VoneciaWest Teaching Young Children: November 2015

Saturday, November 21, 2015

"My Connections to Play"

Here are two quotes that summarize "Play" represented for me in my childhood.

The essence of childhood, of course, is play, which my friends and I did endlessly on streets that we reluctantly shared with traffic. Bill Cosby

We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. George Bernard Shaw

As a child, my mom bought me a kitchen set for Christmas and I use to think that I was in a real kitchen until it got too old. I miss those days.

During my childhood, I use to love riding my bike in the neighborhood where I lived. My sister also had a bike,but she was a stay in the house child so I use to ride her bike as well. I was more the outside child and my sister was the child that stayed in the house all the time especially in the summer time.

When I was a little girl, I love playing with dolls this is the reason I am a teacher now. I use to pretend that dolls were real and could actually talk to me and write. I played school with them pretending that I was the teacher and the dolls were my students.I feel everyone should have a doll as a little girl growing up.

Here are some games that I use to play back in my childhood days.

As a young child, we always played outside. I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and lived in a neighborhood that was full of children to play with. We rode our bikes to the park and on different streets because it was safe back then, but I never went to far. I did not want to get in any trouble. I have a strict mom who means business and now I see why she was so hard on me and my older sister. When it got dark, I would go in the house and do the same thing the next day. If my mom wanted me home early she would call for me and I could hear her because she was so loud. I love to play and its a great impact on young children's lives.

Technology is taking over rather than children going outside. I rarely see kids riding bikes any more. If you see children outside they have a phone, head set, or game instead of just enjoying outside play.

Play in the past and play now is totally different because kids are just not interested in outside play anymore because their is so much more thats catching their attention.

Play is a critical part in children's development.Play starts off in a child's earlier life and stays with them to adulthood. Parents and teachers need to make sure that we are encouraging play at school and at home. Play is fun.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Relationship Reflection

Relationships/partnerships are important to me because I like a true partnership and two brains are better than one.I also think when you work together to accomplish a goal thats showing good partnership. Communication is a key part to building a healthy relationship. This is the most part of any healthy relationship between two people who can talk and listen to one another. Communication is base on honesty, love, and trust. Some key words to have to make your relationship stay on target is having mutual respect, trust, honesty, support, fariness, equality,separate identities, and good communication. Healthy relationships bring happiness and joy to our lives. People with more happiness have less stress than people who do not. Healthy relationships are fun and make you feel good about yourself. I feel you can have a healthy relationship with anyone in your life, including family, friends, partners, etc. I know that I am in a healthy relationship because I feel good about myself when I am are around that person. On the other hand, unhealthy relationships make you feel sad, depress,and angry. I have several people that are important to me. These people have helped me grow and be knowledgeable of the world today.

The first person that I have a positive relationship with and has played a great part in my life is my mother (Dorothy West).My mom has been there for me through good times and bad times. I can truly say that I have the best mom a child could ask for. I am bless and I thank God every day for putting this dynamatic person in my life. My mom has always taught me the importance of getting a great education because you need this to achieve any goals that you set. She has provided shelter, food, clothes, money,college expenses, love and support.She makes me feel special because I am her child and the baby out of the two so yes I am spoiled rotten. I appreciate everything that my mom has taught me. I admire her. She is my role model and her job is never finish because as an adult she is still impacting my life as we speak. For example, I can call on her at anytime to just get advice and wisdom about any situation I am going through. I have moved out of my mom house after being there 29 years and it hurted me to leave, but I do not live that far away and I am at her house when I can and it feels like I never left because the relationship is still the same and gets stronger each and everyday. My challenges with my mom have been very teachable because as I go through life I now understand why it was so important to listen rather than not listen. I am glad I had her in my life to give me words of encouragement and just be there for me.

The second person that I have recently gained a new realtionship with is my father (Marvin West). My father has been in my Early Childhood life until the fourth grade. He was my go to person when my mom said no, provider, and just a loving father that had hopes and dreams for his baby girl to succeed in life. Unfortunately, my mom and dad got a divorce when I was nine years old. I must say that was a hurting feeling for a young child growing up to deal with and I did not understand why because I was so young. My father and I were close, but due to his moving around phone numbers were hard to maintain. Cell phones were not big back in this time. I always thought why did my father have to leave me and my sister eventhough my parents were divorce that stuck with me for a long time. I was angry because I watch my mom take on the role as a father. I thought I would never forgive my father, but eventually I did. The good news is my father and I were united a couple of years back and we been strong ever since. Although I had a ruff time with him after the fourth grade, I have put that in the past and forgiven him completely because he is my father and I love him dearly. He now tries to make up for the past by supporting me tremendously, but what happen in the past is history and the future is what holds now. I cherish every moment we have together and I am so glad we have reunited so my future children will know there grandfather. The best part of all is I get to see my daddy more than ever now because we work at the same hospital together. I think that was God plan for us to stay in each other life and this is what continues to influence our present life despite the past. I wrote this story in my first class and felt the need to revisited this for this blog assignment this week. My challenges with my father were that it was hard to have a relationship with him at first in my early years and now its not a challenge anymore because I look at it this way are relationship was sleep and needed to be waken.

The third person that I have a positive relationship with is my big sister (Tiffany West). She is my only blood sister and my best friend. As the youngest child, my big sister always have done her sisterly duties. She is my sister, best friend, role model, admirer and supporter. She has always set high standards and I have followed those standards through out my entire life. I look up to her because I know she will never let me down. I love my sister. She has influence my life in so many ways, but the best one is her motivation and encouraging words. In fact, she was one of the people who inspired me to go back to school and get my master's eventhough her highest degree is a bachelors. When I was in high school, my sister was in college and she would send me money to help my mom out with me for expenses. I knew she cared for me because she could have taken the money and spent it on herself. I went off to school a few years later and she still supported me helping me get all my materials I needed for school. She was like my mom assistant. She still makes an impact on my life today because she helps me make positive decisions and help me with things I may not understand for as business matters. My sister is extremely smart and I go to her for help and she never turns me down because she wants me to succeed and thats why she is my big sister. I always challenge myself to do positive things just like my sister and I succeeded everytime.

Lastly, my husband (Nicholas Lassiter) and I have a great relationship/partnership. I am bless to have this man in my life. We got married on September 20, 2014 so we are still newlyweds. I admire what we have done thus far and hope it continues. He is my bestfriend, supporter, motivator, and future father of our children. I feel we are partners because when it comes to financial situations we partner together to handle any issue. We have challenges daily,but no challenge is too hard for us to conquer.

My insights regarding challenges is to develop and maintain a relationship that requires care and work. It is helpful to face any challenges as a team. Supporting one another and not holding grudges will help with this being successful. I have also learned to listen to others, stop blaming,and judging people.Letting your emotions take control will cause issues. We should deal with problems as they arise because healthy relationships are an equal partnership. I think when you have a positive relationship/partnership you will see a lot of special characteristics. For example, when you and your partner are not together you think about each other when you're not physically together. In best relationships partners are committed to bringing out the best in each other and have the others best interest at heart. I feel this makes a great relationship and partnership.My experiences with relationships/partnerships impact my work as an early childhood professional because I am able to bring this positive relationship to the classroom and help young children and families implement great relationships because everyone do not know about positive relationships. As a teacher, you have to form bonds with children as well. The communication between the teacher and student serves as a connection between the two which provides a better atmosphere for a classroom environment.