Values Assignment

This summer I have a course called Advanced Curricula. It is mostly personal projects and it seems, a bit of every other subject we have had. For the past while, I have been in England, on vacation, so had to miss some of the class. We had a reflection piece to write about our strongest values in childcare, which I handed in this week. Here are the three I chose, with definitions from dictionary.com and examples from my work place:

Relationships

Definition 1: the state of being connected or related 

Definition 2: the mutual dealings, connections, or feelings that exist between two parties, countries, people, etc. 

 This includes friendship, interaction with peers, interaction with teachers, and family bonds. I help the children through problem solving by involving them to talk to each other. Sometimes I give them words to say, for example "I am sorry that I said I hated you, I did not mean it and won't say it to you again. Can you accept my apology?" When children tell me what their parents have suggested that they do to help solve a problem, I may say something like "that is a great idea. Your mom is wise." This could help the child feel proud of their mom and strengthens their relationship with her. I greet the children when they arrive and say bye when they are leaving, as well as taking interest in their day and what they are playing with and asking them for their ideas and opinions. This strengthens our bond and hopefully provides a positive influence.

Creativity

Definition: the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination.

Children are so creative and have rich imaginations. I watch them work and make comments on the things I see. Often they bring me things they have made and I try and guess what it is and then say something about it. For example, "that looks like the CN tower. I love the detail. It looks like you spent a lot of time on that." That last sentence honors the process rather than the product :)

Well being

Definition: a good or satisfactory condition of existence; a state characterized by health, happiness, and prosperity; welfare: to influence the well-being of the nation and its people.

I care about the children's emotional health. If I see they are upset, I will ask them what is wrong or say they look upset and talk to them about it. I encourage them to eat healthily by giving them seconds and thirds for vegetables and healthier foods, and limiting them more on the high sugar foods. If I ever have a daycare, I would try to buy local produce and give the children home cooking, rather than processed foods. If they talk to me about God (I work at a Catholic school) I respond respectful of their faith.


What three values would you choose?

For the Love of Nature

Today two girls were playing near a tree. They both reached up to touch the branches, and one of them broke off a piece of the branch.

I called over to her "Hey, that tree is alive! How would you like it if someone came along and broke off your arm?!"

From which, commenced a fit of giggles.


I was driving home in my car and saw a family of Canadian Geese. Two adults and four ducklings. When I looked at the ducklings, I was overcome with emotion. To my surpise, I found myself empathising with the mama goose!


The children have been enjoying the beautiful weather. A while ago, they found a big log and rolled it in pairs across the entire stretch of the field. They problem solved around holes and back on track from a collision with the edge of the sand box. They experienced the physics of keeping the object in motion, and felt its weight by trying to lift it.


We planted some flowers to make a terrarium in our room. It will be in a large jar. I had asked the children to draw pictures to decide what we were going to do with the jar. All of the other ideas were to have fish in it. Since we move our cart around so much, it didn't really seem feasible. The poor fish would probably get sea sick. So, we'll wait for summer camp, and a semi-permanent room, to do that :)