For my Family Care Home Program I would choose to have it in a setting that looks like a home. I would greet the children every morning at the front door and ask their parents to join in the morning welcome activity. The children would place their items (jackets, change of clothes, etc) in a small cubby with their name. If I child were to become upset or afraid to seperate from the parent I would take that child and parent into the relaxation room. In the media segment Adriana had a room where the child was able to express their feelings and emotions. The child would be able to sit with the childcare worker and calm down on their own or read a book. I would try to imitate this same idea in the relaxation room. If the parent is able to stay around to help their child process the emotions then I would allow the parent and child to sit together while I or the other child care worker to sit next to them in the chair. Once the morning activity is done then I would move on to circle time where the children would be able to listen to a story or song. We would then discuss the activities for the day and the helpers would be named for snack time. Everyday the children names would be rotated in regards to helping for snack time. Parents would be allowed bring one item from home and the child will be able to explain what the item is and why it is important to them and their family.
Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). Strategies for working with diverse children: Welcome to an anti-bias learning community. Baltimore, MD:
Kami it is so important that teachers get into the habit of using student's names in the classroom on a regular basis. The fact that you included this as a focus for creating your anti bias education environment is truly insightful and I wish I had remembered this when I wrote my own post. I think this is just a skill that has been drilled into me ever since I first began my journey in education that I forget why it is so important and the history of how educators used to call students by names other than their own because they were unwilling to work toward properly enunciating names from cultures that differed from the dominant culture where most educators in the past came from.
ReplyDeleteKami,
ReplyDeleteYou have included a very nice overview of the way your center would be run. I like the idea of a "calming/ relaxing corner" for kids to calm down and prepare for the transition of leaving mom or dad. It is important to have routines and predictability from day to day and it sounds like your home childcare center would be just that.
April