Ghana; Trends in Early Childhood Education

Ghana is a small nation in Africa. A colleague of mine, works over there with children for months on end for missions. She brings love, faith, and education to those children. Unfortunately, I have not heard back her response this week.

As alternative I looked into the podcast. The United Nations education site explores different aspect of the system. I explored the quality section of the webpage. This section discusses "High quality childcare, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, promotes motivation, confidence, good cognitive and linguistic development and school readiness."  

I will post up about Ghana as soon as I hear back from her. I want to apologize for the short post. My family has been going through a rough patch this past week. We thought we may have to put our beloved dog down. But thankfully she has made a  turn for the better and seems to be healing a bit. Thank you all for your understanding.

Exploring More of Zero to Three

After a long week, it was enjoyable to explore more of the ZerotoThree organization webpage.

I decided to look as a parent today: Exploring the Resources for Parents Link.
This link directed me towards an area which revolved around information for parents of children birth to three years old. Searching more into this area I found informative brochures and fact sheets about child development, milestones, other valuable information as a parent. I decided to read the pamphlet for the 6-9 month old (my daughter is just 6 months old). I gathered some great information to pass along to my fiance regarding the importance of bath time play and structured good night.

The website also offers information regarding the Early Learning Challenge Grant, a federal grant to help support early learning environments for infants and toddlers. I have learned to explore things and see where it takes me. After looking at the website for six weeks I just found a great new resource for parents and friends that have young children.

Harvard's Global Children's Initiative

The Harvard University website on Global Child Development was a great new resource to explore this week. I was even a little excited that I was late contacting my colleague from Ghana. This website offers a new insight to the world’s effort in child development and the advance the field is trying to make, as a whole.

The Global Children’s Initiative focuses on development awareness of early childhood education/care throughout the world.

• Building a unified science of health, learning, and behavior to explain the early roots of lifelong

impairments;

• Leading the design, implementation, and evaluation of innovative program and practice models

that reduce preventable disparities in well-being;

• Catalyzing the implementation of effective, science-based public policies through strategic relationships

and knowledge transfer; and

• Preparing future and current leaders to build and leverage knowledge that promotes the healthy

development of children and families and brings high returns to all of society.

I will be adding this website to my ever growing lists of resources for fellow educators and future use. 

Changes in Early Childhood (ZERO to Three)

Over the last few weeks I have been exploring Zero to Three. In my current career position, I am exploring new avenues to enhance my knowledge and explore the field of childhood. After having my daughter I have stayed home for the last six months. I am currently looking into new positions and interviewing, but my focus has changed a bit. Before my focus was how to ensure my staff is educated and continuously learning how to create a positive learning environment. Currently, my focus is on finding a quality program and ensure any program I am working with provides quality education for its children.

The Care and Education section of the website offers a variety of information from different sources to speak about these parenting issues and finding quality care. One topic that can be seen as controversial is the issue of multiple children (from the same family) in the same classroom. From an economic standpoint, financial concerns can have a poor influence on the choosing of child care for a child.

This website offers an abundance of information on many different topics. This article is a great option for teachers and parents to understand the changes happening in early childhood education today.

 http://www.zerotothree.org/early-care-education/child-care/changing-practices-in-early.html