Create a family

For this assignment we were asked to create a hypothetical family. I have to pretend that this is my family. My family is a young couple who is expecting their first child. My husband and I have decided to do a special test to see if their child has any diseases so they can prep before the baby is born. Our worse fear became true at the appointment that shared the results. Our sweet bundle of joy has Down syndrome. We are a middle class family with both of us having decent jobs. Though we both have decent jobs we do not make enough money to be able to afford all the upcoming medical bills that we will have with our child. The doctor suggest that we are able to terminate but we both right away said no. Our family was going to be watching the child while we are at work. Now that we know our child has Down syndrome they are unsure if they will be able to take care of our child. We start looking into child care but we are not able to afford to send our child to any of the centers that will take a child with Down syndrome. After many center visits we found a program called Early Head Start. We never thought we would qualify but we were accepted because of our child having Down syndrome. Early Head Start will help us find ways to afford all the medical bills that we will have. 

One thing that people are doing to advocating for early childhood is the fact the preschool really does matter. People are advocating that preschool does matter to get more funding. This really interested me because we do need more funding in early childhood education. The only thing is that it hard to get funding when there is not funds out there. I personally believe that instead of making cuts to programs that are well needed, not just education. I think the government officials should make cuts to their pay checks. That would give us funds for other programs that need the money. 

Parent, Family and Community Engagment

As I was watching the video clips I felt relieved. All I hear now a days about Head Start is that it is just a free day care. After watching all these videos it made my professional thoughts feel so much better. It is always good to hear people talk good about Head Start. It makes me feel so much better to know I am really making a difference in these families lives. 

When we get parents involve they feel like the belong. It is important for them to be involved because what we teach the children the parents can continue at home and in the summer. That way their child is receiving services all year long. 

I feel if more people watched these videos they were better understand Head Start. I think the government officials should watch these. That way they can see true testimony and maybe put more money towards it. 

Quality Programs for all children

Early Childhood is a great debate I believe in the United States. Many people I feel do not know the importance of early childhood services especially preschool. I feel like many people feel that preschool is just a day care. I have received comments many times on when am I going to go to school to become a teacher. I tell them I am and then they say no a real teacher. People do not realize that that is degrading and wrong to say but that is just the view of the public. 

I feel that only a handful of people look for a quality early childhood program. I feel like most parents just put their child in a program that is close to their home. They do not look into the program to see if it is the best. When something happens that is when they complain. 

I feel like funding is a huge issue because people do not feel that early childhood should be given money but then they are also upset when the cost is to high for them. Leaving many of the children in the care of relatives. I feel like relatives are a great source of care but children also need the social side of the child care experience. 

The reason I feel all of the above is just listening to parents and people in the community. 

What resonates with me about early childhood public policy and advocacy.

We are finally at the point in our journey that we are in our specialization courses. We only have three more courses to take and then we are Graduate Students. For my degree I have chosen to go in the specialization of Public Policy and Advocacy. The reason I have chosen this path is because of what I want to do with my degree. I would love to work for the Department of Education to make education better for everyone. I would also like to help stop child abuse and get signs out to all teachers out there. With that being said that is what I chose Public Policy and Advocacy because those jobs relate directly to the degree.  

Everyone can be an advocate but only a few have the passion for it. I want to advocate for the children and families that are not able to advocate for themselves. Advocate are so important because they are the ones that can change something bad in to good. If you want to be a good advocate you need to know everything about what you are advocating. 

For this specialization it is hard to come up with only three goals. I want to learn as much as possible so I can help change the world. I know I will not do it alone or even change the whole world but if I can change one aspect of anything that is one step closer then we are now. So my goals are going to be broad.

Goal one: To become a better advocate.

Goal two: To learn about all the policy pertaining to education.

Goal three: To teach others about public policy and how to become a better advocate. 

Good luck in your courses we are in the home stretch to graduation. 

To all my classmates that have helped me through my journey. As we all go to our different directions to finish up our degree we may not talk to each other anymore. If you would like to stay in contact you may email me at cheryl.labonville@waldenu.edu. Good luck in the rest of your journey. 

Everyone has been part of a group at one point in their life. With every group there are multiple stages. The last stage is the adjourning stage. This is the stage where the group is leaving/dismissing. This can sometime be the hardest stage in a group. 

One of the hardest groups to leave that I was apart of was my high school band my sophomore year. Though I continued to be part of the group through out my whole high school career my sophomore year was the hardest year to leave for the summer. My sophomore year we were such a big family. We achieved so much by doing great at competitions, to helping a terminally ill classmate, to having the honor of representing the State of Michigan at the World War II memorial opening in Washington D.C. We also were invited to play at many other national events and also we were also invited to play in Ireland at their St. Patrick's Day Parade. Because of money we only were able to choose one and we decided to play in D.C. It was also hard to leave this group for the summer because our teacher was retiring. We were all very close and it was hard to say goodbye to her and all the seniors who were not coming back. To say goodbye we had a awards ceremony/good bye party. One last time to spend time together. It was hard at the end but we still stay in contact with each other. Especially when our classmate that was terminally ill past away the following December. We got back together and held each other through this hard time. We still stay in contact through Facebook till this day but we are not as close as we were. 

To be honest since this my program is all online I have not really gotten close to my classmates. I look forward to reading their post and see who will follow me into my advocacy program.