Creating Affirming Environments

Creating Affirming Environments Creating an authentic early childhood setting is something that I think is important for the comfort level of the child and their family. If I were to have an early childhood home setting, I would have a sign-in or information area. This area would have a binder for sign-in and a calendar/bulletin board for information for the family. I would also have an area for children to adjust to the environment. For example, if the child were still tired and not ready to play, I would have an area for them to relax. This would also help the child feel more comfortable. It is important that I would be able to see the child, but also attend to the other children who are ready for the day. In my home, the front room would be used for a “quiet” corner and the connecting room would be filled with children. I would also have an area for center time. This area would be big enough for us to gather and learn about our daily skills and discuss our day. This area would have photos and signs on the walls. The photos would be diverse and show varying cultures, photos of the children attending the center, photos of my family, and photos of varying abilities. I believe that this is important to help create a family feel for the environment. I would also have an area that each family could pick items for display that they enjoy doing or they would use to help describe themselves. We would change this every two weeks. This would allow the children and families to have several times throughout the year that they could use items to help other families and staff get to know them better. I think that in the pretend/dramatic play area, I would have a variety of costumes and careers that the children could explore. The dolls would also include a variety of ethnicities and not just “token” examples (dolls that just change the color and not features). I have several dolls from my travels around the world that would be very beneficial in displaying real examples of clothing and features. I would reach out to other countries early childhood professionals to obtain games, dolls, and other examples from their country that they would use to represent their area. Another aspect that I would love to incorporate would be a section with community activities. It is beneficial to include "children and adults from the various racial and ethnic identity groups in your community" (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010, p. 43). I would ask families to post events that they like to attend in the community as well. It forms good rapport with families when you see them outside of the educational setting. I noticed several wonderful examples from the video this week. I liked the sign-in area for transfer of information. I also liked the family of the month area. This would help build and strengthen positive rapport. I also liked the "quiet" transition area that she mentioned. This would be helpful for families to know that if their child is still tired that they could have time to wake-up since some families have to drop their kids off early. I enjoyed the video! References Derman-Sparks, L. & Edwards, J.O. (2010). Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves. National Association for the Education of Young Children. Laureate Education, (n.d.). Retrieved from www.waldenu.edu