Aloha To My Ohana EC Bloggers

ALOHA TO MY OHANA

To my Fellow Early Childhood Bloggers,

Welcome to my blog site. Let me say: Aloha to my Ohana, which means "Welcome to my Family".

I am an Asian American who migrated in the US in 1997. I came from the Philippines and Filipino/ Tagalog is my first language. I migrated here in the US to start a family. I am now living here in Hawaii with my husband and three children. I am currently working as an Assistant Director at Ford Island Child Development Center in Pearl Harbor.

This is going to be an interesting journey for all of us and I am looking forward to blog with all of you.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

My Final Blog Post for Current Issues and Trends in Early Childhood Course

First of all I would like to say SALAMAT PO! (Thank you), to all of you who have made this past few weeks very educational and interesting. It has been difficult for me to keep on this course because of lot stressors in my life. Being a Second Language English learner myself, has been difficult and challenging because I have to spend countless hours just to put my thoughts together. I almost gave up but (believe it or not) your first response to my first week’s blog and comments from our instructor has made it possible for me to finish this course. Your positive response had made a lot of difference.

I learned a lot from all of you and I hope I was able to give back what you have given me. I hope we will continue to support each other until we finish our journey towards earning our masters degree in early childhood education.

During the past weeks, I have learned that countries all over the world have the same issues and concerns about the field of early childhood. Concerns about the quality, compensation, and affordability of child care programs. The lack of sufficient funding to support early childhood programs have put the provision of high-quality programs in jeopardy. Due to this issue also that only a small percentage of early childhood programs meet standards of excellence and that majority are mediocre or in less quality. Poor quality program has place children at risk in all areas of development. The issue of poor compensation to early childhood educators has led to high turn-over rate of teachers. This factor compromises the well-being of children who needs consistency and stability in their lives. The issue of affordability of child care, particularly for low income families, has kept many low-income mothers from workforce or from educational pursuits, making it more difficult for families to survive this current economy.

Continuing awareness on the issue and current trend in early childhood education, not just in America but all over the world, will be my main goal in working towards finding solutions to the current concerns of early childhood field. Being equipped with knowledge and understanding of the issues affecting families and children, I will be able to support and continue to advocate for the increase funding on research programs -on the benefit of early childhood program and accessibility and affordability of early childhoo

4 comments:

Cymantha Channey WhiteOctober 29, 2011 at 2:58 PM
Anabel,

Access, Quality, and Investment is the triology that will always remain as the key to successful early childhood care and education. Thank you for such insightful posts!

My sincere prayers and regard to you for continued success in your EC endeavors.

CCWhite
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AnonymousOctober 30, 2011 at 7:13 AM
Anabel,
I agree it has been very educational to learn that countries around the world are facing some of the same struggles we are here in the United States in regards to the early childhood field. I have enjoyed learning alongside you this course! Grateful to know another person who is committed to the early childhood field. Keep up the good work
Amy
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Allison JonesOctober 30, 2011 at 2:57 PM
First of all, let me say that I am so glad you did not give up. Continue to spread awareness because it is needed for all families but especially for those new families that have come to America and may lack knowledge or resources that are available for them. Keep up the good work and you will do well. Good luck!!
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CareyannOctober 30, 2011 at 3:44 PM
Promoting awareness of issues effecting young chidren and families is a worthy goal. If one is not equipped with information, one cannot act to resolve an issue. Please do not give up on this or any subsequent courses. I have enjoyed reading your blog and discussion posts since the Foundations course. Your positive outlook and kind words as well as your unique insights have added to my educational experience. Keep up the great work!
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My Nanay (means ‘Mother’ in Tagalog) Clarita is the heart and soul of our home. She is a positive thinker and a good motivator. She always look at the good things in life and understands also the challenges that comes with it. The only face you see is her smile which brighten the day of so many people. She lives everyday making sure that she has done everything she could and treated each day as if it was her last day. You will never see her complain about things and finds solutions rather than blame people.

My mother raised seven children and she treated each one of us uniquely because she believes that each one of us have our own strength and weaknesses. She treated us differently in a good way because she believes that we are unique in our own special way. She also respects us and allow us to grow independently knowing our unique qualities. She also make sure that we discover our own identity and passion and supports us in any endeavor that we want to pursue.

I remember when I was little that my father an mother were so proud of my siblings because they excelled academically in school. I remember my brothers and sister compete in spelling bee or represent our school in science, math or debate contests. Every recognition day, my parents stayed on the stage to accept awards or medals for my siblings achievements. My mom never said anything to me but I know she tried her best to motivate, inspire and give incentives or recognition to inspire me to do well in school. She continued to support me in any activities that I am interested and always believe in me. She reminded me all the time not to feel or think that I am different but believed in me all time. I may be different from my siblings but I am no less than them. She said that each one of us has our own unique way of doing things and should not be compared with each other. She never compared us with each other. She accepted us as unique individuals with unique qualities and abilities.

Now that I am a parent of three wonderful children I would like to do the same with my children. Respect their differences, support them with their choices and guide them to become a better person.

Tatay Benito

My father is the foundation of our home. He is a good provider and has dedicated his life working to send us all to a good school. “Good provider to us” is giving all he got and most of the time “more than what he got”. My father works as a supervisor in Central Bank of the Philippines. Though he does not have enough to take home for pay, he still managed to send us all to college and to a good school too.

I remembered my father telling us the importance of education. He said his wish for us is to study hard and finish college. I remembered him saying that he regrets not going to school, he often said: “If only I studied harder and finish college, our situation will be better than this.”

During enrollment time my father will bring the title of our land and our house to the bank and serve as “collateral” for our educational loan. One time, my little brother wanted to buy something and he asks my father if he could have five pesos (our currency), my father gave his pay envelop to him. The coins fell off the envelope, my father only have about five pesos and about sixty cents. My little brother gave it back to him and never asks money from him anymore.

Another experience my eldest brother shared with me was when my father brought him to the cemetery, the jail and the museum, where they display the pictures of the President of the Philippines and their accomplishments. My father told him: “Son I brought you here to show you that these are your choices in life - either you die, go to jail or make the most out of your life and become a successful person; it is up to you to make that decision”.

With these inspiring stories and experiences that I learned and wanted to pass it on to my children. I would like them to make their own choices and whatever decisions they made, whether it is right or wrong, they need to take responsibility, find resolution and face the consequences of their actions.

These are my brothers and sister. Believe it or not, we never ever fight. We have so much respect for each other. When our parents ask us who is going to wash the dishes or clean something, all of us are in a hurry to do it first. When somebody gets to do it first, we still help each other out to finish the tasks. I am the fifth out of seven and I treat my elder brother and eldest sister with much respect as we have for our father or mother. In our culture, when your big brother asks you to do something, we just do it without asking questions. We just obey. If we have one candy, we will cut it into small pieces and get our shares, the weirdest thing is: the biggest portion of the candy will be left and nobody will take it or we give it to our youngest brother. We complement each other and respect each other’s privacy.

Our house has five rooms on the second floor. Our rooms do not have doors on it because my parents believed that an open room means open communication. Anyone can go in and out of any rooms. When I was little, we all sleep together on the floor with mat on it; except for my eldest sister and eldest brother they have their own bed as well as my parents. Nobody says: ‘it’s not fair!”

Aloha To My Ohana EC Bloggers

ALOHA TO MY OHANA

ALOHA TO MY OHANA

Saturday, October 29, 2011

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