My Personal Birthing Experience

My Supports I am a single mom to an eleven-year-old son and a full time first grade teacher.  I have a second job working as a hostess to bring in some extra cash.  So, you can imagine my life right now is more than hectic when you add in grad school courses.  My son’s father is really not in the picture so a lot falls on my emotionally, financially and physically.  Luckily, I do have my mom and dad who have really stepped up to help us both in more ways than I can count.  My parents watch my son before and after school so that I do not have to worry about picking up and dropping off during specific hours.  With the teaching profession that is really nice.  It allows me to get my work done when I need to. They also transport him to travel soccer, basketball and baseball practices. Without their help, he would not have the opportunity to play any sort of sport and would need to be in a day care that was not h...

My Childhood Connections to Play I am 5 years old.  I have a brother that is two and a half years old so I don’t play with him much – yet.  My youngest brother Craig isn’t even a thought in anyone’s mind.  I live in a small rural town where my only neighbors are members of my own family; my grandparents, my aunt, my uncle and my cousins who are seven to fifteen years older than me.  I’m in kindergarten and I’ve made new friends, but none of them close enough to play with on a day to day basis.  I get plenty of attention from my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins but not on this particular day.   On this day, as on many typical days, I am at play by myself.   During my individual play times, I would take my “dress up” clothes and pretend to play house with my doll babies.  I would dress up in flowing skirts and pretend to feed and change my babies.  I would read them books and f...

                                                              My Family Spring 2017 Relationships are very important to me.  Good relationships are so very important in my different areas of life.  At work, at school, on the sports field, in clubs/groups and in families and friendships.  Without having good relationship skills it is very difficult to be successful in life no matter how smart or wealthy you are.  Often good relationship skills are learned as a child from good family role models. I have great relationships with my aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers and friends.  Basically every important person in my life.  I feel like my relationships with these people are good because I am very aware of likes/dislikes and strengths/weaknesses.  We know when to push/pull with each other. We also are...

When I think about child development I think about the statement “It takes a village to raise a child”.  From my studies and from my own experiences raising a child I know that influences on child development extend past the home.  Schools, communities and even the world influences how a child develops.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KATUBNuM5A Song sung by choir and lyrics address how villages must share the burden of raising and child and how all children are shared in a village.  https://www.nbcnews.com/video/clinton-still-believes-it-takes-a-village-734433859888?v=raila Hillary Clinton talks about how it still takes a village and country to raise a family.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wALh23YHB_k Michael Caito discusses how it takes communal effort to raise a child beyond the immediate family as well as supporting the adults in each family.  Do you have a village to support you as a parent and an adul...

Education today is data driven.  Teacher evaluations are based on how students perform on testing so anything other than “teaching to the test” can be scary.  However, when we teach to the test we do not teach to the “whole child”.  We should be looking at the child’s college, career and citizenship skills not just their score on standardized tests. If we are to assess the “whole child”, we should use assessments that facilitate high levels of student achievement by providing ongoing information about a student’s grasp of key concepts. Multiple assessments such as portfolios, criterion referenced tests, norm reference tests, comprehensive adaptive tests, diagnostic tests, along with formative, interim and summative assessments should be used because they provide a wide range of information and give a broader picture of the child’s strengths and weaknesses.  Children should also be allowed to evaluate their own progress and set their own...

For this blog post I have chosen to discuss poverty and its impact on childhood.  I grew up in a small town where there were many blue-collar families and farm families. My father worked for the Corps of Engineers and have had a well-paying, steady job.  Poverty was something that didn’t impact me, however it did impact one of my friends. When I think back to my childhood, one particular friend comes to mind when I think of poverty.  This friend was Bridget Fletcher.  She came from a large blue-collar family.  Bridget’s mother stayed home and took care of the children while her father worked.  Both Bridget and her mother were very kind, however for I remember being afraid of her father.  I am not sure if I was afraid of him because I did not know him or if when he was there he yelled a lot.  I just remember being afraid.  Bridget never came to school with any bruises and never went for days withou...

Breastfeeding I chose breastfeeding because I find its benefits fascinating.  If I would have known all of its benefits when my son was an infant, I would have pushed myself harder to get it to work for the both of us.  My son had no problems latching on and had no problems going from bottle to breast if needed while I was out and my son was babysat.  However, I did not make a lot of milk and my son was always hungry.  I did not receive a lot of nutritional guidance on breastfeeding. I was told “If I was nourished then I’d make enough milk”.  However, even when I felt I ate enough I still did not make enough milk.  To this day, I am not sure if I had a thyroid problem at that point as I do now and whether or not it would have played a role.  I also am not sure if I drank enough water or ate enough nourishing foods. My family was supportive of my breastfeeding; however, they felt he wasn’t getting enough and ...