Families in Early Childhood Education

• Whom you observed and interacted with in your setting during this module

For this module, I centered my focus on families in the early childhood education setting.  To truly see the interaction of families with the children and the daycare staff, I focused my observation times in the morning and the afternoon.  This allowed me to see parents dropping off and picking up their children.  In particular, I chose to focus on a 4 year old girl and her parents.  I was able to see both parents at different times. 

• Any special learning experiences you may have had or an experience that provided you with insight about children and families including advocacy efforts

I was pleased to have a literacy experience in my observations of child/parent/caregiver.  The child attends preschool three days per week and attends daycare the other two.  The first day that I observed the parent brought in predictable text paper book that the child had gotten at school.  The dad said that his daughter loved having the book read to her and wanted to bring it to class to share with her classmates.   As I watched her take the book around, I noticed that she was "reading" the story as she was connecting the pictures to the written words she had heard her parents read to her so many times.   I thought it was wonderful to see how her family's literacy involvement lead to her taking ownership of her book and pride in her reading of it.

• At least two insights gained from your observations of, and interactions and experiences with, schildren’s families regarding advocacy efforts and needs related to your area of interest within the field of early childhood

One insight I gained about early childhood family involvement in literacy is that parents must read with their children in order for children to have enthusiasm.  This father brought in her book and made sure to tell the teacher how much his daughter loved the book which in turn made her proud to show it off to her classmates.  His emphasis on her love of the book continues to reinforce to her the love of reading.  The second insight I gained is that a literacy rich classroom promotes higher literacy in the students. This teacher put word cards on everything and the students were "reading" the cards and making connections between the letters on the cards and the object they were seeing.  One child remarked that her parents did this in her bedroom at home and she was pointing out similar items in her classroom and at home.  Watching literacy in action in a real classroom and how children move their experiences from home to daycare and back again is promoting literacy in all facets of their lives.