Blog Assignment: Sharing Web Resources

For the last several week's I have been navigating through the website: worldforumfoundation.org and i've become a little adept at navigating through this website. For this week's assignment we are to expand our inquiries by answering the following questions: 

• Follow some of the outside links that you have not yet explored. Where do they lead?

One link called the "World Forum Alliance Members" leads to 20 different links that are connected to different organizations around the world dedicated to helping families.  One link I found of particular interest was daycaretrust.org.  This organization is a national daycare trust located in England and Wales and is a childcare charity that is campaigning for quality, accessible and affordable childcare for all while they raise the voices of children, parents and caregivers. 

• Thoroughly search one area of the site. What do you find?

After searching the "Alliance Members" link, I found that the 20 international organizations were separate entities that later joined together to support the World Forum on Early Care and Education and became members of the World Forum Alliance.  I think this is the "two heads are better than one principle". :0

Additionally, we were to find out if the site we selected offered any information about the early childhood issue we are focusing on this week - Excellence and Equity of Care and Education for Children and Families, and answer the following questions:

• Does the website contain any information that adds to your understanding of equity and excellence in early care and education?

Yes, the pacific pre-school council link talks about and encourages its members  to work in close collaboration with the respective governments to review and develop national ECE policies and Curriculum Guidelines in order to further improve the quality of early childhood services being offered to young children and their families in small Pacific Island Countries.  It was formed in 1980 and has had some set backs, but they're determined to bring the important knowledge of why EC education is important.

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  What other new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field did you gain this week from exploring the website and/or the e-newsletter?

I discovered that the WFF is just as passionate about play as a form of learning as I am.  In 2009, they developed a group to focused on four basic areas of play to support play as a way to learn.  The play they focused on were: explaining play, the influence of schools and home life on play, the influence of media and corporate cultures on play, and the role of gender and diversity on play. And on February 6th-9th of this year, they met again in South Carolina, to discuss the problems that arise when children are deprived of opportunities to play and the effects there of.   So I learned that there are some groups that are still pushing to "keep play alive" for our children and that just might be what's keeping our country from pushing play from the school system altogether!