"The toys, materials, and equipment you put out for children; the posters, pictures, and art objects you hang on the wall; and the types of furniture and how you arrange them all influence what children learn......In addition to seeing themselves in their learning environment, children all need materials that honor diversity both within and beyond their own identity groups" (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010, P.43).
This week our assignment is to describe our own family childcare center that reflects our interpretation of an anti-bias education environment.
If I were to own my own center, it would be a Christian family childcare center. I do believe the first thing that you would see when you walked through the doors is a message on the wall that "God is Able". The very first room that you walk into would be the "transition room" as in the learning video we seen this week with Adriana Castillo (Laureate Education, Inc, 2012), where a child is able to "gather themselves" emotionally and without hinderance, before they entered the center itself.
The transition room would be a peaceful room with lots of colorful and playful pictures that are Biblically inspired. as well as colorful handprints and footprints on the wall of every child that is and has been a part of the facility. There would also be a variety of books there to read, as well as crayons, and papers and a chalk board for children to express themselves if need be. There would also be a small media center where a child could listen to a peaceful song or two before starting their day. This room would also have a wall of information for my parents. This area is where I'll keep the menu of the week, current newsletter, field trip information, calendar, etc. Parents would be able to sign their children in and out here before the enter the main part of the facility.
Inside of the facility itself would be a huge room that has pictures up of people of all shapes, sizes, colors and ethnicities. The word "hello" would be painted on the ceiling in every different language I could find and "circle time" would be started singing a song with each of those words and the kids names. The carpet would be that of a world map and kids could sit and learn in a "different" country everyday. There would be many different sections in the center including but not limited to drama, free play, sand, clay, water, dried noodles, manipulatives, arts n crafts, multi-cultural, reading, and media.
The next room would be our nap room, where on the ceiling is glow in dark stars and constellations and peaceful melodies playing to ease them into slumber. Off of the top of my head the center, itself would encompass all types of families and displaying pictures of all types of families and the age appropriate learning material would also include them learning about different Bible stories.
References:
Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). Welcome to an Anti-Bias Learning Community (2012) [DVD] Strategies for Working with Diverse Children. Baltimore, MD
Wow! Your family childcare home sounds so peaceful. I like that you want to have a Christian base daycare, because this may be the only place the children receive this type of foundation. Especially since they have tried to remove God out of many of the schools.
ReplyDeleteI used to have glow in the dark stars I n my room! Anyway, I like your idea of including pictures of all different people. This will do alot towards making children feel comfortable at the center and comfortable with different people throughout their lives.
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