Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

My conversation partners are:

Errisa S.

Errisa is a preschool teacher that lives in the Bahamas. Errisa enjoys working with young children and their families. She enjoys seeing them grow, master new skills, and thrive.

Marlene H.

Marlene works with children from birth to 12 years. She lives in Guatemala City Guatemala. Marlene has been working with young children for over 20 years. She enjoys working with children and cares for them in her home. 

              What I have learned from my conversation partners is that there is a big need for early childhood education and parenting programs. They both said that more women are working outside the home because their partner's income is not enough or they are single mothers. Also, children are being cared by older siblings or being left at home alone. They also feel that affordable high quality care is needed because many parents cannot afford to pay for their children to attend such programs.

              Errisa mentions that many people in her community are struggling with poverty and that the older siblings are "acting" as parents to the younger siblings because parents work outside the home. She said that some of the children whom she works with are being affected by poverty and those children are the ones who act out. She also said that the children do not have the proper clothes to attend class and that the children are mentally fed up. She feels saddened, but tries to provide a safe environment for them while in her care. 

             Marlene cares for children in her home because many parents cannot afford to pay center fees. She charges them a minimal fee because she knows that parents are struggling to pay for their living expenses. She said that she used to work at a center, but saw that many children were being cared by older siblings or left alone all day and felt compelled to help. 

Poverty is an issue that is affecting a lot of children and families around the world. I cannot wait to one day wake up and hear that poverty has ended for good.

Sharing Web Resources

 Sharing Web Resources

Zero To Three is the Early Childhood Organization that I selected because it provides a lot of  information about early development and well-being, early learning, parenting, and policies and advocacy. This is a great website for anyone that would like to learn more about children's development and about the ECE field.

Zero To Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Familieshttp://www.zerotothree.org/  or  http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/ )
(Newsletters:
http://zttcfn.pub30.convio.net/child-development/from-baby-to-big-kid/ and
http://capwiz.com/zerotothree/mlm/signup/ )

Current issue:

Discipline and Limit Setting

In order to follow rules and understand limits, children need to develop self-control. 

Self-control and self-regulation are complex skills that begin to emerge in the early months of life but are not fully developed until between four and five years of age (Zero to Three). 

On the website, we can read more about how young children learn self-control through interactions with peers, parents, and other loving adults. Understanding this is very crucial and beneficial not only for educators, but also for parents and anyone that interacts with young children because sometimes we expect young children to follow rules and understand limits, when in fact, they have not fully developed self-control. We can also help children develop self-control by providing them with the positive interactions and experiences that they need in order to achieve this milestone.

In my many years working with children, I have seen some centers that use "time out" for children as young as two years old because the children are "not" following the rules so learning about this issue can help us better understand young children's development and what they are capable of doing at every age and how we can help them to continue learning. 

Getting Ready—Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Part 1: Establishing Professional Contacts

The steps that I took in order to contact two professionals in the ECE field was that I looked into the Facebook page "Around the world preschool pen-pals" and I sent messages to several educators through Messenger. I was able to get in contact with a preschool teacher from the Bahamas and we are now pen-pals. I am waiting to hear from the other professionals, but I will message others if I don't hear back from them.

Part 2: Expanding Resources

The Early Childhood Organization that I have chosen is Zero To Three. I chose this organization because they have wonderful information about early development and well-being, early learning, parenting, and policies and advocacy. This is a great website not only for educators, but also for parents and for anyone that would like to learn about children's development and about the ECE field.

Zero To Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Familieshttp://www.zerotothree.org/  or  http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/ )
(Newsletters:
http://zttcfn.pub30.convio.net/child-development/from-baby-to-big-kid/ and
http://capwiz.com/zerotothree/mlm/signup/ )