My MSECS Journey: 2011-03-13

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Week 3

Poverty
I chose to explore poverty in India. I learned that there are 62 million malnourished children in India. That is a staggering number. India is the country with the largest number(20%) of out of school children. The largest anti poverty program is the Integrated Child Development Services Program or ICDS. It targets children ages 0-6. This is important as intervention is key to healthy development.

References
http://www.childhoodpoverty.org

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Sharing Web Resources

I chose to explore the Children's Defense website. It peaked my curiosity as I was unfamiliar with this organization. The website provides a variety of information regarding child advocacy. I particularly like the link that included information on advocacy for not only early childhood but for elementary and high school students. I am interested and hope to learn more about something called Cradle to Prison Pipeline campaign. 1 in 5 Latino boys will end up in the prison system. This is alarming to me. Because I work with primarily Latino children and intervention is key, I hope to learn how I can help lower this statistic.
http://www.childrensdefense.org/

My Connections to Play

When children pretend, they’re using their imaginations to move beyond the bounds of reality. A stick can be a magic wand. A sock can be a puppet. A small child can be a superhero.

Fred Rogers American Television Host

“Play is the highest form of research.”

~ Albert Einstein (scientist)

As a child, my family would always say "Go outside and play". That is exactly what I did. I spent hours upon hours playing in the barn, playing hide and seek and playing on the swing set. One of my favorite activities was climbing up into the silo and pretending I was skydiving as I jumped off into the huge piles of soft fertilizer(manuer). I loved the openess of running through the pasture pretending that the "bad guys" were after us and finding what my cousins and I believed to be the safest and best hiding spots. We would entertain ourselves with the real live cows, horses, pigs and chickens. When not on the farm, I would still play outside. I loved playing with the piles of leaves and climbing trees. I do not rememeber having many actual toys other than Cabbage Patch kids and a huge Strawberry Shortcake collection. I treated the dolls as if they were alive and could communicate with me. I mimicked my mother's behaviors towards my baby brother. I also recall how I loved to play in the kitchen. I could stack soup cans for hours and then bowl them over with my mom's bowling ball.

Inspirational Quotes and Words of Wisdom