Further Explorations of Early Childhood Development

Early childhood development is a cornerstone for each persons life. I am lucky enough to have had the opportunity to further my understanding of this vital time under the instruction of Dr. Horton.  Her excitement and commitment to all of those in this course offered me the guidance to be a better professional. There are many others also within my courses who inspired me along this path to keep going and to also bring my thinking to a new level. 

Sifawu Aigbogun has a wonderful blog over at How Early is Early. Each week she brought a new idea and a different opinion to the topic with her background knowledge. Thank you very much for the ideas and information shared through each blog post, I hope to learn more with you in the future. 

Anne Rawlins is another inspiring person with her blog No Mud, No Lotus. Anne truly shows her passion for this professional field though her blog and by sharing her knowledge each week. Thank you for the inspiration to grow more as a professional through the time of this course. I am excited for your future as an early childhood professional. 

My Supports

My support system is great. Emotionally I have support from my husband, son, sister, as well as amazing co-workers. My daily interactions with each one of these people keeps me striving day in and day out to be the best I can. Being married for almost fifteen years, we have been through many trials as well as celebrations so this support is a constant for me from my husband. My son encourages me to be a better person even though he does not say it. He has many struggles and assisting him through those, helps me each day. My sister is my voice of reason and I call her often for more advice than anyone else. Without these three in my life, I do not think I would make it daily. 

I also have many friends who support me from afar which leads into my practical support within my day to day living, my iPhone. This device keeps me connected on so many levels. I put lists in it, I call or text many of my supports, it also offers reprieve from daily stresses with social media or games. If I lose this device I would be rather lost because it holds so much information for me. 

My physical supports that assist me would be a great many step stools in my home. Since I am rather short and have a need to reach things, I need this support to complete many of my daily tasks. I seriously use one at work and one at home constantly. While I am sure I could live without this item, I truly do not want to because then I wold be struggling or waiting for someone to assist me. 

Planning and subsequently hosting a huge thanksgiving meal requires a great deal of support from those listed above. This is a challenge because it requires me to go out of my way and element from what I daily do. The emotional supports I listed above help me by keeps me organized as well as listening to my ideas. They each are providing me with ideas and recipes to ensure my success. My practical support of my iPhone is so important with this challenge. I need this for recipes, grocery lists, calculating out servings, as well as ordering more items. Last, my physical support of that step stool is one the to need to reach those items we only use at this particular time of the year. Without it I would again be depending on others when I prefer to be self sufficient. Each one of these supports makes up a great network for my success of hosting this rather larger gathering. If any one of these supports were missing from this event then I would not be able to handle the situation as well as I typically would with each there. I need each one of these supports to make things go smoothly and successfully. 

Testing for School Age Children

Testing a children for academic skills is something that many do not agree on. I think a formal test or assessment should completed simply on a base level to understand where a child is but this test should not be the end all be all. Many children suffer from test anxiety or simply do not care to perform well on a required assessment. Also, there are a great many children who may have an undiagnosed learning complication which could hinder test/assessment performance. Thinking of this, it is important to compile this data with that of observations of a child to get a better picture and understanding of the child as a whole. 

While the school setting and organization is quite different in Switzerland than that of the United States, children are still being assessed there. The assessments are more to help a child move to the next grade level according to the website Swiss Education. The website for Swiss Education goes on to explain that while most children will be assessed upon entering kindergarten, the tests at the end of each school year is optional for the children and "these instruments can be used to determine the current state of knowledge and skills or to assess the performance of the pupils and also allow the teachers to compare the learning success of their class with other classes"(2018). As we know this is quite different than how the schools within the United States uses tests and assessments within the primary grade school years. The Bell School explain even more how schools use these assesses to "provide feedback to parents regularly through a learning journal and parent meetings" and "we continually check each child's progress and help them move to the next level" (2018). 

While I know assessments have a place in the primary school setting, I feel children should not be taught to perform well on these. Learning needs to be more content than how to properly take a mandated test and perform well. Too often children are not being taught basic skills such as how to read a clock because it is not on a mandated assessment. Hopefully a balance can come to our country soon and it will develop many great education skills for children.

Photo credit: scary mommy.com - https://www.bell-school.ch/en/nursery/teaching-approach