My Supports

My biggest supports in my daily environment are family and friends. My mother and father have supported me all of my life. In this present time, they support me by letting me live with them (for free) while I finish Graduate School. Their words of encouragement are always helpful whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed or down. My family has always supported my endeavors and have always encouraged me to do my best at whatever. My friends are always there when I need to talk and have always given me positive and constructive advice. When my friends aren't there to talk to, I always pray. My faith in God has gotten me through a lot these past few years. I believe without these supports I wouldn't be the person I am today.  I thank God for placing such a great support system in my life.

A specific challenge that I am currently dealing with is school and work. I've recently just started a new job and going to school online is something new to me. It has been a struggle managing both, because they both are demanding. It has been kind of overwhelming, but encouraging words from my family and friends especially my mother have inspired me to keep pushing forward through both my career and education.

My Connection to Play

“Go and play. Run around. Build something. Break something. Climb a tree. Get dirty. Get in some trouble. Have some fun.” -Brom, the Child Thief

This quote really sums up what play was to me during my childhood.

“What strange creatures brothers are!” - Jane Austen

I chose this quote because they were my primary playmates. Even though they didn’t want to play with Barbies and other girly things, my brothers made my childhood amazing! We still play.

 Sidewalk chalk was so essential to my childhood. I made hopscotch boards, 2 and 4 square boards, kept game scores, and many other things with sidewalk chalk. I used chalk at home and school.

 

 Spalding was my best friend 3^rd- about 8^th grade. I loved playing basketball and football as well. I played summer league basketball in 3^rd and 4^th grade, then I played the city league. My dad even had a concrete slab and basketball goal in the backyard for me and my brothers. We’d stay outside all night during the summer playing basketball.

Good, quality tennis shoes are essential to every childhood. I was a tomboy at heart, blame my brothers and dad. It was important to have good tennis shoes, because I would run at school and through my neighborhood. I loved playing, I loved running, and being outside.

My parents always encouraged us to go outside. We’d stay outside for hours, riding our bikes, playing games, and exploring our neighborhood. I’ve had teachers to take us outside during science lessons and have us explore our school grounds and let us explore nature. We had recess every day, well when weather permitted. I believe I had an awesome early childhood education, because my teachers allowed us to explore the world around us. We were playing while we were learning. I remember every school year, my teachers allowed us to help them clean their classrooms. They would give us some of their supplies they had used throughout the year. I’d use these leftover supplies they gave me to play school at home with my teddy bears and friends that would come over. I feel like my parents and teachers promoted my play by letting me be free and letting my creativity to live. I also developed cognitively, socially, and physically.

I feel like play is different because there is so many bad things going on in the communities. Children aren’t allowed to go outside and be free because of the risks of violence in the community. Their parents are afraid to let their children go outside. Some children are placed in front of a T.V and play video games all day, when they aren’t at school.

Realtionship Reflections

Positive relationships are important to me because sometimes you just need someone to vent to and relate to. My close friends and I have a group text message and we talk about so many things throughout the day. If one of us is having a bad day, we encourage each other to keep our heads up and offer help. I believe that relationships are important because sometimes someone needs that extra ump.

My most positive relationship right now are with my family (mom, dad, two brothers, sister-in-law, grandparents, nephew) my friends (Anna, Alex, Destinee, Bella, and Melanie) and my church family. Most things that I go through I share with my parents, siblings, and friends. They really help me through a lot of my problems. My mom is my best friend, I really can talk to her about anything and I appreciate her opinion. She is really understanding and no matter how bad I mess up she is still supportive. I don't share as much with my dad or my brothers , but we do talk about a lot of things. Since they are men, I don't expect them to understand most of my problems. My church family is highly supportive. When I was younger, I cried during every Easter and Christmas speech; they help me overcome my fear of public speaking. They encouraged me every Easter and Christmas. They were big on getting good grades in school and supporting those who struggled. Every six weeks they would give out rewards for making honor roll and principal's list. I believe it made the children in our church strive harder to get those rewards. I appreciate my relationships with my friends because we have different views and we our very outspoken with our opinions and views. No matter what those opinions are even though we might disagree on some things we are understanding.

I believe that trust is a major challenge in developing and maintaining relationships. Throughout the years I've learned that everyone is not your friend and everyone doesn't have your best interest at heart. I believe that actions speak louder than words and true colors will come out, you just have to recognize the signs.

I believe that my positive relationships with my family, friends, and church family will have a great impact in the field of early childhood education. I believe that you have to be very understanding, emphatic to people's situations, and encouraging.

Graditude of Thanks.

"If kids come to us from strong, healthy, functioning families, it makes our job easier. If they do not come to us from strong, healthy, functioning families, it makes our jobs more important." -Barbara Colorso
I used this quote in another one of my blog post. I love this quote! I want to help children that don't have access to most resources. I believe that that is my life's purpose, to help children. Rather I'm teaching or not, I plan to continue to help children.

I want to say thank you to my classmates, especially Tracey Darden and Shahrazad Ali I really enjoyed reading both blog postings and discussion boards. You all's postings were full of information and different perspective of thinking. Thank you! I wish you all the best in your future endeavors!

During my childhood, I was blessed not to have any of the stressors, such as poverty, war, racism, etc. nor did any of my friends, which I’m aware of. So I cannot speak personally about these stressors and how they affect children, but I can talk about a true story and movie about a young man from my hometown. ‘The Blind Side’ is a movie portraying Michael Oher’s struggle with poverty and his success within football. This is a very popular movie and a real tear jerker. Michael Oher was born to a crack addicted mother, grew up in the projects, he also moved around and slept couch to couch. Because of an acquaintance, had the opportunity to attend one of the top private high schools in the city, Biarcrest. In 2004, Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy, a couple with a daughter and son attending Briarcrest, allowed Oher to live with them and eventually adopted him. He went on to graduate high school, attend Ole Miss, and he became a NFL player for the Baltimore Ravens. It is good to hear and see a story about someone who beat the odds.

“Around 1.2 million Egyptian children live in absolute poverty. More than 1.4 million children live on less than 1 US dollar per day” (www.un.org). Could you imagine living on $1 a day? “It is important to look at how poverty is affecting their lives and how we can address it, because a child who lives in poverty rarely gets a second chance at an education or a healthy start in life,” stated Ms. Kaag (www.un.org). For example through Save the Children, Egypt has provided street children with education and vocational training. Poverty will not disappear, but the effort is great.

References :

Child Poverty and Disparities Study in Egypt Launched. Retrieved from: http://www.crop.org/storypg.aspx?id=274&MenuNode=633953432867962126&zone=3

Egypt. Save the Children. Retrieved from: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/where-we-work/middle-east/egypt

UNICEF study finds millions of Egyptian children still live in poverty. Retrieved from: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33816#.UkjHokko7IU

Teenage Pregnancy

The topic I chose is mental health of teenage mothers. The reason I chose this topic is because unfortunately some children are at risk. Being a teenager, there are a lot of football games, dances, and other fun activities to do with friends. Babies can be seen as getting in the way of that fun, especially if family isn’t there to support the baby and mother. Motherhood can be a bit overwhelming especially for a teen. Teenage pregnancy can bring some health and mental health risks for the mother and her baby. Teen births are at risk for low birth weight, premature birth, higher rate of low infant mortality, and many other complications. Children that are born to teen mothers are more likely to experience social, emotional, and other problems. There is an increased risk for abuse and neglect. Also, children who are born to teenage mothers are less likely to receive proper nutrition, health care and cognitive & social stimulation.

In the UK research found that, “41.9% of teenage mums had antenatal depression, compared with 35.7% mothers in their early 20s and 18% of women in the group aged 23 to 38.”

I believe that it is good to have awareness and sex courses in high school. Just because we pray and hope teenagers know about safe sex and taking, the right precautions we still need to tell them and stress to them the subject. If we are care providers of young mothers, we should ask them about their feelings, how we can better assist them and her family.

References

(October 2000). Teen Pregnancy Overview. Retrieved from: http://www.healthcommunities.com/teen-pregnancy/children/overview-of-teen-pregnancy.shtml

(November 2008). Young Mothers’ Depression Risk. Retrieved from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7727540.stm

Childbirth in Your Life and Around the World

 I do not have children and I’ve never been in a delivery room, so I had to ask my friend about her experience. My close friend, Mel, had her first baby two weeks ago! Unfortunately she was in the hospital a week, due to high blood pressure, before she was induced. Mel has had high blood pressure since 2008 and she really didn’t start having problems until she was 32 weeks. She was scheduled a Cesarean Section for September 20, but the doctors were concerned about her health as well as the baby’s health. She told me that her doctor and attending nurses were very nice and helpful throughout her stay at the hospital and during her birth. She was induced that morning and was supposed to have a natural birth, but the baby’s heart rate was dropping so they did a C-Section. She gave birth to a healthy baby boy, almost 6lbs. I visited Mel and the baby the next day, he was the smallest baby I’d ever seen. I stayed for about two hours, the nurses constantly came in and checked on her and the baby. From what I could tell they were really concerned about them and their health.

One in 22 women die during pregnancy or childbirth, in Africa. In remote areas of Africa childbirth usually happens at home, with only the mother and grandmother at the expecting mother’s side. If complications occur, the nearest help is hours away, which they’ll probably have to walk during labor.

In South Africa, a large number of women were interviewed stating that they had the following problems in the hospital:

·         Pinched, slapped, handled roughly during labor

·         Nurses ignoring them

·         Discharged improperly

·         While in labor they were refused admission

·         Sent home without pain medicine

·         Sent home after Cesarean section without medication, antibiotics, painkillers, etc.

Mel’s labor/after labor care and the women in Africa and South Africa differ a lot. It’s very heartbreaking to read that women are treated this way during what is expected to be the most joyous part of their lives. I received some of my information of www.theguardian.com and they give different websites to research regarding Africa. The issue had been raised to the United Nations about the treatment of pregnant women in hospitals in South Africa.

References

(2012). Giving Birth- The Most Dangerous Thing an African Woman can do? Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/journalismcompetition/giving-birth-the-most-dangerous-thing-an-african-woman-can-do

(2011). The Shocking Truth about Giving Birth in South Africa. Retrieved from: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/232413.php