins were around my age; therefore we got to play each and every day after school. I can remember times when I would not be feeling well; my Mom would encourage my cousins to come over anyway, just so that we would have our time play together.  A very important factor while growing up was family. We learned from a young age that we were to always get along and play cooperative with one another.

                Today, in some families, I can see the similarity of the way that I was bought up and how kids are bought up today. Many of my friends implement the same values in their families, whether it is between siblings or relatives.  We were taught that no matter what you were to show love for one another, although at times you may have felt that we were not going to speak to one another for week. We were taught not to go to bed without resolving the issue. Come to think about it, it was almost like a marriage. I hope to see more and more families implement this type of values in their families. It’ll teach children to get along with others and eventually to understand and accept each other as an individual.

                I can say that the values instilled in me as a young child, has actually carried out in my adulthood. To this day, none of my relatives believe in holding grudges with one another. We may disagree to disagree at times, but we will definitely have our play time – where we laugh, joke and enjoy life.

                       

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**Relationship Reflection**

"Human relationships, and the effects of relationships on relationships, are the building blocks of healthy development" (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000, p. 4).

Krystal - My Mother

Although, my Mother was a single parent she has always been tentative to all of my needs. She motivated to go to college and succeed and make something of my life. She molded me into the self-driven woman I am today. With working two jobs at times, my Mother was always there in more ways than one. From PTO to helping the school put together fundraiser events to Parent-Teacher conferences, my Mother was always there in some way, little or big, to show me how much she cared through her involvement in my school activities as well as my home life.

Dr. Margaret - My Grandmother

From being my grandmother to being my elementary school principal, my grandmother has always been supportive of all of my scholastic efforts. She has always told me that I could be anything I wanted to be in life. I have watched her oversee my elementary school as principal, as well as run her own large family which includes 7 children, 32 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren. She is the reason why I decided to pursue this degree in Education. Her ambition and drive is all of the motivation I needed.

Kerri - My Aunt

Since my mother’s baby sister and I are only 12 years apart, I was always known as her “mini-me.” I guess almost like a “kid sister” – wherever she went, I was there, should my Mother have to work late nights. She told me that when I was younger, she considered me to be her “human baby doll.” She said she loved to dress me up in different clothes and also making sure that if we went out to a store we were dressed alike. My aunt was extremely overprotective of me and would not let anyone tell me anything that she thought was unjustifiable. She still tells the story of how when she went to college she cried the entire way there because she knew that it would be a while before she saw me again as if I were HER child. My family finds this story extremely funny to this day, and each time the entire family is together, someone will bring this story up. My aunt and I are extremely close and to this day any major decisions I have to make, besides my Mother, I make sure that I run it past my Aunt as well!

Many Thanks!!!!

Thanks to All!

I enjoyed reading and interacting with each of you throughout this course. For those of you that I’ve had in my previous class – it’s been a blast. Each week, I looked forward to reading all postings for further insights from either our weekly discussions or the blogs. Although I’m new to the education field, I feel I have learned a lot from each one of you, and I cannot wait to implement what I’ve learned from each of you and apply it in a school setting. I personally enjoyed reading the blogs of those whom have been in the education field for some time now that I can truly gain information and knowledge from.

I look forward to seeing you all in upcoming classes! Let’s continue this journey together!! =)

Kaysha

Quotes…Quotes and More Quotes…

“No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness & generosity hidden in the soul or a child. The effort of every true education should be unlock that treasure”…Emma Goldman, Author

“Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate."… Anonymous

"An aware parent loves all children he or she interacts with - for you are a caretaker for those moments in time." …Doc Childre, founder of the nonprofit institute HeartMath, a research and education organization

“If you want to interact effectively with me, to influence me - your spouse, your child, your neighbor, your boss, your coworker, your friend - you first need to understand me”…Stephen R. Covey, The Importance of Understanding

Testing for Intelligence

I believe that testing a child should be more than what a child looks like or what a child can do on paper, it should be what a child can do creatively. If the child was asked to identify certain objects in a picture, would the child be able to do so? Would the child be able to see things that we as adults could not see? Another way to assess the child would be their health and well-being. As facilitators, we should pay attention to all students in the class rather than focusing on just one child. We must pay close attention in making sure that all children that are in our care look nutrient, well clothed and well fed.

For instance, in Thailand, where children make up over 30 percent of the population, nearly 60 percent -- six million children -- of primary school age are undernourished; nearly one million are critically malnourished. Ironically this country is a major producer and exporter of food.  In some areas of the world, the situation is even more depressing. In conflict-ridden areas of Sri Lanka, for example, the UN World Food Program found alarming levels of malnutrition (Gunde, 2012). A quarter of the children in these areas are "stunted,” or too short for their age, and nearly one in three is severely "wasted,” that is, far too thin for their height. And in still other places, children face outright starvation. A news report from Zimbabwe, once a breadbasket of Southern Africa, quoted a 32-year-old mother waiting in a queue for a bag of corn meal and a portion of beans passed out by the World Food Program: "I want my children to go to lessons to learn, but the walk is too much for them some days when they are so famished. How can they learn when they have no food in their stomachs?"

The examples mentioned above are very heartfelt. As a mother, I could never imagine having to stand in a line waiting to get food for long periods of time. However, as a mother I know that in order for my child to eat, I would do anything and everything I had to do to make sure he does.

Reference:

Gunde , R. (2012). School Children in the Developing World: Health, Nutrition and School Performance. Retrieved from http://www.international.ucla.edu

Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

Natural Disaster: Hurricane Katrina

The devastation of Hurricane Katrina claimed the lives, homes and loved ones during its landfall.  There were a lot of misleading perceptions of the people of New Orleans, but they all were merely trying to survive during this trying time of their life.  With the lack of food, water and other resources, it leads families to do things they had never even thought about before.

A story that comes to mind is one that my family went through.  My sister had just been discharged from the hospital after giving birth to her healthy 8 pound 2 ounce son, only three days prior to the storm hitting landfall in New Orleans.  Of course, like most families throughout the New Orleans Metro Area decided to wait the storm out, especially after just giving birth, however to this day, she will say that her staying in the city was the worst thing she had ever done in her entire life.  When she explained her story to me, it was truly heartfelt. All she could remember was hearing all the water from the levees gushing in, wrapping her son up in blankets and heading into her parent’s attic of their house.  Her family stayed in the attic for a total of 5 days before being rescued, by breaking a hole in the roof of the house and her brother standing on the roof waving to the helicopters to get some assistance. Finally, upon getting assistance, they were then transported to the Superdome. She said it was so many people actually living in the Superdome, she said she had to take matters into her own hands so she was finally able to contact a family member in Montana, whom sent her and the rest of her family train tickets to get out of New Orleans. She explained this time to be extremely stressful and she would not want to wish that experience on anyone.

Disasters in Other Countries

I have never had to go through such a devastating event, such as a Tsunami before, but I’m more than sure that it would be just as stressful. I would like to know what during both devastations there were people from all over the world pitching in to help out through making donations to the American Red Cross, sending  money to local public entities and also here in the surrounding areas of the New Orleans region, citizens were even offering their homes to families. This was extremely welcoming rather than having to sleep on high school gym floors or cots. I can remember watching the news and seeing the aftermath of the Tsunami that occurred Japan. Of course, it was a stressful, challenging and devastating time for the adults of the country, but watching the children in that area walking around, I’m sure was stressful for them as well. There were so many children whom wondered the streets looking for their parents and loved ones during this time, it was just depressing. Save the Children reports that as many as 100,000 children were uprooted from their homes, some of whom were separated from their families because the earthquake occurred during the school day (McCurry, 2011). Regardless the type of disaster, it may have made more of an impact on them if they were old enough to understand what had taken place, while the younger children were just as they were prior to the disaster.

Reference:

McCurry, Justin (15 March 2011). "Japan earthquake: 100,000 children displaced, says charity". The Guardian (London). http://www.webcitation.org/5xD8JCtef. Retrieved 15 March 2011

The Silent Killer among Infants...

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome known as SIDS and the lack of answers is part of what makes this “crib death” so frightening. It's a frightening prospect because it can strike without warning, usually in seemingly healthy babies. Most SIDS deaths are associated with sleep and infants who die of SIDS show no signs of suffering. This topic is extremely dear to my heart because one of my good friends lost her baby boy to SIDS. Like the definition simply explains this syndrome attacks innocent infants in their sleep without anyone knowing until the next morning and of course by then it’s too late.

Although there is no number amount of risk factors leading up to SIDS, several risk factors combined may contribute to cause an at-risk infant to die of SIDS. The Immunization Safety Review Committee was established by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to evaluate the evidence of possible causal associations between immunizations and certain adverse outcomes. This year they focused on sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI) (Almario and Stratton, 2009).

The issue of association between immunization and SIDS is based on the fact that vaccines are routinely given during the period of the highest incidence of sudden infant death syndrome, which is between 2 and 4 months of age (Almario and Stratton, 2009). In this situation it is necessary to answer the question if the use of vaccines contributes to an increased risk of SIDS or if it is just a coincidence.

Although the rate of SIDS is declining dramatically, about 2,500 infants still die each year from SIDS in the United States. And there are those who believe that vaccinations are responsible for some of these deaths, the theory still has not yet been confirmed. Most deaths due to SIDS occur between 2 and 4 months of age, and incidence increases during cold weather. African-American infants are twice as likely and Native American infants are about three times more likely to die of SIDS than Caucasian infants. More boys than girls fall victim to SIDS (American Academy of Family Physicians, 2012).

There are some other potential risk factors that parents should use safety measures to prevent high risk of their children dying of SIDS, which are smoking, drinking, or drug use during pregnancy, poor prenatal care, prematurity or low birth weight, mothers younger than 20, tobacco smoke exposure following birth, overheating from excessive sleepwear and bedding and, of course, stomach sleeping (American Academy of Family Physicians, 2012).

Even though this is a syndrome every parent dreads of ever having to deal with – a responsible parent would definitely take the precautions to prevent this from happening to their child. SIDS does not discriminate of race, ethnic or part of the world the child lives in. Parents must take all necessary preventative measures.

References:

Almario, D. and Stratton, K. (2009). Immunization Safety Review: Vaccinations and Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy.  Institute of Medicine, Immunization Safety Review Committee, Board of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Retrieved on March 6, 2012 from http://sids.org

American Academy of Family Physicians. (2012). Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Retrieved on March 6, 2012 from http://kidshealth.org

Childbirth - In My Life & In Africa

The hardest yet most rewarding childbirth that I have experienced was that of my only son, of course.  Like most, I was extremely afraid. I didn’t know what to expect and of course all of my friends and family members were giving my “unwanted” advice and horror stories of when they gave birth. I can remember going into the hospital around 6 in the morning thinking to myself, “this is going to be a breeze!”  The first event that went wrong was the fact that they couldn’t get my IV started, due to the fact I have small, rolling veins and I hadn’t  eaten  anything  since about  7pm the night  before. They had to call in several nurses, including the triage and ICU nurses to attempt to get it. It took about 2 hours, but they were finally able. After about 4 hours I started to feel excruciating pains, but considering I have a sort of high tolerance for pain, I just assumed the pain was coming from my baby lying on one side of my body for too long. After 5 hours of dealing with such pain, I started to scream for epidural. To make a long story short, the pain I was experiencing were from contractions obviously, and after being in labor for about 12 hours our healthy bundle of joy was finally welcomed into the world.

Childbirth as it relates to other countries around the world is extremely different.  For example, in other countries, mothers tend to give birth in the comfort of their home rather than in a managed care setting. They also usually give birth naturally as here in the US epidural is used more often.  Another fact in other countries such as Africa, mothers tend to have multiple births back to back without allowing the body to heal and deplete the mother's essential nutrients, putting her at higher risk for anemia and other complications such as uterine rupture, which in turn puts babies at risk of low birth weight and preterm birth (Russell, 2011). In Niger, a woman gives birth to an average of nearly eight children. Uganda, Mali and Somalia are close behind, with an average of six to seven children per woman. Each pregnancy increases the risk of complications and death. The most common causes of maternal deaths, according to UNICEF, are hemorrhaging, infection, obstructed labor, hypertensive disorders during pregnancy and complications from an unsafe abortion. "The root cause," according to UNICEF's annual State of the World's Children Report, "may lie in women's disadvantaged position in many countries and cultures and in the lack of attention to, and accountability for, women's rights (UNICEF, 2009)."

"Saving the lives of mothers and their newborns requires more than just medical intervention," said UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman. "Educating girls is pivotal to improving maternal and neonatal health and also benefits families and societies (UNICEF, 2009)."

I agree with Ms. Veneman in her last comment in regards to educating girls in the schools system. This will help eliminate possible teenage pregnancy and make them into strong respectable young women.

References:

Russell, K. (2011). Childbirth in Developing Countries. World Press. Retrieved from http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/3834.cfm

UNICEF (2009). UNICEF launches flagship report on maternal and newborn health. Retrieved from http://origin-www.unicef.org/sowc/index_47192.html