Friday, February 29, 2008

Preschools

I really like the idea of Preschools, they offer a child a chance to adapt to education outside the home and the transition, it also helps the parents adjust to having other people care for and teach their children. Preschool gives children a chance to interact with other kids their age which helps their social development greatly.

I personally did not attend preschool because my mom was a stay at home mom at the time, my brother however did and growing up he always was a lot more comfortable then me with meeting new people and could deal with change a lot better then I could. I think a lot of this is because of early exposure to good change and interactions with other people then just the family.

I have worked in numerous preschools and day cares over the last 10 years. My favorite and to me the most beneficial to the children attending was the Preschool/daycare program offered to young moms on our High school campus. There were a lot of different types of children at this school and it was amazing how much interaction goes on between kids this young. The teachers at this school focused on teaching all the kids sign language with every action they did with the children. I really think this is such an important thing to educate children 5 and under on, it not only helps young babies communicate their wants and feelings but as they get old they can understand and interact with younger children and with hearing impaired children which in turn helps these children with their social development.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Stressors

Here are 10 stressors on Families today.
(1) Divorce is a huge stress on families, children have to endure so much when their parents are getting divorced, fighting before leads to stress and if continued, going to court adds long lasting stresses as well. Then there is stress on the parents on having to juggle either being a single parent or being alone and having to come up with funds to pay support.
(2) Community can cause a lot of stress in a family, when a community makes decisions it can directly affect a family. If schools are closed a family has to relocate their children causing them to have to go someone where new which can be very stressful and scary.
(3) The media holds a huge amount of stress in families everyday life, with the news showing all the bad things around the world stressing parents out, to adults having to worry about censoring there children’s shows aggravating them. A lot of stress also comes from the media on the computer, spam ads that pop up on a child's PC can be very stressful on a parent to have to watch for and worry about.
(4) Another stress on families a lot of time is Religion; if the two parents come from a different religious background it can cause difficulties in raising their children stress the parents and the kids. Or an outer family member may have a different religious view and try and push their views on a family which can upset children who don’t understand and parents who don’t appreciate it.
(5) Right now a big stress on family is the War, whether you have to go through having a family member who is deploy and you are worried about, or you see all the destruction and deaths happening to the people in War. Also the money being taken from your government can lead to financial problems in your country which leads to stressing over the possibilities of depression.
(6) Not having enough time in a day, a week, or a month can be a big stress on a family as well. A lot of people have so many things planned for a day they rarely get them all done and if they do it puts a ton of stress on them to do it all. People often feel like they run out of time or they are looking for more time leading to melt downs and freak outs from people who are..."Stressed for time".
(7) Kids can help to add stress on a family from time to time especially if the kids aren’t well behaved. If you have a child who acts out while you are at the grocery store you tend to get stressed very easily. But other kids can be stressors as well like handicap children or catholic babies or when kids get illnesses all these can be very stressful on not only the parents but all the family members.
(8)School is a big stress on families. Some kids don’t perform well in school leading to parents having to discipline which is a stress on its own but also f a parent wishes to go back to school they have to endure all the stresses that come with school and on top of it finding the money to be able to support their school and their family.
(9)A parents job can add extra stressors on a family, if they have a rough day at work people tend to take it out on their home life, upsetting there family. Or if a parents job goes through a pay cut or something along those lines the family has to endure money crunching which can stress young and old out.
(10) Finally a lot of these stressors lead to stressing over money which is a stress on its own. Families who have to learn how to budget finances and making sure those bills are paid before pleasure can happen, this can make people stressed out. Know how much you owe can be stressful, not being able to by the recreational things can be stressful. And things like not being able to buy your family the gifts they really want for things like Christmas can be a huge stress on a family.