Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

It has been a task to stay in contact with my professional contact over the course of the last few weeks. Last week was more successful than others. My professional connection contacted me with the sad news that she has been ill. I finally got to get to know more about the young lady that I have been afraid that  I would never get to communicate with again.

Cheryl is married and has two children and three grandchildren. She is 45 years old and has been working in this area for 20 years. Mostly for not for profit Child Care Centres. She currently has a advance Diploma  in Children Services and is currently studying for her Bachelor  in early childhood/ children Services and also studying for her training and assessing certificate which allows her  to train educators in this field.

She also provided information about the current position she holds.

The current Centre she is working at as the Director has been opened for 25 years as a community based Child Care Centre and the building is owned by our local council. The community of Gray is in a low socio-economic area. The Centre is next to the primary school of Gray which includes an early learning centre. The age group of the school is from 4 years to 12 years and our centre age groups are from 6 months to 5 years. As a not for profit centre I have to fundraise for all our little extras.

Though the information for Cheryl has been delayed I am slowly getting to know more about her.

She even asked if we could Skype one day!

Contact Information:

Cheryl Anderson

Director

Gray Child Care Centre Inc

8 Victoria Dr.Gray

PH:89321012

Fax:89321761

E-mail: grayccc@bigpond.net.au

Issues and Trends

National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies

Great News!

This past month has been encompassed with a large hill to climb. As I mentioned before many centers across the state of Illinois were at risk of closing due to the state budget shortfalls. Centers across the state have gone without being paid for services rendered in the month of April. This also took place on last summer which took place for two months. Centers are care providers are still trying to recover from last year. We have almost reached the top. On May 21, 2012 I received a letter from Child Care Resource and Referral that Senate Bill (formerly HB164) has passed both the House and the Senate and has been signed by Governor Quinn. This will allow providers to receive funding for families that they provider care for participating in the Child Care Assistance Program through the end of Fiscal year 2012. Please continue to  keep those center across the states in your  thoughts as many  are still faced with  losing  funding  as funding for child care and  early  education is potentially  going to be  cut  for the FY2013.

I just wanted to share this with you all. It is a true sign that our advocating and supporting our future leaders of America is valuable. Let‘s keep fighting together to save the educations of our children.

Now back to work.  For over the past year the NACCRRA has been posting articles about the  budget crisis across the country. There is a section under Program and Services that discusses early childhood focus. This section provides data and news articles about trends in child care across the country. Looking  at  some  of the articles I  realize that we as a country are  in big  trouble  if  we  don’t  solve our  budget  issues. Another thought I had was I can see how hard it  can be  for our  govemnent leaders knowing that funding has to be appropriated to  support the entire country especially  with  the unemployment  rating being  so high. This means that additional funding must be made available in these areas as well. There is just not enough funding to support it all. We just have to keep pushing for more from our politicians.

 http://www.naccrra.org/programs-services

I also wanted to  share this with  those who are looking  for additional trainings in child care.

Trainings are available for professionals to professionals 24 hours a day 365 days a year so there is no need to wait. Trainings are designed to assist professional’s complete annual requirements, CDA certifications, CDA renewal or in-service training.  

There are several topics available. If interested go to the NCRAA home page, from here select  Program and Services, select ChildCare Aware Training. At the bottom of the page select the http://naccrra.smarthorizons.org/ . Then select Child Care provider, this will take you to a list of trainings.  Make sure to input your local zip code to access the training curriculum. I’ve tried other ways to navigate to get here but they did not work.

There are series of trainings, Center Based, Family  Child Care, General Training, Webinars &Blended Learning, Business Education and Spanish Courses, so many to choose from. I found many of great interest. One  that is available is operating standards for High Quality Inclusive Child Care. It consists of operating standards for high quality inclusive child care that will strengthen directors’ ability to reach and include children with disabilities.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

Initially I was contacted by Cheryl Anderson stating that she would love to help me. Cheryl is the Director of a not-for profit community based Child Care Centre in Gray, which is the Northern Territory of Australia.

At this time I have not received a reply to any additional communications. Understanding that being in a very demanding position, priorities are important and it is possible that she has not had the time to respond.

I have moved forward with researching the area in which she services with hopes of hearing from here soon. If no word from my professional contact by Monday of next week I will move on to option B.

A poverty report completed by (ACOSS) Australia Council of Social Services, which was last published in October 2010 shows that approximately 2.2 million people, or 11% of Australians lived in poverty in 2006 – the latest date for which statistics are available ‐ compared with 10% in 2004 and 8% in 1994.

Australian children ‐ over 500,000 – in 2006 lived in households with equivalent income less than 50 percent of the median.

Some additional information that I located was the life expectancy of children. Australia is divided by Indigenous and Non Indigenous. Approximately 83 percent of Indigenous deaths below age 5 occur within the first year of life and, of these, nearly half occur within the first month. Infant mortality for Indigenous infants in the 2002‑06 period was 12.3 deaths per 1000 live births, compared with 4.2 deaths for non‑Indigenous infants (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2008).

Indigenous children currently experience much poorer outcomes than non-Indigenous children, with high levels of disadvantage in early childhood associated with poorer outcomes in health and education.

I found this information about Australia to be very interesting. It has broadened my understanding of the affects that poverty has on other parts of the world.

Reference

www.acoss.org.au

http://www.facs.gov.au/sa/indigenous/pubs/general/Documents/closing_the_gap/p2.htm

Sharing Web Resources

The organization that I have chosen is National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. The NACCRRA promotes national policies and partnerships to advance development and learning of all children. The organization also provides vision, leadership, and supports their local communities ‘network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. There website is http://www.naccrra.org/

The organizations website offers a wealth of valuable information. A few areas are programs and services, about child care, public policy, and child care news.

This week I took the time to navigate throughout the site. While doing so I found many great tools. Keeping a focus on this week’s discussion I chose to focus more on the subcategories child demographics and poverty.

A fact sheet, Who’s Minding The Kids? Child Care Arrangements takes a look at recent information from the 2011, U.S. Census Bureau. The fact sheet takes a look at the need for child care according to a parents work schedule.

According to the report of the 20 million children younger than age 5 living with their mothers, 11 million have working mom. Almost one-third, 33.3 million children are living with mothers working non-traditional hours. 1.7 million children live below the poverty level even though their mothers are working. Children under age 6 living in single mother-headed households were about four times as likely as their peers in married-couple households to be living in poverty in 2010:58.2 percent of young children of single mothers versus 13.4 percent of young children in married-couple households. The number of young children under 6 in poverty increased from 6.0 million in 2009 to 6.3 million in 2010.

According to the Census report, in 2010, the number of children living in families in deep poverty (with income below 50percent of their poverty threshold) rose by half a million children. 7.4 million children, or 9.9 percent, lived in families with income below 50 percent of their poverty threshold, up from 9.3 percent and 6.9 million in 2009.

Reading these reports I could not help but reflect on how families receiving child care assistance have been affected by a shortage in their states funding. Many parents barely bringing in any income will soon be faced with higher out of pocket child care expenses. Many families are considering quitting their jobs to stay at home and care for their children. With these actions pushing those already below the poverty level lower than they were before. Within the next few weeks I hope to continue advocating for those families who are risk of losing their child care subsidies and at risk of being without jobs. I could go even further in detail as how they may also be face with putting their children in care that do not meet quality standards.

Reference

http://www.naccrra.org/about-child-care/poverty, retrieved May 8, 2012

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

This week I found it very difficult to come in contact with a professional that I could communicate with in regards to their perspectives on early childhood in their county. I sent numerous emails and attempted several phones calls only to be looped back to the automated system or not receive a response. I hope to continue in these efforts with at least two more attempts. I have also spoke with a few coworkers with hopes that  they would have a  professional connection for me.

The website that  I will be viewing  for the next  8 weeks, is http://www.naccrra.org/. The NACCRRA provides a wealth of information  for not  only parents, but child care  providers as well. I am so excited to  have an opportunity to share with others the several components of the website.

My Daily Supports

My Supports

When I think of supports I think of the supports that my students are provided with.   Student’s supports are based on their needs which allow them to be successful in their environment. There are several supports I require which allow me to be successful.

Contacts

Without my glasses or contacts I am unable to see anything. Without them I cannot function. Due to my nearsightedness and stigmatism I can only see objects that are only a few inches away. My life is a total blur without glasses and contacts.

Smartphone/IPhone

My smartphone allows me to be aware of what’s going on in the world at the touch of a button. With my smartphone I can handle business and personal issues at any given time. My smartphone goes everywhere with me. Without it I feel lost and confused. I’ve dropped it in the toilet a time or two and course it puts me on edge.

                                                      Synthroid

In 2004 I began to notice a small amount of hair loss which lead to me being diagnosed with Hypothyroidism .Hypothyroidism  is a condition in which my  thyroid does not make enough thyroid hormone. Since then everyday for the rest of my life I must take synthetic thyroids called synthroid.  Without this medication I can suffer from serve fatigue, hair loss, depression, brittle skin, weight gain and the list goes one.  Without this medication my life would be somewhat miserable. So that I can function on a daily basis this is probably one of my  most important supports.

                                          My Family and Friends

My family and friends provide me with emotional /spiritual support and motivation that I need to get through every minute of the day.  I live to make them happy and enjoy the smiles upon their faces. They motivate me to be a wonderful mother, wife, friend, businesswomen, daughter, and sister. My family supports me in all my endeavors as I do the same for them.  Without my family and friends life would be very difficult. Because of their support I am able to express my joys, fears, and thoughts. Knowing I have my friends and family means I have someone who depends on me  and I depend on them.

My Connections to Play

“Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.”

 Kay Redfield Jamison

                           "Almost all creativity involves purposeful play.” ~ Abraham Maslow

As an adult I still enjoy using play. It helps me tap into my creativity.

“Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child’s soul.” Friedrich Froebel (founder of the concept of kindergarten)

Connection With My Inner Child

Growing up I enjoyed pretending to be a teacher and reading. My  great grandmother promoted my love for pretending to teach. At about the age of 6  she purchased an adult  desk and chalkboard with chalk. I would line my teddybears and dolls in a row, teach them and give them homework.

20 years later I became that teacher sitting at the adult size desk ,but this time with actual children and a  whiteboard. Whatever I could image my great grandmother supported. On wet days  she would let us take the  pie pans outside and make greens and mudpies. We would use grass for the greens, honeysuckle for whatever we  could  think of, and rocks for the meat. In the area that I grew up in there were very limited parks. We really didn't need parks. Our neighbor would let us roll up and down her hill or we would play on our swing set.

Play in the 80's compared to Play Now

A video game! What was that. Disney channel, Disney XD-huh.

I did not have a video game to consume most of my time,nor did I have access to all of these cable networks. When I did watch television it was to watch Bozo the Clown or Reading Rainbow.

Children today would rather sit and soak up radiation rather than being outside soaking up the sun. 

Children during the 80's spent more time outside than children in the age of technology will in their lifetime. Recess is no longer a requirement in the school systems. Things are completely different now.