WEEK 5 BLOG

I chose to explore Early Childhood Austrailia which is the same as NAEYC here in the United States. Some current research topics that I found on this site were about how childcare funding must focus on children who are most in need and how the government must try to end child retention. Reading about how childcare funding should focus on children who are in most need Austrailia believes changes to the funding of childcare should focus on benefiting low and middle income families and on improving the wages and conditions of the people who work in these services according to Early Childhood Australia, the peak body representing children.

ECA has developed certain recommendations in relation to refugee children who are in retention and children of asylum seekers:

• Families with children and unaccompanied minors should be placed in the community while their claims are assessed.
• In the event that an application for refugee status is unsuccessful and families and unaccompanied minors cannot return to their home country, families and unaccompanied minors should continue to live in the community until such time as they can return home.
• Families should have access to the support they need to care for their children and participate in the community.

WEEK 3 BLOG

I have been research family incomes recently to determine who can really afford childcare and who can not. Family income appears to be more strongly

related to children’s ability and achievement than to their emotional outcomes. Children who live in extreme poverty or who live below the poverty line for multiple years appear, all other things being equal, to suffer the worst outcomes. The timing of poverty also seems to be important for certain child outcomes. Children who experience poverty during their preschool and early school years have lower rates of school completion than children and adolescents who experience poverty only in later years. Although more research is needed on the significance of the timing of poverty on

child outcomes, findings to date suggest that interventions during early childhood may be most important in reducing poverty’s impact on children.

WEEK 2 BLOG 6163

The topic that I will be researching will be poverty. I chose to do this topic because I want to know more about how it affects children and their educational experiences. I am also hoping to find out who makes up the population of people living in poverty, what is the question of class when it comes to poverty, the myths of poverty and does two parent homes have something to do with poverty. Some people don't grow up in poverty, but things happen that causes families to become impoverished. Now that I have learned about how to research reliable sources I will be able to carefully find information that will help my research process.

WEEK 8 BLOG

Three consequences that I learned about the international early childhood field is that it is not really cared for as it should be, that it is hard to get funding and advocates for early childhood care in other countries. This has made me thankful for the funding and advocates that we have in the US. Second, that early childcare can be overly expensive in other countries and that I should stop helping parents complain about the price of childcare here. Lastly, education is not promised in some countries while here in America it is almost free, it is free for parents who receive vouchers.

I hope that the current advocates for the early childhood field in other countries come to realize how important the first years are when it comes to molding a child and their development. Being that I never got to speak to any of my contacts, I hope that they were busy trying to make early childhood education mandatory in the countries where it is overlooked.

WEEK 7 BLOG

The quality of education in a country is indicative of its overall development prospects. Over the past two decades building on the momentum generated by educational development goals  have been significant as far as increases in the number of children enrolled in school. Now, with discussions heating up around what the next set of development goals will look like in 2015, it is critical that learning across the education spectrum from early childhood through adolescence and beyond is included as a global priority. Starting early helps children enter primary school prepared to learn. High quality early childhood development opportunities can have long-term impacts on a child’s later success in school.

WEB SOURCES

I found that their is a resource connected to National Head Start Association called The Source for Learning, Inc. It is a non-profit company, develops high quality, technology-based learning resources that enhance learning for children and educators. Empowered by non-profit status, SFL provides resources, such as PreschoolFirst.com, at reduced or no cost to early learning organizations serving underserved children and families nationwide. SFL’s resource PreschoolFirst.com is a research-based, observational assessment system for the early childhood years that interconnects developmental progress, learning activities, and educational decisions. NHSA and SFL work in partnership on special projects that influence the Head Start community and the field of early learning. SFL collaborates with NHSA to produce the popular Family Connections monthly newsletter that NHSA members share with families and parents.

GLOBAL CHILDREN'S INITIATIVE

Zambian Early Childhood Development Project

For nearly half the world’s children especially girls and those from different populations early childhood education is not guaranteed. This is despite the fact that early childhood is the most significant period of development in our lives, establishing the cognitive, emotional, and social foundation upon which we build our futures. By getting children ready for school, we arm them with the tools necessary to build fulfilling lives, become productive citizens, and take their place in the global community.
More than 100 Zambian and international experts will examine ECD best practices that can be implemented not only in Zambia, but globally. UNICEF has a strong partnership with the Ministry of Education in striving towards providing every Zambian child with care, development, and education while they are still very young. UNICEF is also pleased to be working in close collaboration with NGO and CBO partners in supporting the numerous early childhood care development and education centres (ECCDE) that are caring for Zambia’s youngest children.