I have been wanting to post my reflection on our last Monday’s class and for one reason or another, I just have not had the chance to post it until now. I really enjoyed having the time to communicate with all of you. It was nice to hear everyone’s views and comments on the child care history. I feel that we should have more classes where we are able to connect as a group. I truly miss being in class and connecting with everyone. I look forward to meeting with my group tomorrow and discuss our program models

Journal No. 2

The Canadian Child Care Federation

The Journal of The Canadian Child Care Federation

Summer 2018

Volume 32, No. 1

http://www.cccf-fcsge.ca/

Chosen article: The value in letting children fail

The core of true play

Author: Marie Poss

When I was scanning through all of the different articles from the CCCF website, this one really stood out for me because I am one to tell my own children to remember what they have learned from their mistakes rather than dwelling on them. I have an “instructions for life” Dalia Lama’s poster, and one of his messages is…” when you lose, don’t lose the lesson”.

Marie Poss is a Fanshawe College Professor, and her roles are Early Childhood Education faculty- Adventure Expedition and Interpretive Leadership faculty- Program development.  https://advancinglearning2018.sched.com/marieposs

Marie talks about the importance of allowing children to make mistakes and for us as parents and educators to allow for them to fail rather than shielding them from failing. In this article she explains how people like “Walt Disney, Oprah Winfrey, Vera Wang, Thomas Edison, JK Rowling and Albert Einstein”. They all succeeded in spite of their failures and how failure is a natural way of learning. (cccf, 2018, p. 17).

Marie mentions Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development. Where children can work with challenges that they can learn to master. When presented with hard activities where they need to use their problem-solving skills and self regulation. Children benefit from the rewards of achieving their goals. Not giving up when they make mistakes the first few times of trying the challenging activity, gives them great satisfaction of finishing the activity successfully.

The article also explains how no one is perfect, but yet we expect perfection from children. Marie mentions that we must allow children to make choices and learn from their choices. This will not only teach them self-regulation, but also resilience. “Giving children the independence to explore and learn from trail and error is essential for their success”. (cccf, 2018, p. 19).

One of the important key points in this article is to not try to protect children from failure.

I had to do some reflecting while reading this article because even though I tell my own kids to learn from their mistakes, I have to admit that I do protect the day care children from failing by organizing games where they all win and by offering activities that I know they are able to do without too much help. In some occasions when I see children doing something that is going to be challenging and that there may be a potential for failure, I try to help so they succeed and avoid disappointment that often ends up in a melt down.

Reading this article was a good reminder that it is okay to allow children try challenging things. I am making a commitment to stop myself from interfering when seeing children try something that I know will disappoint them if they fail. Making mistakes is part of life and a good way of learning.

In conclusion, the best thing we as parents and educators can do is to celebrate our children’s successes and encourage them to keep trying when they get discourage. Protecting them from failure is the biggest barrier we can put in front of them.

Journal No. 1

The Early Childhood Educator

The journal of Early Childhood Educators of British Columbia

Spring 2020

Vol. 35, No. 2

www.ecebc.ca

Chosen Article: Our Children Speak.

Documenting and sharing children’s thoughts, feelings, and opinions about the Coronavirus.

Author: Natalie Lucas

The title of this topic really drew me in because the children in my day care have been talking about the virus a lot since they have been back. I feel that it is important to listen to how they are feeling about the pandemic and help them understand more about it by giving them answers in a way that they can understand. And also help them express their worries, concerns and curiosities about the Coronavirus through art as well. This is something that some of my 3- and 4-year old’s have been doing, they have been drawing hospitals, people, hearts, and even the virus. Furthermore, Natalie talks about the continues connection that she kept with the families after closing the centers, which that is something that I continued to do with my families during my closure. Reading this article came very familiar to me.

Natalie Lucas is an Early Childhood Educator and the director of Wee Ones and Valhalla Children’s Center in Slocan Valley BC. These centers have been closed indefinitely due to the pandemic. Natalie talks about how the Canadian population and people around the world have been affected by the pandemic. And thinking about our children, Natalie wondered how the children were feeling not being able to see their friends and staying home everyday. How were they feeling about the sudden change? Natalie kept in contact with the families via email. She then shared some ideas of how the parents could help their children understand what was happening in the world due to the Coronavirus. One of her ideas was to send a series of questions that parents could ask their children about the pandemic, and the second idea was to have their children draw or paint pictures of what they understood or felt about the pandemic. The parents would then write down what the child said to them when explaining what the picture that they had painted or drawn meant. When the parents sent Natalie the answers to the questions, pictures and comments of the children, she put them all together on a board and posted it at the post office. “The post office was a familiar place for the children and also a place where people in the community could have a change to read about the children speaking out about the pandemic”. (ECEBC, 2020, p.7). Furthermore, this would also be a representation of the importance of what an early childhood educator does. Her thought was to send out the message that “children’s voices are important and that Early Childhood Educators should be recognized as educators and not as day care workers” (ECEBC, 2020, p. 7). This was also an opportunity to involve the parents in doing something that an educator would normally do. My understanding of this is that no matter the distance, we can maintain the connection and communication with the children and their families. “The educators continue to do their jobs during the pandemic, but in a different way”. (ECEBC, 2020, p. 8).

The key points to this article are that Children’s voices and opinions are important. It is essential to allow children to express their feelings and concerns with their families, educators and community. Early Childhood Educators work to advocate for the children and support their learning and overall well-being. They are an important part of a child’s life in their early years. They deserve the acknowledgement of a professional educator.

By reading this article, I learned that it is okay to involve the parents in doing some of the work with the children that I would normally do at day care with them. I stayed connected with the families, but never occurred to me to offer some activities to do with the children while my day care was closed. Something to take in consideration for the future.

I feel that this article has made me understand that as an Early Childhood Educator I can spread my knowledge and support to the children, parents and community in a variety of ways. Being in lock down should not stop us from reaching out and continuing our work and connection with the children and families.

In conclusion to this journal, Natalie explains that when children trust you, they can talk to you about anything. They can talk to you about their experiences, their joys, their worries and their plans. (ECEBC, 2020, p. 8.).

My vision for working with children is to help them be the best they can be and achieve their goals.

In three years, I see my greatest strengths with children to be more observant of each individual child’s strengths, weaknesses and needs to better assist them.

I envision the early learning environment as a broad way to invite children to explore and learn.

I see children as our future world leaders.

I view children’s families to be the number one support for the child and an important source to the day care providers as they can give us first hand information on their child.

I suspect that cultural diversity will continue to grow and be more accepted as the years go by.

I envision my colleagues as business partners and supporters

Looking at the extensive information on child care since 1850, has been a huge I opener for me. I new that day care was in high demand back in 1990 when I first opened my day care, but I did not know the history of what women went through to find child care during the war. I was surprised to find out that some mothers would tie their children to a post while they went to work. Unbelievable! It was interesting how the Federal government funded working moms with $35 cents per day for child care cost. Then closing day cares when the husbands retuned from the war. Not making things any easier for the mothers that lost their husbands and had to continue to work to provide for their families.

I am amazed as how the need for child care continues to grow year after year. It is nice to see how many people have been advocating for many years for the government to help families with funding towards child care cost. Nowadays, both parents have to work to be able to stay afloat. Unfortunately, parents are facing a lack of child care spaces and are forced to stay at home because only one of them can work while the other is staying home to take care of the child. It is clear that this has been a problem for many years. Unfortunately, this pandemic has not made it any easier for parents to find child care.

It is also great to learn that Early Child Care Education has been encouraged, promoted and advocated to increase the quality of child care settings.

However, I feel that the government could increase funding a bit more not only to help families, but to keep Early Childhood Educators in the workforce. ECE’s are having to find work outside of the child care sector because they are not paid enough.

By looking at the child care history, not a lot has changed in terms of the lack of child care spaces and ECE’s been underpaid, then and now.

I wonder if we are ever going to see a balance in regards to having more child care spaces available and ECE’s  being seen as important and valuable individuals.

Reflecting back to the Professional case study, I feel that Wendy should have filled out another attendance sheet when she realized that she misplaced the other one. Gupal had a very busy weekend with her sick children at home. She was tired and Wendy was overwhelmed from the busy morning. Between not having the attendance sheet and both of them having their own issues, they made the mistake of not noticing that Dory was missing. Ethically, I feel that Gupal should have talked to Dory right away and not have her wait wondering if she was in trouble. And Wendy should have called for back up when she felt that the morning was too busy. Furthermore, I feel that if Gupal was tired her mind was not going to be 100 percent on her job, especially when she had two sick children at home.

The concerning part is that they did not notice Dory missing for half an hour. I understand that wendy had misplaced the attendance sheet, but surely there are other ways to figure out if all of the children are outside. For example, doing a head count or noticing that Dory’s shoes where still in her cubby etc.

I feel that both Wendy and Gupal are very professional, but they are still human and mistakes happen. But mistakes can be avoided by taking time off if you are not feeling 100 percent. Or call for back up when you need extra help.

Communicating with each other as well as with the parents on issues such as forgetting a child inside or outside, is extremely important. I feel that Gupal and Wendy should tell Dory’s parents about what happen. Is something that needs to be documented and reported, but regardless of whether the incident is reportable or not it should be notified to the parents.

Working on my own I don’t have the luxury to call for back up, but I have closed my day care on days that I don’t feel physically or emotionally able to care for the children that particular day.

I enjoy discussing this and other topics with the group, I find it helpful learning how other people see the situation. I appreciate everyone’s feedback and comments during group discussions.

I enjoyed working and communicating with my group last night. But I have to admit that I am having a bit of a hard time getting my ideas out there, I am feeling like nothing of what I am thinking to share and communicate with the group comes out right. I am frustrated with myself right now. On a good note, I am looking forward to working on my next assignment. I am also trying to figure out what my grade should be, that’s a tough one!!

It is very interesting having a website, but it is even more interesting learning how to navigate it. I look forward to being able to post comments on your websites once I get more familiar with this website business.

I feel excited to know that I am going to be learning about the history and philosophy of ECCE and the BC Child Care Regulations. I have been in the child care field for many years and have not had the opportunity to learn about the ECCE history in depth. I want to gain more knowledge behind the ECCE philosophy so that I know what my role as an early childhood educator should look like. I feel that understanding the history would be beneficial to know what I should be bringing to the plate in terms of quality child care. The BC Child Care Regulations have always been confusing to me. I am looking forward to learn more about it and have a better understanding of the regulations.

In our busy lives we sometimes forget the beauty of nature that surround us. It is okay to take a break and remember to look up away from our devices to admire the gift of nature and breath in the fresh air.