My Dolly baby!

 

Dolly was my dog, yup was. I called her my Dolly baby even this morning. She was my baby. She just passed and it just saddens me immensely that I have lost one of my best friends.

Dolly walked into our family about 11 years ago, just a few weeks old. Our older son, Satya picked her out of the litter because she was the most active. But why am I talking about Dolly here in the Awesome Blossom daycare blog? It’s because she was part of the Awesome Blossom family. Many little children of Awesome Blossom had transitioned easily and walked in enthusiastically everyday wanting to snuggle up to Dolly. Almost every child enrolled in the daycare fought fiercely for her, even shedding tears, during their “mine” phase. She participated in circle time every day. And it was also a time of war between the kiddos about who would sit next to Dolly. We sang about what Dolly was wearing in between giggles and smiles during circle time. All the kids sat on her, poked her eyes, pulled her tail, as they learned to practice their gentle touches and giving hugs while she sat patiently through all, in fact with a look of amusement and contentment on her face – she absolutely ADORED little children. She was trained early on to be nice to children – not that she needed any, she was a natural, being a golden!

Dolly was extremely insightful to parents’ feelings towards dogs. She stayed “off” parents who were not used to dogs, while she was all over others who seemed to have had dogs and loved her. Some of her best friends were parents enrolled in daycare for whom she had simple, crazy love for – Seth and Anthony were a couple of them. She loved Laura and Kim. She loved Elizabeth, a family friend, who did a dance with her every time she came. She absolutely adored our fire fighter neighbor, Russel. Russel could not step out of his house without being smothered and tackled by Dolly if she was out and about. And there were other parents like Sameena, Evelyn, Vadivu and my husband, Nagender that Dolly just never jumped on – not even once. She just knew they were uncomfortable and always stayed “off.” With Amama, she behaved completely different – she was calm and a disciplined dog. Amama called her “Yogi!”

Well Dolly, you have been a great teacher to the kids and adults too. You have taught us compassion, unconditional love, good listening, patience, discipline and being active! I know you had a naughty streak in you – when you shared a human snack with dad behind my back or when you put your face on my keyboard asking me to take you for a walk instead or when you were my “food vacuum” when you cleaned up the floor after the kids’s lunch. But seriously, you were really one good dog, my Dolly baby! I will miss you a lot and so will many adults and kids. We will always adore you...

Early Childhood Education

Awesome Blossom has reopened its doors again. I have a Master's in Early Childhood Education from University of Washington. My mom who is a partner in the daycare is a graduate of Science with a Master's in Telugu language and yet she had to undergo mandatory course work and training in Early Childhood Education as a part of the process of getting licensed. As she was immersed in her reading material, she reflected upon her own early childhood years and said, "When I was a little girl of 4 in the early 50s, I observed nature, friends, siblings and learned things on my own. Nobody spent time educating me till I was off to grade school where the whole focus was on theory and grades. Now, this field seemed to have developed into such an elaborate subject with extensive research to back it up."

 

This is so true. Early Childhood education is a Science and Art these days. I have been in this field since 1997 and I have watched it grow in leaps and bounds ever since. There are a lot of educators, politicians as well as parents who recognize the importance of educating young children in a systematic manner. In fact, it is a commonly known fact that people's brains and behavior actually start getting molded when they are in the womb of their mothers. Hence, mothers are repeatedly advised to keep calm, read, be happy and eat healthy so the baby will be a healthy, happy adult. Hence, what is the formula we need to adopt in our homes, daycares, preschools so we are ensuring that these little guys grow to their fullest ?

 

First and foremost, we need to understand that we are all trying to aid in the process of the creation of a happy, healthy adult. This is our ultimate goal. We are not just trying to feed the baby, potty train the toddler or send kids off to school and college. We are doing all these tiny steps to help the individual be successful. That of course, brings us to defining success. How do you define success? Is sending your children to school and ensuring that are a straight 'A' student defined as successful? No, it’s not. Is ensuring that you are doing everything so they can get into one of the best schools in the nation, success? Nope, not really. Is it ensuring that they are off to college and then they have a successful career and are independent and are making a lot of money defined as success? I am sure you agree that it is not enough. Then, what is success? In addition to all these, we as parents, educators, teachers and adults in our children's lives need to ensure that they need to develop into compassionate, confident young people with open minds. They also need to have the ability to explore their own potential to the fullest and be happy in life with what they have. More importantly, they need to get ready to face challenges in life by making wise choices and the right decisions. All these really start when our children are infants, toddlers and preschoolers in our own homes and schools.

 

It is crucial that young children as little as few months old be in the right atmosphere of nurturing and love. They need to be in an environment where there are ample opportunities to explore and which will help them realize their potential to the fullest. Their social, emotional, physical and cognitive aspects of their development need attention, focus and growth. These children need to have peer interactions with other children of their own age group. they should have oppurtunities to make choices. They need adults who are educated in all aspects of growth and development of young children. Early Childhood Educators need to have a lot of love for this age group, be extremely patient and have a good sense of humor to tide through the emotional meltdowns or outbursts of young children. Time and again, I have had parents of children in my care come and tell me that since their child had enrolled in Awesome Blossom daycare, their children had become less shy, more outspoken and confident, they were happier, they had more awareness of their surroundings, they had more knowledge of their physical environment and also made better choices in their little lives.

 

As an early childhood educator, I firmly believe that the early years are very important and need due attention. These are really the formative years which will ultimately help these children be "successful" in life. I am happy that the world is seeing it that way too now.

 

Choosing the right child care for your child and you…

For many reasons, families choose to send their child to a child care facility. I have seen moms wanting to take a break from their child to exercise or shop or go to the spa. Some families are eager to start off their child in preschool while there are other families that need care for their children as little as 3 month olds so that they can go to work. Whatever may be the reason, finding the right care for your child is very important. It is important that the facility be the right fit for you as well because you will be visiting that facility about 2500 times before your child takes off to kindergarten if your child is enrolled since 3 months of age till the age of 5 years and the fact that you will be walking in & out of the facility twice every day all year long J Sounds daunting! Well, how do you simplify this task? It is easy:

There are many different care options available for your little one. The first & foremost are grandparents. They are very excited; they raised you and you turned out great, so it seems like a natural fit, right? Yes, usually for some time & for some families. A lot of time, grandparents are away and working in another city or country. They seem to have their own lives. They may also be too tired, old or dealing with health issues.  One other thing to keep in mind is that but little children need interactions with people of their age. And so, we move on to our 2^nd closest option: a friend, a neighbor or a younger relative maybe. These may be great options and I am sure there are a lot of children all around the globe thriving in this environment. But are they well qualified for regular care? Do they have early education or training in CPR, First aid or blood borne pathogens? Probably not. Well, that leads us to the next option: trained people. You can find them in licensed childcare facilities, whether be it daycare providers at home or at a center. Home daycare providers in most states require to be licensed. What does this mean? They need to have minimum early childhood education, training in First aid, CPR, meet certain requirements as to the space, childproofing their home, etc. The licensors pay visits to these daycares regularly and as a surprise to make sure that the codes are being followed and there is required interaction between the caregiver and the children enrolled. They check records of children & staff to make sure that everything is up to date and up to code. In the state of Washington, home daycares are regulated by the state department of Early Learning. It is not an easy process to get licensed. The criminal backgrounds of the entire family are checked before the license is issued. There are lots of resources available to the home daycare providers to utilize to provide quality care for your children. To make sure you are a good match, visit the home of the provider before enrolling the child. Do understand that some of the providers get licensed when they have little children of their own to get some extra income. Find out the number of children of her own that the provider has and how many she is licensed for. Do ask how the curriculum will be taught to the children. Make sure that there is a routine chalked out for outdoor play, indoor freeplay and structured play for the children throughout the day. Find out about the licensee absence plan in case of her illness or absence. Ask if you can bring your child to spend some time at the daycare before enrollment. Observe the routines and interactions.  You will be able to see if the provider is able to juggle the daycare as well as her home life.  A big advantage of home daycare providers is that there is consistency of having the provider till your child starts kindergarten. This also means that the provider should be well trained to care for different age groups and provide stimulation for your child till they are ready to graduate. Home daycares are wonderful if the provider is educated and capable. Look for extracurricular activities provided for the children by different people which will be an added bonus. This ensures that your child is interacting with different adults during his/her early years. They are a bit cheaper than centers as well. You don’t want to settle for a provider with really cheap rates either. The last option is full-fledged centers. These again have all kinds of rates. Make sure to check to see which one fits in your budget. Visit a few centers before enrolling your child. Understand that your child may work with one teacher for a year or more depending on the policy of the center. Make sure to find out about employee turnover at the centers. This is a huge issue at centers as employee turnover is generally huge. Do spend time in the classroom that your child will potentially enroll in, talk to the teacher and understand the disciplining methods. Centers are regulated by the state as well. A licensor is assigned to each center and are regularly visited by them. Make sure to understand the extracurricular activities provided at the center for your children.

Hope this helps and good luck in finding the right care for your child. Please remember that if you are not happy where your child is enrolled, don’t be afraid to change it. I have seen time & again that parents are apprehensive to change the setting for their child fearing that their child will need adjustment. But have no fear, children adapt easily and when your gut says no to a setting, I am sure your child is saying no too.