My Connections to Play

Quotes:

 “Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.”
― Flannery O'Connor

“When we are children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.”
― Patrick Rothfuss

Toys from my youth:
   

            People during my early childhood development supported the role of play by providing me with various toys, handmade or store bought, to play with independently or with other children.  In addition, they also assisted me in making my own toys.  My personal favorite toys were the ones of my own creation like forts built out of boxes or paper dolls made out of old newspapers.    

Play during my childhood is different in comparison to the play occurring in today’s society.  Children today tend to play with more technical advanced toys like Playstation , Xbox 360, and iPads.  In my opinion, children today are losing their innate abilities to be creative due to the lack of using materials to create toys to play with.  However, children today may need these more advanced technical devices to prepare them for the direction society is headed in the future.  I believe there should be a balance of creativity and technology to fully maximize children’s learning experiences while still preparing them for our ever changing society.   

My play experiences have influenced the woman I have become today because I was allowed to practice becoming the awesome wife and mother I am today.  Through play I was able to explore cooking, cleaning, and nurturing with various toys.  In addition, I am now able to imitate most toys in stores today through the creativity I was allowed to explore at a young age. Also, the creativity that was fostered during my childhood has influenced my self-concept as well has my self-esteem to pursue anything in life I could ever imagine.   

Relationship Reflection

Relationships and partnerships are extremely meaningful to me as an early childhood professional.  Through these relationships and partnerships, I am able to better serve the children and families I work with due to the nature of our relationship or partnership that has been established over time.  Establishing a relationship or partnership is key to truly assessing the child as a whole due to being able to bridge the gap between home and school through my interactions with the family.  Through my relationship and partnership, I am able to be a better resource for the children and families I serve due to being able to assess children in a variety of settings in their environment as well as inform the family about techniques that could better accommodate the individual needs of the family. 

I have a positive relationship and partnership with the children and families I serve as well a positive relationship with my personal family.  In my personal relationships, I am provided the support needed for me to reach my full potential in my career as an early childhood professional as well as provide me with a sounding board for various ideas.  My partnership with the children and families provides me with hands-on learning experiences that contribute to me becoming a better resource for children and families.  The factors that contribute to developing and maintaining each of my relationships and partnerships are my ability to stay open about techniques that may be used in the home as well as my ability to obtain information about various cultures and ethnicities of the children and families being served.  My partnership with parents is maintained through open communication may it be via phone, email, or text.    

The challenge that I have faced while developing and maintaining my relationships is my ability to stay objective.  Staying objective is very challenging when working in the home with children and families because as an early childhood professional I am educated in the area of child development, unlike the parents I serve.  I constantly need to keep myself in check about my personal feelings and focus my attention on meeting the individual needs of children and families. 

The special characteristic that is needed to maintain a partnership is the ability to respect other cultures outside of your own personal culture.  When we as early childhood professional respect children and families’ culture, we open the door for future lines of communication with families due to them feeling respected and accepted.  In addition, we can also provide families with various learning materials that are more appropriate to their personal customs or beliefs. 

In my personal experiences as an early childhood professional, I find my partnership with families is vital for their children to be successful in a variety of settings.  I have found that when you respect families’ customs or belief about childhood, families tend to be less guarded about making changes to maximize their children’s learning experiences.  In addition, I find that when I have a partnership with families my relationship with their children tend to be stronger and the children tend to respond to me in a more natural way regardless of social setting.