Exploring NAEYC

The specific section of NAEYC that seemed relevant to my professional development is the Periodicals Section. There are so many articles that you can read and study guides to go with the articles to help facilitate training sessions.

There was an idea that made me look at an issue in a new way. That issue was engaging diverse families. On the website it recognizes centers that are exemplary in engaging families. It had a guideline of what families should look for in choosing a center that encourages involvement from all cultures. This made me look at this from the standpoint as if I was the one from another culture coming to register my child. It made me think differently about the whole concept.


The thing that showed me about support for early childhood was the section that talked about Supporting Japan's young children and resources for coping with disasters. This is something specifically for the children of Japan after suffering the earthquake and Tsunami.

The other new insights I gained were the fact that there are other organizations bigger than National. There are also world organizations that NAEYC ties into. We are all concerned about our children no matter what country we are in. I also gained insight to t he fact that our profession is one that requires constant training. We have to stay trained on current methods that are best for educating young children. NAEYC offers many trainings all over the nation that supports this effort. The website lists these trainings and helps you to stay on top of current issues.

International Contact

My conversation partner is Eric Atmore. He is the Director at the Centre for Early Childhood Development in South Africa. The Centre for Early Childhood Development is committed to putting young children first by ensuring quality care and education for our country’s youngest and most vulnerable citizens. Mr. Atmore responded to  me when I first was seeking out an international contact. He said he would help me in whatever capacity I needed. The most important part was he said he would be happy to assist in whatever way I needed. This made me feel good because I knew I had someone who had a passion for the Early Childhood field because he was willing to help someone coming up from the ranks wanting to learn more.

The most interesting thing Mr. Atmore has shown me is their program called Little Village Early Learning Programme. This is where the Centre has developed a programme of Literacy, Numeracy and Life Skills for children ages 5-9. This is some tidbits about Little Villiage from the website:

# The Little Village characters are colourful comic puppets. They do not represent any race, religion or group. Little Village is a place that could be found anywhere in South Africa.
# The characters in Little Village promote our belief that learning must be fun. Each edition of Little Village is validated for ECD suitability by ECD specialists at the Centre for Early Childhood Development.
# Educational material is often too expensive for families in the lower LSM brackets. Little Village is cost-effective to print as it doesn’t require glossy paper or fancy binding. An additional benefit of this is that the booklets are designed to be well-used by young children. Each booklet includes at least three age-appropriate activities. The booklet doubles up as a workbook and a story book.
# The Little Village Activity Booklet is designed to be used by teachers in the classroom; however, teachers are encouraged to send the booklets home with their children to encourage parent-child interaction.
# The Little Village Activity Booklet can be translated and printed in any of the eleven official languages to ensure mother-tongue instruction for young children.
# Jincom Publishing and CECD plan to create a radio and television broadcast of Little Village to encourage learning through popular mediums.

One thing that I have learned about poverty from Mr. Atmore for South Africa is that you have to meet people where they are at to really help them. It made me feel like there was a Head Start in South Africa. Where we go out and do home visits with the families, this center actually goes out to the villages and works with the groups of children together. It reminds me of our Home Based program for Head Start. Its a combination of literacy and life skills as well as medical. The Little Village program includes hygiene which is not a primary topic for Head Start but we do touch on Hand Washing and make sure the children brush their teeth. It was great to learn that we approach poverty in some of the same ways. Meeting them where they are at because they can't get to us is one important factor. Also, making the families realize the importance of Literacy and an education is another approach that we use. If the parents realize the importance, then the child has a stronger web of support. This child getting an education and being successful could be the key not only to his family of getting out of poverty, but in South Africa a whole village's key to getting out of poverty and/or improving living conditions. This is so exciting! I really want to go to South Africa now, just to visit this Centre and learn more about Little Village.

Sharing Web Resources

The organization I chose is The National Association for the Education of Young Children
www.naeyc.org
My favorite part is Next. That is a collection of study guides to go with Young Children. Young Children is an award-winning, peer-reviewed professional journal published bimonthly by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Young Children issues are organized around topical clusters that devote special attention to issues in the field of early childhood education. Next for Young Children suggest ways to build on the content of selected articles from Young Children. I like that because we can use articles for staff training and professional development. The site also has upcoming trainings in different locations listed. One other thing I found helpful was that you could join the organization online. The website has this posted:
NAEYC members can receive this award-winning journal (Young Children) for free six times a year as one of their membership benefits. Ninety-three percent of a survey sample of independent members named Young Children “the most useful NAEYC benefit in their work as early childhood professionals.” I think this organization is a great resource for us all.

Expanding Resources

I have to admit I was a little nervous about this assignment. I was afraid of being able to communicate with people outside the United States because of language barriers. I did however choose to make contact with someone in South Africa. I emailed (2) two people. One at the UNICEF in South Africa and the other was at an Early Childhood Conference in South Africa. I am excited now about what I could possible learn!!!!

I chose to use The National Association for the Education of Young Children
http://www.naeyc.org/ website for exploring. I like it because they have so much information from all over.  I really am looking forward to getting information from them.  I especially like that they have different trainings that are offered listed on their site for a variety of different issues.  This is going to be great!!!!!!

I can't believe somebody actually responded!!! I figured they would ignore me!!!

This is the information I have found out so far from my resources in South Africa.

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The Centre for Early Childhood Development is committed to putting young children first by ensuring quality care and education for our country's youngest and most vulnerable citizens.  We aim to do this by improving the early childhood development (EDC) services in South Africa through training, support and advice in the field of early childhood development.
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The Centre for Early Childhood Development is an Association not for Gain (Section 21 Company) and has Section 18A status in terms of the Income Tax Act.
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The Centre for Early Childhood Development provides training, support and advice in the field of early childhood development by offering courses and programmers aimed at enhancing individual and organizational capacity; by developing and disseminating resources; and by carrying out research specifically related to the African context.
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The Centre is fully accredited as an ECD training provider by the ETDP-SETA.
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The Centre finances its administrative costs through the sale of its services (training, project management, consultancy, publications and research) and specific programs and projects through grants from spporting donors.  Based in Cape Town, SOuth Africa we offer services and programs country wide, increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of early childhood development provision to all South Africa's children.