Chapter six, talks about growth in early childhood. Growth occurs gradually at a slow process but very complex. During the years 2-6, children grow about 12 inches and continue to gain weight at the rate of about 5 pounds a year. Boys and girls show about the same rate of growth during these years, and although there is a predictable pattern for growth in most parts of the body. growth varies from child to child.(P130). I learned about the changes that occurs during the stage of child development,the physical development and brain development stood out and very interesting, how children compare themselves to others and it helps them to construct new tasks. I have three children and reading this chapters and thinking back, all I could say is that I wish I had knowledge in child development prior to having my children. I will recommend to my children that they take a crash course in child development. Chapter seven talks about how children learn, cognitive, language, social, physical skills and they learn from what they see not what we want them to learn.
Early childhood education is another topic that I can relate to in reading chapter six, I remember my first daughter was home with me and my mother till she was one year old. When my mother went back to Nigeria we had to take her to babysitter for couple of hours a day. I remember how she cries a whole whenever her father had to drop her off. This went on for a another year until I decided to stay home and take care of her. Then one of my friend told be about the Montessori schools but unfortunately I could not afford it. Eventually I learned about the head start school whereby monthly payment is determined by parents income. "Head Start as a national program to increase school readiness among children by providing educational, health, nutrition, social, and other services to low-income children and their families". My experience at the center is a negative one because children are not educated whatsoever. so I complain that Rosemary can't read and the response from the director is that "children are here to associate with their peers, we will not stop them from what they already known."
Another interesting readings was on the different parenting style, according to the definition on (p.142) I am an authoritarian parent and culture has a lot with it. I raise my children the way I was raised. This has both negative and positive effects on the girls. Now that they are grown for example they tried to do some of the things they will not do when they are younger like talking back to me in other to make a point. I find it difficult to answer the question on punishment- "Do you think that corporal punishment is valuable way to handle a child who misbehaves? Would yo spank you child?. One thing I learned from my mother that really help is the idea of talking to my children before and after using punishment.
You pose very interesting questions which I hope others attempt to address. "Do you think that corporal punishment is valuable way to handle a child who misbehaves? Would you spank your child? I like the fact you addressed the role of culture in parenting styles. I think culture plays a significant role in parenting and what style one adopts.
ReplyDeleteMonsurat, I find it very interesting how our upbringing greatly affects how we raise our own children. Sometimes children adopt many of their parents philosophies in childrearing and sometimes they go in a completely opposite direction. I do appreciate the values my parents have instilled in me but have decided to drop some things like spanking. I still go get looks from my mother and the occasional shake of the head but I just laugh it off. I love to see my mom interact with her parents and my daughter. We can learn a lot about ourselves from observing other generation of our family.
ReplyDeleteHi Monsurat,
ReplyDeleteI can completely relate to you having a hard time with separating from your child, my son attended a small home daycare center close to my house when he was really young. I thanked God for my daycare provider every day, she was amazing. Even with that, by the time I had my second son, I jumped at the chance to stay at home with him. By the time they both went to kindergarten they were both fluently reading. I felt so betrayed by the kindergarten system! I assumed it would be a place where they would learn so far beyond where they were. I then realized, and this weeks chapters would agree that the socialization process is definitely valuable, and it is extremely valuable to let kids play together, learn to share and problem solve. I think that maybe head start didn't do a great job of meshing together social development with what we might consider cognitive development.
I commented on early childhood education and its value in nurturing a child for primary schooling which starts universally at the age of six. My daughter entered preschool here in the States at the age of 4 and she was continuing after starting at the age of 2 in Ghana. It was church- run preschool and it was heavily subsidized. Because of my daughter's attendance at that preschool my family qualified for monthly food handouts from a Community Charity Center.
ReplyDeleteCorporal punishment of difficult and recalcitrant kids is never an issue anywhere in the world. I think naturally parents find it hard to raise their hands on their kids for whatever infraction they commit. If preteens are acting out very unruly, grounding them or withdrawing treats from them always do the trick of correction and redirection.
As your question my opinion is when kids are small they do certain thing is really hard for all parents to handle, if they misbehave I will not spank my kid, instead of spank I will tried to redirect him or give punishment. My son is 3 year old and it's really hard for me to handle him so I put him in to child care but he listen to teacher but he doesn’t listen to me, and he listen to my husband.
ReplyDelete