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| Emotion Board |
There are several elements that
I would include in my own Family Child Care Home. In the media segment, Adriana
Castillo shared her own home child care.
One thing from the media segment that I would like to include in my own
home child care would be the welcome area.
In Adriana’s welcome area, she included a sign in book for the families
to provide information about their child for that day as well as a poster of
each of the families with whom she worked (Laureate Education, 2011). This welcome area would allow the early
childcare provider to have a record of important details about each specific
child as well as allowing each child to recognize him or herself as a part of
the center. One adjustment I might
include in my own personal center would be to create another poster or bulletin
board, in the welcome area, where the child would have to answer a simple
question pertaining to our curricular area.
For example, in Adriana’s center, they were studying about emotions. I would create a bulletin board with a
variety of emotions and attach each child’s picture on a magnet or Velcro. They could then move their picture to show
how they were feeling that particular day.
The welcome area not only served as a place where the families could share,
but also as a place where they could see themselves in their environment
(Derman-Sparks and Edwards, 2010).
Another aspect that Adriana
included in her environment was a “rest area” (Laureate Education, 2011). This was a place that was comfortable and
allowed the children to adjust to their daycare environment. Adriana Castillo shared that many of the
children experienced separation anxiety (Laureate Education, 2011) and this
rest area provided them some comfort while they were experiencing the emotions
of leaving their parent.
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| Culture Share |
As far as anti-bias elements,
Adriana Castillo provided many materials that contributed to an anti-bias environment. One element that I would place in my own home
child care would be the family culture share area. I thought this was another wonderful way for
the children to see themselves reflected in their environment while learning
about the cultural diversity of their peers.
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| Cozy Reading Area |
In my free play area, I would be
sure to provide an assortment of anti-bias materials. I would include an library area with
comfortable seating and lighting where the children could read. Derman-Sparks and Edwards (2010) described the
importance of including a variety of diverse books that represented not only
cultures of children in the center, but also of the greater society. I would work to build a classroom library of
books that represented these things as well as books that portrayed stereotypes
and bias to use as a teaching tool.
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| Music Center |
I would also incorporate a music
and movement corner of the center where children could explore a variety of
instruments and sounds from different cultures.
In order to represent each child’s home culture, I would ask each family
to provide or recommend music to place in our music center. I would also find video representing dances
and movement to a variety of music for the children to enjoy. Using technology, such as the popular game,
Just Dance Kids, may also be something I would incorporate here.
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| Dramatic Play Area |
Another area I would want to include would be
a dramatic play area. In this area, I
would include clothing representative of my children’s cultures as well as
materials such as scarves and cloth for the children to create their own unique
style of dress. In this area I would
also ask families to donate empty food containers from their home to represent
a variety of different foods that are eaten.
I would also include dolls with various skin, hair and eye colors as
well as different physical abilities to reflect various racial and ethnic backgrounds. I thought the skin colored
bean bags from the media segment were a wonderful idea that could aid in
anti-bias learning but could also serve many other purposes.
I would
also use the idea presented in both the media segment and the course text about
decorating the classroom with photographs of the children and their
community. This would serve as another
way to represent our community diversity while allowing the children to develop
a sense of comfort in the classroom.
Overall,
I feel that the most important aspect of the childcare center is that each
child feels that his or her culture and family is being represented equally and
that each child feels safe and comfortable in the setting. In the media segment Adriana mentioned that
she is still learning and changing although she has been practicing early
childcare at her setting for four years (Laureate Education, 2011). This is a very important point as we continue
to learn and grow as early childhood educators.
Resources
Derman-Sparks,L., & Olsen-Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and
ourselves. National Association for the Education of Young Children. Washington, D.C.
(NAEYC).
Welcome to an anti-bias learning community ( Laureate Education, 2011). Retrieved from
_419753. course media.
