I spend most of the time in the office, clearing admin work or working on my assignments when I’m out for working experience. I don’t teach anymore for this entire year. So at times when I get awfully restless, I’ll go out to join the children.
I’m clocking out my hours in 5 minutes. I was getting so restless 20 minutes ago, I went out to see my toddlers. This girl raaaaaaaan up to me giggling the minute she saw me and I lifted her up, kissing her. When I placed her down, she dragged me to the sofa and gave me a cushion and insisted that I sang twinkle2 little stars with her.
I had an awful day today because of the amount of work I have in mind but this tiny creature turned my entire day around. I love children so much, I can’t find enough words to express it.
“When we teach a child to draw, we teach him how to see. When we teach a child to play a musical instrument, we teach her how to listen. When we teach a child how to dance, we teach him how to move through life with grace. When we teach a child to read or write, we teach her how to think. ”
—Jane Alexander, chair for the National Endowment for the Arts
A Wonderful Poem I just discovered in my HNC Early Education course
If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.
If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.
By Dorothy Law - PHD (2002)
Just thought I would share it with you as it’s so true and touching and I will carry it with me in my current and future work with children.
The Latino challenge in early education
By JULIA SAENZ
Channel: Education Week
One in four children in the U.S. under the age of ten are Latino, yet they are much less likely to enroll in formal early education programs. By the age of two, Latino children find themselves well behind white children in the classroom, especially when it comes to vocabulary.
Many believe that the main cause of this severe education gap is the lack of access that Latino children have to quality preschools. Nearly 70% of white children enroll in preschools, while that number plummets below 50% for their Latino counterparts.
Educational experts have called on Latino parents to attempt to read to their children from a young age, as this has been shown to have a strong positive effect on a child’s educational growth. Still, this is only one step in the process, and hopefully as more Latinos become aware of this education disparity, there will be more of an insistence upon getting their children into school as early as possible.
Goizueta Foundation Awards $5.8 Million Grant to YMCA of the USA to Expand Early Childhood and Afterschool Programs for Hispanic and Latino Families
Quicklink: www.hispanictips.com/?p=141242
Permalink: http://www.hispanictips.com/2011/07/18/goizueta-foundation-awards-5-8-million-grant-to-ymca-of-the-usa-to-expand-early-childhood-and-afterschool-programs-for-hispanic-and-latino-families/
Filed Under: , Education, Essentials, Press Releases
Tagged: , Early Education, Goizueta Foundation, YMCA
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It's Pretty Clear That Preschool Is Way More Valuable Than College Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-value-of-early-education-2012-10#ixzz2Aw1sQeHt
businessinsider.comThe extent of one’s early childhood education is a pretty accurate predictor of later success in life.
But America has been much more obsessed with college-level education and beyond.
Today, the Census released a cool infographic breaking down trends in American education. One trend that caught our eye: education enrollment 
For 40 years, it seems, we’ve been emphasizing college enrollment much more intensely than signing up for
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-value-of-early-education-2012-10#ixzz2Aw1p0L9Z
The Importance of Early Childhood Education for Poor Children of Color
Working with Hmong parents and trying to encourage enrolling their children into pre-school or an educational daycare has been tough. It is even tougher to convince Hispanic families. Culturally, we feel discomfort in the idea of non-family taking care of our kids. People of color generally trust the K-12 education system enough to think that it will do its job in giving our kids equal knowledge and opportunities, so they feel preschool is useless. In the case of African American families, some do not trust that the education system because of their own poor experiences, and thus feel preschool is useless. This is the honest truth: the traditional American K-12 education system is not set up to close academic gaps, it is structured to sustain and grow gaps. Those who start Kindergarten behind in knowledge usually stay behind in their entire educational experience. This is why preschool is so important. When you’re caught up early, staying caught up is easier than catching up. Just ask any student who has gone through it.
I can confidently say that my personal academic success (and success in finding a decent job as a result) are largely due to attending pre-school. As a child of two poor refugees, I spoke no English and would have started Kindergarten with skills that were far behind many of my peers. It was preschool that taught me my ABC’s and 123s. It was preschool that introduced me to the idea of college. It was preschool that informed me that learning is fun and crucial. It was preschool that gave me a fairly equal skill set to my English-speaking peers in Kindergarten. Imagine if I had started kindergarten with a vocabulary of 300 as so many poor children of color often do. Imagine being among White kindergarteners who were privileged with all the educational tools and whose vocabulary run as high as 2000. Education is intertwined with class and race. A big factor for academic and life success for children who come from poor backgrounds of color is this: early childhood education.
We’ve heard it everywhere, from President Obama to the nonprofits to the stories around us: Early childhood education matters. I am living proof of this.
