The article “Understanding Families” by Linda Garris Christian expresses six characteristics that apply to Family Systems Theory and to the environment provided by early childhood educators. Boundaries are a characteristic that may set limits as well as emphasizes togetherness. The article states that for some families the behavior of the child is a reflection of the whole family, defining this behavior as enmeshed. As a provider and early childhood educator, my experience was with a family that I would describe as enmeshed. The child was strongly attached to the family land their merits and ethics. The family consisted of a mother and father and brother, age 5 and sister, age 10. The family had been in Rhode Island for two years, moving from India. The children were in my care for the summer only. Mom and Dad were both systems analyst at a nearby company and were extremely engaged in their culture. Field trips were planned each Friday for my school age program, …show more content…
Julia would say, “I cleaned the bathroom and washed the floor”, she never mentioned play. As I began attending certain family events at Julia’s home, I noticed it seemed almost expected that she would do certain jobs in the family. Her parents would say she enjoys doing stuff around the household, as they beamed with pride. As a teacher and provider, I felt it was necessary to encourage Julia to play and enjoy herself, although she was always the one to volunteer to assist the teachers. We resolved this by allowing the other children to pick jobs and to share the responsibilities in the classroom. Julia was saddened by this, thinking she wasn’t doing a responsible job and was being replaced. On the contrary, we convinced her that she did such a great job and we wanted her to demonstrate to the other children how to do their task. She was thrilled to once again be
A requirement in being an early childhood teacher, is to fulfill the needs, of the children and families I will work for. In chapter one, you have the Lawrence and Ashley Family. In the Lawrence family, they are a married couple, which means more income for the family. Whereas the Ashley family has one income. In addition, to the Ashley family, having one income and dealing with the state can bring heartache and struggles to buy food, clothes, housing, school supplies and other day to day activities. Therefore, I need to comprehend the lives of the families I work for and to be aware of the circumstances of the individual families. To the same degree. I need to respect the boundaries; of the families I work for. Trust is a must. With no trust, there is no communication and things get can get
Family systems have been studied since psychologists began studying people and their behaviors. The family is a dynamic system—a self-organizing system that adapts itself to changes in its members and to changes in its environment (as cited in Sigelman & Rider, 2009). Allowing the focus of a family system to grow beyond the mother and child relationship did not happen overnight. For many years, there was no connection made between other members of the family and the developmental issues of the children involved.
Napier and Whitaker maintain that every family is a society within itself regulated by its own distinctive culture, language, rules, and traditions. In The Family Crucible, the reader is introduced to the microcosm of the Brice family as they grapple with the politics of their own family system in order to solve the crisis that rules it. By exploring the Brice family’s past and present interactions with one another, and by unearthing the roots that nourish the difficulties threatening their reality, Napier and Whitaker take us on a journey of discovery with the Brice family, which would eventually include extended family members, using a co-facilitated systems approach to help the family learn to cope with life’s stresses; all the while, helping the family to gain awareness of self and to deepen relationships with each other. Together, the Brice parents, Carolyn and David, and their three children, Claudia, Don, and Laura gain skills that assist them in redirecting their lives, reshaping their family dynamic, and creating the positive change they desire.
The article and my life experience helped me to understand the six characteristics-boundaries, roles, rules, hierarchy, climate, and equilibrium and how their functions. Each family is unique. It is my belief, as an early childhood educator, we must have this skill and knowledge in order to help children and family. According to Gui (2006) emphasis, “Making an effort to under-stand families will open up opportunities for you to better serve children and their families (Garris, 2006, p. 8). The more we understand a child’s family the better we serve the family because we can get a lot of the children’s information through their parents.
In life, the moment we grow up is the day we start to visualize the future. Questions like, “How will I maintain this job?” “How will I begin a family?” “When will people start to recognize me for my talents?” “Will I ever fulfill my dream?” start to arise. Also, many other questions are being asked all the time, but since we are all different, everyone’s life questions are not the same. Matter fact, the easiest answer to our life questions are the lessons we learned at home and the lessons we were taught as kids. Therefore as kids, we learn all of these unique different lessons from our parents or family in general. Dedicated and responsible parents or members of the family know that children are the future. A family’s job and presence is to provide children with a feeling of belonging and creativity of their identity. Families should be a source of emotional support, comfort, protection, and etc. The relationships we create and mend creates our future self mentally and emotionally. Love is a strong word that cause us to either become strong or weak as an individual. Love comes and goes, but we start to realize that only unconditional love we really need is the love from our family. A family’s love is what causes us to grow into the person we should become. The theme of family is presented in a way to build the character’s charisma and how much support becomes a lifeline.
Family, a group consisting of parents and children living together in a household. Although family is a concretely defined term, the idea of family varies from person to person. But, what makes a family? For those who are surrounded by loving blood relatives, for those who have never known the one to grant them life, for those who have left their blood behind for a more loving and nurturing environment, what can commonly define a family? Family is something defined by the individual. Family includes those who you have come to love, whether platonically or romantically, those you have suffered with, those you have come to respect, and most importantly those you have cared for and in turn have cared for you. To one that could mean people who
As an effective early childhood educator, creating strong partnerships with children and their parents, as explained by Shonkoff et al. (2000; as cited in Wood 2008) has shown that to provide a productive learning environment a teacher must have a positive relationship with children and their families.
When the word “family” is discussed most people think of mothers, fathers, and other siblings. Some people think of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even cousins and more on the pedigree tree. Without family in people 's lives they would not be the same people that they grew up to be today and in the future. When people hear the word family they think about, the ones who will help them in any way they can whether it 's money, support, advice, or anything to help them succeed in life. Family will forever be the backbone of support. They are the ones who support their children during those life decisions. Family is not always blood related. Finally family is forever, family will never go away.
There is a significant body of literature in this area - reflecting families, diversity, difference, culture and values in today’s society and the role to be played by early childhood educators in today’s society. It is apparent that these areas are must be understood to be able to process the data within this research report. The first key element is families, families are considered far more complex than most would first think and in today’s society there is no one universal way of doing family (Robinson & Diaz, 2006) . Educators recognise that families are a child’s first and most significant link to the world around them. Respect of the family and their ways are essentially the fundamental ...
As a child, family was very important to me. My parents made it very clear that the people in your family are the people that are going to be on your side for the rest of your life. My parents were young when they had me so they needed some extra help. Although they did everything in their power to make sure their work schedules were set so that somebody would always be at home to watch me, that just wasn 't always possible. When in doubt, my granny would always come through. I began to build a very strong bond with her being that she was one of my main care takers. Over the years my parents started to figure things out so they no longer needed grannies help. But this is not what I wanted. Instead of
I began this program during the spring semester of 2014 at which time I enrolled in the working with family’s course. Unaware how much I would relate to the family systems theory in regards to my personal life. Moving forward I have been able to connect many situations during my practicum experience to this theory as well.
I enjoyed reading the book on How to Stay Christian in Seminary. The book enlightened me with new information on how to include my family and friends while I am in seminary. It is very hard even though I am very close to my family, they depend on me all the time. I am a single parent with one son, two grandchildren and one on the way. I have four sisters and one brother who calls me every day and comes to visit every day. I also have two godmothers who I talk to every day so I am very busy ministering and socializing with my family. I love my family, but it is hard getting my assignments done because they are very needy.
Everyone seems to define family differently, however, the significance of family is the same. For you, family means everything. You can always count on your parents and siblings for help and love. Family is very valuable and important to you and should never be taken for granted. No one can deny that family is the foundation of our generation. A family is where we all start our life journey and helps us grow to be successful throughout our lives.
Everyone is born into some form of family, with the family taking the responsibility of nurturing, teaching the norms or accepted behaviors within the family structure and within society. There are many types of families, which can be described as a set of relationships including parents and children and can include anyone related by blood or adoption. Family is the most important, “for it is within the family that the child is first socialized to serve the needs of the society and not only its own needs” (Goode, 1982).
In this discussion, I will be explaining how I define family. I will also include my immediate and extended family. I will also describe what family means to me, how mine differs from other families in my neighborhood, and also how they are similar. I will also describe my family’s ethnicity and how it may affect any of my family’s health.