Child Development

I have worked with children for nearly ten years and I no matter how challenging my day maybe I can’t imagine doing anything else.  You will never hear my say that it’s easy everyday working with three and four year olds, but you will hear me say that I rather be in a classroom full of children rather than an office full of adults bickering and complaining.

Young children are so impressible and their brains are like sponges, ready to learn so when I found this quote “A child mis-educated is a child lost” by John F. Kennedy it really touched my heart.  As I read this quote, mis-educated to me can be anything from an academic to a social/emotional stand point. As an example, I choose resilience as my topic to research this week and writ. Resilience is something that our children should be taught to be successful.  Children need us an educators and parents to show them the correct way and our children will learn by example.

Another quote I found very interesting and touched my heart was “A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  The US is currently feeling the stress of living through an economic recession and research has shown that due the stress of unemployment and economic hardship that there is an increase in child abuse which can consist of physical and emotional abuse. However, there are also situations in which the economy has nothing to do with this quote, for example, a teacher may have negative things to say to a child which will affect the child for the rest of his or her life. A teacher may say things such as “You can do it, but Johnny can”, this is something that this child may take to heart and have long lasting negative effects.

As parents and educators we have so much influence over our children, so we must always be weary of what we say and do in front of our children. Children are watching us and listening to everything we say. I can remember back in early elementary school and throughout high school I thought my teachers were superior and I thought they were “perfect”.

I have to say a special thanks to Evlyn and Theresa. Evlyn and Theresa have been very supportive during this term and I have enjoyed and learned so much from their blogs in relations to Early Childhood. I wish them both much success and hope to have them in another class very soon.