My Connections To Play

George Bernard ShawWe don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing

Kahlil Gibran
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

The first quote that I chose from George Shaw summarized what play represented for me. I feel that if adults played more they would be less stressed out, and would enjoy life more. I agree with Shaw that we have not stoped playing because have grown old, we grow old and fall out of play and we stop playing. We stop playing because we feel adults are supposed to deal with bigger things, play is for children not adults so we stop playing.

Kahlil Gibran's quote gave me an image of how I felt playing outside as a young girl. I felt the earth delighting in my bare feet in the Carolina's and the winds playing in my hair. I had no worries, I enjoyed the sun beating down on my face and the feeling of the earth beneath my feet as I played. This quote reminded me of how much I loved to play outside.

 I used to love playing with my dolls and playing doctor. Each of my dolls had charts and I would keep record of their illnesses. I would have them all bandaged up and red ink for the blood in certain spots. I was a doctor who loved all her doll patients.

I also loved to sing and would imagine myself this famous singer.

I am not sure how people supported my play. My mother would often laugh at me while playing and she would say, "what in the world are you doing?" My sisters were older and a lot of times I played by myself. The support I did have from family was the freedom to play, and to be creative!

Play today is definitely different. I can tell you with my own kids they do not go outside alone, they do not hang out over friends houses, friends don't come over my house and just sit around.When I was coming up it was okay to go out and play on your own. No one would come in the yard and snatch you or bother you, you could allow your kids to go over friends houses and feel like they were safe, they could have friends over without someone thinking you would do something to them. It is truly a different day.

Play has kind of played a big role in my life, throughout my life. I have to at times lead Praise and Worship at my church and because I was able to play and imagine myself singing it is easy for me to get up and sing in front of others because I had done it so long in front of my dolls. I kept records on my dolls during play and I now have to keep files on the children in my program. Being able to play has helped me to actually do the things that I have to do everyday. It seems strange, I did not know then that play was shaping me to do the things that I needed to do.

Child Development and Public Health 2

Immunizations are a process that stimulates the body's immune system to defend against attack by a particular contagious disease Berger (2009). Immunizations are very important, they protect children from diseases and serious complications. Immunizations are meaningful to me not only because I have small children that recieve immunizations but it is my job to make sure every parent has their health inventory form(immunization form) done before their child can come to our school. There are so many parents that think it is okay that my child is not up to date with his or her shots and thinks that the school should be okay with that also. I have to be the one to tell them that it's not okay and in order for your child to attend at our school they must have thier immunizations up to date.
I noticed in our reading that Afghanistan has one of the highest numbers of death of children under that age of 5. I found out from an article that in 2006 there was a immunization campaign done in Afghanistan supported by UNICEF. Their objective was to reduce child measles mortality by 90 percent and to elimnate maternal and neonatal tetanus. Afghanistan's infant mortality rate is very high at 257 per 1,000 live birth. Measles is a major cause of child death , and tetanus which results from unsanitary conditions at delivery, these are leading killers of mothers and their babies. In 2006 during this campaign more than 4 million children under 5 were vaccinated against measles and an estimate 4.2 million of childbearing age recieved tetanus vaccines. Mothers who were vaccinated passed tetanus immunity on to their children for the first nine months of life. This campaign helped but more help is still need.
I found that non-immunization of child may impact my future work. Someday I do want to own my own center and I must be firm with parents that their children must be up to date with immunizations.

*This assignment was completed in my previous course.