My MSECS Journey: 2011-05-01

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Establishing Contact

I made 3 attempts at contacting international early childhood professionals. I sent 3 e-mail requests to contacts found in our resources this week. I chose Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala contacts. I am most interested in establishing contact with the professional in Mexico. I work closely with the Hispanic culture and feel that connecting with an Early Childhood professional from this particular country would be most beneficial to me and my work. I hope to recieve a response by early next week. If not, I will proceed to the alternate blog assignment.

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