Childcare Setting Analysis

According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children NAEYC) recommendations emphasize that early childhood programs are accountable for creating a welcoming environment. The environment should respect diversity, supports children’s ties to their families and community. It should also support both second language acquisition, children home language, as well as cultural identities. Linguistic and cultural diversity is an advantage, not a deficit, for young children. As stated in the DEC/NAEYC joint position statement, the inclusion contributes to how every child with or without disabilities is developing and learning to reach their full potential. However, this can benefit to young children and their family to experience

It is agreed that educator’s philosophy, pedagogical practices and believe about topics such as gender and sexuality, socio-cultural factors and cultural diversity will influence how the Australian Curriculum and Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) is reflected in the classroom. For example, cultural competence which is one of the eight main practices that EYLF focuses on to support children’s learning.

Ali and Derek Dodd recently lost their 11-week-old son, Shepard, after he was put to sleep at daycare in a carseat.

- Talk with and explore the culture, heritage, backgrounds and traditions of every child within the context of their community and expand on this by getting the children to engage in these cultures actively for example learning a dance from a child’s culture.

The three programs I chose to analyze were the transportation program, the Day Away program, and the Stepping on program.

Critical analysis of your own values and beliefs and the assumptions that are made is the first step to becoming culturally competent. It is an ongoing learning process. In practice, it involves talking with families and learning what their culture, beliefs and values are and what aspirations they have for their children, how and what they expect their children to achieve and learn while at the centre. It involves looking at the broader community, what cultural groups are represented, looking at what diversity looks like in the early childhood centre and how the families and their culture is represented, and if it is not, looking for ways that it could be. It is having a commitment to ongoing learning, reflection and continued improvement.

Through interviewing Joyce I gained insight into a strong philosophy, leadership style, and how her background experiences have created the director she is today. When deciding to become a director of a daycare, there are two options: opening and owning your own center or directing an established or corporate owned daycare. While I have done much research on owning my own daycare, I have little experience about what it would be like to be the director of an established center. Financial responsibilities and budgeting are also two aspects that are important, but the level of responsibility is drastically different in each scenario. Lastly, legal and ethical responsibilities exist in either scenario as well.

However, two central things I have learnt so far are in relation to the curriculum documents. The Early Years Learning Framework is a curriculum document for educators who work with children from birth to five years. I am now aware of the importance of play based learning, as outlined in the Early Years Learning Framework, in young children’s psychical, social and emotional well-being.

My observations both did and did not reflect what I learned in this course. This could be due to the fact that this daycare center may not be the best learning environment. A perfect daycare center would be everything that is described in the Petersen & Wittmer text, but how often do you get somewhere that is perfect? I feel my quality could have been better for this observation because I filled out of checklist with a majority of it is “NA.” I wish I would have had this checklist when I started my observations. I could have tested some of them with the children to make it more accurate. Since I do work at this daycare, I used my background knowledge as well as my observation sheets to fill out this checklist. My observations could have been

Living in a fast paced world where high pressure jobs like technology dominate the workplace, and because most households require a two job salary; parents are forced to locate child care services outside of the home. A mother separating from her baby when she goes to work is one of the hardest things she’ll have to encounter. She might worry the child is not getting all the attention it need, there might be concern that at such an early age, the child will not be able to tell them about any issues that occur at the center. Taking the time to find quality child care is time consuming and a huge responsibility. To ensure the child is receiving the best care possible, parents should seek out centers designed with

In the child care center where I work, I have observed a 4-year-old boy who was diagnosed with learning disabilities. His strength is that he likes to do art. At the art table, the teacher asks the children in small group activities to draw anything while she gives them construction paper and crayons. He effectively draws her dad, mom, and sister He is describing the picture by naming each family member while the teacher writes down their name under each picture. He demonstrates a learning disposition of creativity and imagination. She shows fine motor control when using the crayon to draw the picture. She also has the ability to use different shapes to express her ideas about her family. She has shown that she is mastering the basic forms

These days, it is common for parents to place their children into childcare centers. Families are turning their children to daycare for several reasons; financial need since both parents work, studying or in families with one parent who must work, and also more other reasons. As a result, most parents must work, so they enroll their children in a day care centers. Each parent before deciding, whether day care is the right decision, they need to weigh their own situation, and the needs of their child before weighing the child in the daycare center. Parents, in search of a better program, must obviously classify what they want from the program and consider it. It is not very easy for parents to decide to put a child in a daycare, so they must

This week’s reading in Lamb, Sternberg, Hwang, and Broberg’s (1992) Child Care in Context showed a very different view of child rearing compared to what we learned about in other countries. In Cameroon, children are left to raise children. I chose this quote because it signifies how young these children are learning to become adults. In Cameroon in the pre and post-colonial era it seems as if not raising your own child was the way of life for them. Even in the postcolonial era, children were forced to withdraw from school to watch their younger siblings until they were old enough for a peer group (Lamb, et al, 1992). What about the children who don’t have anyone to take care of them? Or what happens when a sibling dislikes the other and refuses

According to NAEYC (2003) “High-quality early education produces long-lasting benefits” (par. 1). Curriculum that is well-planned and intentionally implemented is beneficial to all students. It should also be culturally relevant and both supportive and challenging. There is much that goes into creating developmentally appropriate lesson plans and curriculum for young learners. Early childhood educators need to draw on many sources other than just their own knowledge in order to evaluate, create, and implement engaging and effective lessons. It is important that they have a deep understanding of content knowledge and how to access the many resources that are available so as to aid them in creating lessons that reflect accurate knowledge in all domains (Meschke, Peter, & Bartholomae, 2012). And, since it is the responsibility of all teachers to meet the needs of each of their students, they must also be able to effectively make adaptations as needed. Teaching is full of many responsibilities, roles, and challenges, by adhering to NAEYC’s standard number 5, early childhood educators will be better able to promote comprehensive developmental and learning outcomes for their young students.

In an early years work there are different settings that our suited to different families and children. This way parents can enrol their child into a setting that they would be more comfortable with. A few examples of different settings are; workplace nursery, pre-school, childminders.