Final Thoughts on Global Perspectives Class

One of the resources from this class that was really thought provoking was the watching the movies Babies because it really made me question what I thought was best practices for young children.  I still believe in best practices in the child care setting, but I think it is critical that teachers have a deep understanding of culture and family values in order to meet their needs.  Watching this movie caused me to really begin to think about what is most important in the life of a child.  It is relationships with the family, being loved and cared about, and lastly developing holistically.  the children in this movie all end the first year of life with similar development skills, but they had very different journeys.

My inspiration in this class was directly linked to my research project.  Linking the research to the knowledge base about the amount of time children spend outdoors was absolutely inspirational.  Children need 120 minutes outdoors and in Oklahoma children rarely get more than 30 to 60 minutes most days.  I am linking my Childhood Obesity Power Point here to share some additional information about outdoor time and the potential to preventing childhood obesity. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/aeg2ihdjbea29pu/Childhood%20Obesity%20Power%20Point%20with%20narration.ppt?dl=0

Here is the link to the Let's Move Child Care website.  Great information as well as resources are available here for both teachers and parents.  http://www.healthykidshealthyfuture.org/welcome.html

Please take a look at this information it is really inspiring.  

The current research that most challenged my thinking was the information I read about the government choosing in Spain to ensure that all children have access to universal pre-K in the setting the parents choose so it is not just in public school settings, but also in child care programs.  This is something that is not happening in United States and it is critical that we make some hard decisions about access and quality in this country.  Here is a great article about access from the Office of Administration on Children and Families, Office of Child Care http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/occ/supporting_working_families_report.pdf

Here are few great quotes 

It is our role as scholar practitioners to be advocates for all young children!!!