The Importance Of Early Childhood Education

Early childhood is a time of curiosity, a time for play, and a time of rapid development. Every child is unique and deserving of an early childhood education that facilitates academic, social, and developmental growth through a variety of enjoyable experiences. Differentiated instruction adapts content, products and processes to meet the diverse learning needs and preferences of students (Thousand, Villa, & Nevin, 2007). Friedrich Froebel, the creator of Kindergarten, believed that children grow and learn as they play (Bruno, 2009). Play-based instruction not only enables young learners to have fun, but it also encourages interactive and cooperative learning, passion for discovery, and a foundation for later learning experiences

In the book Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited, the authors, Joseph Tobin, Yeh Hsueh, and Mayumi Karasawa, look into preschools in three cultures: China, Japan, and the United States. Prior to writing this books, the authors did research on one preschool in each of the countries to see what the learning styles were and how they compared to one another. Then they went back some twenty years later to see if there were any changes in the preschools. The changes, or lack thereof, brought about the book Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited.

The chapter discusses how human development is affected by the nature in which a person is born into. It discusses how worldviews regarding child 's development vary among different regions throughout the continents. The chapter goes into the similarities of cultures as well as the differences of how humans develop across the board in all areas of thought in different regions of the world. The author tries to link human development with cultural aspects of how problem solving occurs as far as cultural influences are concerned. The nature of human development may occur in a pattern with all types of cultures and background.

Early Childhood Education illustrates the teaching and care of children in other environments outside of the home. Early childhood centers on the development of all children no matter their gender, race, abilities, or ethnic orientation and gives knowledge of early childhood learning process, which entails values, culture, desires of parents for their children, and especially a child’s need for knowledgeable functionality in society.

Health promotion is very important to early childhood education to improve the well-being of children and parents’ health and behaviours. “It is important for early childhood educators to recognized their essential role as health promotors” (Pimento & Kernested 2015, P. 4). There are 12 social determinants in daily life for childhood programs, however I have identified that social support networks are most important determinants of health. Likewise, educators and families are both mutually directly and indirectly supporting children to improve their healthy development and education (Pimento & Kernested, 2015, P.34). In early childhood, educators have very important role in daycare which is communication. That means, that we need to communicate with family (parent, grandparent), children and coworkers to share the daily basic tasks and any other ideas or information for improving environments and supports. It is especially important that we support mothers who have very limited knowledge about their first-born baby, such as lack of information about breastfeeding, sleeping routine, formula ratios, nutrition, healthy eating habits, or any parental skills. Not only that, we can also help parents to get benefits and support from the government such as financial support, subsidized daycare, and community information resources on healthy nutrition food.

“Early roots of play as a best practice for early learning was documented by Plato, a Greek philosopher, who insisted that play is considered a natural activity of childhood.”(Ingrid Crowther, 2011, Pg. 2) Early Childhood Education is a term that refers to educational programs that are devoted to children from birth to the age of eight. “Children of this age learn by exploring and investigating; therefore, their environment should support and encourage this process.”(Rebecca Isbell and Betty Exelby, 2001, Pg. 11) Early childhood environments should be attractive and exciting. These environments should allow children to work and play using proper resources, materials, and tools.

This research report presents an analysis of and conclusions drawn from the experiences and perspectives of two educators that work in the early childhood setting. The main objective is to identify key elements and issues in relation to the families, diversity and difference. In particular how an early childhood educator implements, different approaches to honour culture and diversity, and to advocate for social justice in an early childhood settings. As such, it allows an insight into the important role that families and their background plays in the everyday lives of the children and educators within early childhood settings. In today’s ever-changing growing society it is essential for educators to be flexible to the

Children learn to act in accordance to their culture due to what their parents teach them and what they learn in school. Different countries have their own way of cooking, driving and most important, teaching. A child who is in a preschool in America, will not experience the same cultural activities as a child in China or Japan. The video Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited demonstrates how preschools in these three countries teach their students in accordance to their culture. This video also shows different Behaviorism and Constructivism aspects for each school.

Thesis Statement: Early childhood education has many benefits and there is the potential for many significant outcomes if universal preschools were put into place.

Education is an important factor when it comes to the development of the human brain. It is known in America that children around the ages of 3 to 5 can have the opportunity to enrol in Preschool. Preschool is a program for younger kids who want to get a head start in education in order to have a better transition into elementary school. There has been some controversy on how old the child must be in order to be placed into preschool and whether the program is even beneficial. Many other countries such as Finland are also providing Preschool programs to children, but their program is a lot different compared to America’s.

Community Caregivers Child Care provides the community with quality child care that fits the schedule of any working parent. Children are served breakfast, lunch, and morning and afternoon snacks. Our caregivers prepare daily learning activities that will enhance the children’s learning and prepare them for Kindergarten. We focus on

Early childhood education has not always been the top priority in the education world. Although, research has proved that it should be the top priority as the benefits of Early Childhood Education are innumerous. Extensive neuroscience research has discovered that the brain is build over time and it is built from the bottom up. Early childhood experiences directly affect the quality brain development. Establishing a sturdy foundation through a high quality early childhood education experience, will dramatically develop child's brain. As a result, they will have a brighter future. In this essay, I will propose a plan for the children of 2020 and how to ensure the best early childhood education experience. I personally believe that racially, culturally, linguistically and developmentally responsive practices parental involvement are critical to the sturdy foundation that is essential to the positive early childhood experience.

Early childhood education is for children from the ages three to eight years old. In this field there are four learning goals that early programs have for a young child.

As a pre-service early childhood educator, I was doing my educational placement with the pre-school children aged from 4 to 5 years old. The room had two educators, on one occasion it was raining heavily outside, with some muddy puddles on the ground. But after some time the sun started to come out and it was very sunny with a rainbow. The children got very excited, therefore the educators decided to allow the children to play outside. The children were asked to wear raincoats and hats. Some of the children got excited and started playing in the mud puddles, which made some of the children to get wet and little dirty. The children were asked to change their spare clothes, socks and their jumpers that were packed in the plastic bags for taking home. The next day I heard that the particular educators had a meeting with the centre director who informed them that two parents were complained and were not happy with their children playing outside in that weather condition. They were angry that it is not good for their children’s health and also upset of the children’s very wet and muddy clothes. They also suggested that the educators should allow the children to do something at indoor instead to get them outside. Hence, I was doing my placement; this incident was a big lesson for me which knocked my confidence. This incident happened during my first educational placement that made me remember it well, which certainly helped me to shape both my professional identity and practice.

Child development is complex because it is influenced by a wide range of factors such as culture. A child’s culture begins to influence them long before they are born. Parents from around the world hold different beliefs and raise their children in unique ways. Cultural norms can greatly affect which values parents consider important and how they share those values with children (Christensen, 2013). The timing of the development of certain skills and characteristics in children, depends on the importance the culture places on them (Buechner, 2015). For example, a good deal of value is placed on academics in many Eastern cultures, and so children spend many hours each day on math and science activities from the time they are very young. But, in the United States children are given a great deal more freedom to express themselves and experiment with things, because we as a society place value on creativity and innovation (O’Sullivan, 2016). In the U.S., the nuclear family is considered the ideal structure for raising children, but in countries like Japan and India, extended family and community members take a much larger role in child care and parenting (Christensen, 2013). Because each child is unique, caregivers need to form partnerships with families in order to meet the developmental and educational needs of their students. According to Copple and Bredekamp (2009) by understanding a child’s culture, early childhood professionals can “make classroom decisions that are