Blog 4: Observing and Interacting With Families of the Children in Your Setting

Name: Cynthia Barycki

Date: May 28^th, 2013

Name of Program/Setting:  Kiddie Kottage Child Care

Who I spoke with: Milisa O’Sullivan (Director) as well as a parent (referred to as a "mom" in my blog)

Any special learning experiences you may have had or an experience that provided you with insight about children and families including advocacy efforts:

            From this observation and conversation that I had, I have come to find that the advocacy effort that this center has includes giving hand-outs pertaining to the advantages of play; letting parents come and do observations to see their children and the environment that they are learning in; as well as verbal expressing to parents the importance of play.  There is no advocacy group here at Kiddie Kottage, but they do stress to their families that play is not just about toys, but the meaning and insights gained from the different types of play.  I have also learned through the director that her center follows a lesson plan that has designated areas for different forms of play and learning centers/experiences as well as the domains that are affected by the certain types of play that are required to be done throughout the day.   

At least two insights gained from your observations of, and interactions and experiences with, children’s families regarding advocacy efforts and needs related to your area of interest within the field of early childhood:

            There was one mom that I was speaking to that had talked to the director about the type of curriculum and learning techniques that are used with the children.  Milisa went on to tell that mom everything that she had stated to me about the curriculum along with that a majority of the learning is done through play based lessons.  The mom told me that she was concerned about this at first and did not want to money for a school in which all her child do is play.  After, Milisa gave this mom hand-outs all about play as well as showed her all the different things that can be and are learned through teacher directed and child centered play the mom said she had a different outlook when teachers say play based learning. 

            I have come to realize that I am not a parent yet or anything, but I am happy that I have worked in this field; as well as have done many observations to see the different aspects of school from the teachers stand point.  If I have not had some education under my belt on Early Childhood Education, I would be like most parents and say I do not want my child to just play all day I want them to learn too.  Now, I realize that they are doing both simultaneously.  My goal is to show parents that play is a wonderful way to aid your child’s growth in education because it makes learning (sometimes complicated things) easy and fun through hands on approaches and experiences.  My advocacy effort is to simply educated those around me with the knowledge that I am so thankful to have!

Blog1: Interview of Early Childhood Educators on the importance of play in Early Childhood Education

•Insights gained from your interviews regarding current advocacy efforts and needs in your area of interest within the field of early childhood.

                According to Emily (the teacher that I interviewed), she is not too familiar with any advocate groups for the importance of play in early childhood education in our area.  She had told me that lots of parents at the center that she works at also question the value of play.  They would tell her that she feels as if the children are playing too much and not doing educational things.  She said that she goes on by telling the parents all the important attributes of different types of play.    Since, Toni did not hear too much about this area of concern of mine; I asked her about what is concerning her in the early childhood field.  She said that one of her concerns is bullying; and that was actually one of the topics that I was debating about as well.  She said that the local schools have campaigns, and classroom lessons on bullying.  The have assemblies in which they put on skits to show what happens during bullying.

                I had interviewed a second person at this center.  Her name is Milisa and she is the director of the center.  I asked her the same questions as the teacher that I interviewed and she said that she does not know of advocacy groups about play, but she feels very strongly about notifying families about why it is important for children to play at these early ages.   She goes on to tell me that not only are they learning motor skills, but they are working on self-help skills, social emotional skills, cognitive skills, as well as all types of other skills. 

•How these interviews may have influenced your decision about which area of interest and topics to choose for your research paper.

                Honestly, even though she knew more about bullying advocacy plans/groups; I feel that I still have a strong bond with the topic of:  Importance of play in early childhood education.  I think that it might be harder for me to find actual advocacy groups based upon this, but I feel that this is something that I want to stress to families because I have been questioned so many times on the role of play in early childhood learning.

•Which area of interest you are thinking of focusing on for your paper as well as the related three specific topics.

                The area of interest that I think I am going to stick with is:  The importance of play in Early Childhood Education.  There are several key topics that I am going to use in my paper and they consist of:

1.  What are the different types of play?

2. What is the teacher’s role in play?

3. What materials are used in various types of play?

4.  What are the benefits of play in each developmental domain?

•Questions you have for your colleagues related to your area of interest and/or three topics.

The question that I have for my colleagues is: Does anyone know of any advocacy groups or efforts that are being done in their area for sharing the knowledge of the importance of play in Early Childhood Education?

The second question is:  If any of you work in the field already, do families in your center ask you about the importance of play.  If so, what do you tell them?

Third question is:  Do you feel that play is important in Early Childhood Education.  If so why..  If not why…

Testing my Blog

Hello everyone my name is Cynthia; I am new to the Blogging concept so I hope that I am doing this all right!