Child Care Reflection

The Kids Learning Centre is a privately-owned day care facility and non-formal educational institution for children up to 12 years old. It is located at the heart of the City of Downtown, just behind The Business Building, a convenient place where parents and guardians can drop off their children safely. It operates from 6:30 AM to 6:00 PM daily, and closes only during major holidays.

Unit 027, 1.1 - Describe the factors to take into account when planning healthy and safe indoor and outdoor environments and services.

I am a qualified Childcare Practitioner with 12 years’ experience, who would love the opportunity to embark on a career as a Primary Teacher. I am currently employed in a local authority pre-five nursery class within a Primary School. I aspire to become a teacher as I feel it will offer me new challenges and a chance to further develop my love of teaching. I am a dedicated worker and continually strive to provide high standards. I also promote confidence, respect and compassion to ensure all members of the nursery and school are respected.

Children are encouraged to communicate their needs, feelings and thoughts. They are given opportunities to choose and use reading materials.

1. Explain the sequence and rate of each aspect of development from birth – 19years.

A multi-agency approach is a range of professionals including speech therapists, Special Educational Needs Co-coordinator (SENCO) , key workers or physiotherapists etc. that all work together and support children and their families in provisions that need to be made in order to support a child with special needs. Working within close partnership with parents is expected for all babies and children within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

In this assignment I will be covering the assignment criteria for Unit 5 which is the principles underpinning the role of the practitioner working with children.

Equipment- Dress up clothes, pushchairs, doll’s, hair dryer, brushes, rollers, tills, shopping baskets/trolley’s, play food ect……

In my first experience with MOVE, I opted to socialise with the children and colleagues that are participating in this organisationso we get to know each other better. Once I got to know mycolleagues and the children we went to Buskett gardens by van. The children were split into three groups and I was assigned to take care of the children. Activities were done such as delivering rocks to a certain point in creative ways, making tapas (Spanish food) and trying to drop an egg at a height of three metres without breaking it. The team that scored the most points from these three activities had won the challenge.

Before beginning the Master of Social Work program at Laurier I figured I had a strong understanding of what social work was. However, I quickly learned that I had only scratched the surface. I knew oppression existed, but I never understood the depth of it. I now know that I was afraid of it. It was easy for me to stay silent, because it was such a comfortable position to be in. Doing nothing meant I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. This was influenced by the privilege I had.

To help children advance physical and intellectual competence as a childcare provider you should always find ways to incorporate fun aspects into learning. This can be established through the use of technology. Technology as we all may know is something that we use daily. It makes finding out information simple, easy and accessible for little kids with the help of a parent. Websites such as Star fall and ABCYA are two sites that offer children a fun and easy to access source of learning that they can do at home or on the go. Through the use of technology we can help our children excel and develop cognitively as well as use computers and other gadgets in an engaging way.

While regulation and standard are the keys to the success of a childcare facility, there are factors that I believe are equally important to be successful in an early childcare program. So, I looked for a highly qualified teacher with good communication skills. Saint Mary Academy Inc. displayed these factors upon entry to the facility. I saw degrees of teacher and directors ranging from masters to bachelor degrees specialized for the profession display behind the desk of the director for the day.

Throughout my course work I have learned how essential Early Childhood Education is to the proper growth and development of young children. Without quality care young children can be limited socially, emotionally, and cognitively. Personally, my reasons for choosing ECE as my field of study has matured into responding to the need to provide quality professionals that produce quality care to every child regardless of ethnicity, ability, culture, or gender. However, looking back on my prior experiences I have worked with children in all capacities within my community. I have coached soccer of various ages, taught Sunday School, ran preteen Bible studies, and taught character building classes for young girls. Even though these experiences motivated me to enter this field, I now see child development from a totally different perspective.

Observation is very important in young children because that is how you get to know a child better. While observing how a child interacts with their peers, adults, and how they behave in different settings, you are getting to know the child without speaking to them.

Overall, I did not enjoy doing this project because it was extremely difficult, especially having to wake up in the middle of the night to take care of the baby, but I also believe it was highly educational since I got to learn many new things. This project allowed me to experience the difficulties which many endure in the early stages of baby care. By taking care of the baby, waking up in the night, performing many tasks for the baby, it made me more empathetic towards mothers and appreciate their hard work.