Creating Affirming Environments

I have worked in many day cares, but never in a home care center. So when I was asked to imagine that I was starting my own Family Child Care Home it really made me think about the important materials I needed for the children and what areas I needed to concentrate on to connect with the families as well.

I think it is very important to stay connected with the families and have them involved in the classroom as well. I liked Adriana's idea of meeting the children and families outside at drop off to greet them and talk with the parents. At that time I believe I would have the parents fill out a form of information that I might need to know for the day about their child or any suggestions or ideas that would have their child more active and involved.

I would also invite the parents in for activities and sharing time. They can tell stories to the children about their culture and traditions, share songs, food, or music. I would also use a wall like Adriana mentioned that displayed the children's culture and heritage. This will show that the families are important and present in the child's learning.
I would also send home weekly reports that shows what their child has been doing and learning about that week and display pictures of the children within the room.

The rooms should also have posters of different families, cultures, and people of different abilities hanging up. Items within the room should be labeled in other languages, the books, music, and DVDs should represent all colors, cultures, gender, abilities, and so forth. I really liked the idea of using persona dolls to help children learn of emotions/feelings, skin color, children of disabilities and so forth. By using these dolls and coming up with stories they can represent specific children and families in the classroom causing the children to connect more and learn.

I believe that having circle time with the children where they can talk about situations, feelings, and so forth is important because it helps children open up more, learn to talk about feelings, and learn to work through them as it will develop conversation among the group.

I have learned so much by watching the video and from the reading materials this week. There is so much to think about when opening up  your own Family Child Care Home, I thought what I mentioned was very important, but I know there is so much more that I didn't even think of.