Foundations to Caring: the Importance of the Nursery Education - Essay Example

Foundations to Caring The characteristics of a positive environment. Since the beginning of the last century, the importance of the nursery education has been emphasized in the works of the psychologists, sociologists and pediatricians. The quality of education the children receive at an early age will determine their academic success further, but the characteristics of their learning environment will affect the things which are of much more significance, like social adaptation, self confidence, and the art of communication. That’s why designing the positive environment for the children in the nursery school is of such an importance. In this paper we’ll try to explain how the chosen setting, which’s nursery school, can maintain and promote the positive environment for the children. At first, let’s define the characteristics of the positive environment. Positive environment has to provide the opportunities for the healthy and full physical, social, personal and cultural development of the child. There should be enough space for the child for him/her to develop their physical skills, like strength, dexterity and the coordination of movement. The setting should provide the safe area, where the children can run, jump and play active games. There also should be the toys designed to assist the child in developing the movement and coordination. The children should be provided time for physical activities, and time for the qualitative rest. The importance of healthy nutrition for the proper physical development is also great, so the child should be given the food proper for his/her age and taking into consideration the child’s individual nutrition recommendations. The children should be given plentiful opportunities for socializing with both their coevals and the adults in order to give them basic social and communicational skills. No child should be excluded from the communicational process because of his/her physical and mental features that distinguish him/her from the other children. The members of the staff should teach the children about the proper forms of social interactions. Every child should be given the opportunities to reveal his/her physical, mental or social potential without any pressure from the staff or the other children. The child’s creative attempts should be supported by the members of the staff, and he/should be given chance to practice and perfect his/her skills. The staff should also provide the children with the opportunities to take personal decisions without putting pressure on the child. The kid should be able to develop the sense of independence and responsibility for his/her actions. In order to ensure the cultural development for his fosterlings the teacher should give them the chance to get acquainted with the basic forms of art, and acquaint them with some of the cultural acquisitions of the humanity in the form that would be approachable for them. The teacher also shouldn’t, to the possible extend, neglect the cultural needs of the children of ethnical and cultural origin different from that of the majority of the pupils. As children are more vulnerable towards various infections and diseases than the adults are, it should be one of the main teachers’ concerns to provide the healthy and hygienic environment for them. There shouldn’t be the things in the setting that can hurt the children both physically or psychologically. And, of course, the environment should be clean for the kids not to dirty themselves. It’s usually a problem for children in the beginning to part with their family in order to stay in the nursery school. The kids may feel themselves dropped and insecure. It is the task for the staff to organize the environment in such a way for the kid to feel himself or herself secure and protected, and to make the sojourn in the nursery pleasant and exciting for the child in order to make him/her want to come back. The early childhood is the time where most attitudes towards the people in the surrounding world are formed, that’s why it’s so important for the teacher to remove all the signs of discrimination and prejudice he/she notes. No child should be granted or denied anything on the basis of his/her race, ethnicity, or gender. All the children should be given equal opportunities to display their knowledge or abilities, and the children should be taught to evaluate people on the basis of their inner qualities and not skin color, eyes shape or language spoken. Also the environment should be adapted to meet the special needs of the children, who have them. This should be the part of the anti-discriminatory practice, in order to teach the children to respect the disabled people and to help the children with particular needs to feel themselves comfortable and secure. The children need lots of light and bright colors in order to keep them interested in the activities that take place within the borders of the school, but the learning space should be rather painted in pastels, for not to distract the pupils’ attention from the learning process. Unlike the study rooms, the space for playing should be decorated in bright colors to keep the pupils’ interest. In the positive learning environment the pupils should get the immediate reaction from the staff for all of their activities. The approval of the adults is of great importance for the child in this period, thus the pupil should feel his work is evaluated positively, he should have the stimulus to attend the nursery again and again and it is the task of the teacher to encourage and empower him/her. The health and safety requirements As we’ve already noted, children are more vulnerable towards the infections and disease, than the adults are, thus it’s essential to ensure that there would be a minimum chance for them to get ill. Of course all of the members of the staff have to be inspected by the doctors to make sure they are absolutely healthy. The inspecting should be repeated several times a year, depending from the policies the particular nursery accepts. In case any transmittable disease is found, the member of the staff should be suspended from work at a period of time needed to cure the illness. The children should also be inspected regularly in order to prevent transmitting the disease from one pupil to another. The children that will be found ill by the doctor should be isolated immediately from their classmates until the full recovery. The members of the staff should also look closely at the pupils in order to note the first signs of the coming illness, not allowing it to be transmitted to the other children. The statistics says that children re more likely to hurt themselves because of some accident, as they sometimes do not understand the danger standing behind the seemingly harmless actions. Thus the environment should be organized in a way to prevent the possible accidents. There should be a minimum of sharp and edgy objects in the areas where the children walk, play, learn or sleep. The corners of the tables and cupboards should be rounded, and there should be enough space for the children to move without risking stubbing one’s toe or knocking something down. The things the kids use to learn or play should also be designed in such a way to minimize the risk of hurting with their sharp edges; they shouldn’t have the small parts the children can swallow. The material from which the toys and learning materials are made should be chemically inactive and non-toxic, as the toddlers and sometimes even the pre-schoolers like to put those things into their mouth. Also the toys children play in the nursery should be cleaned and washed on a regular basis, for to eliminate the possibility of transmitting the disease through them. As adaptation of the children for the further life in the society is one of the functions the nursery school performs, it is the task of the teacher and other members of the staff to teach the children the safety rules for to prevent the accidents, and to teach them the basic principles of hygiene and give them the primary guidelines for decreasing the possibility of infection. The basic physical and health needs Physical development in the early childhood age is of no less importance than the mental and emotional development is. The children usually like to move a lot, they have lots of energy and it’s the teacher’s task to teach them how to handle it. The nursery schools usually have Physical Education classes weekly or twice a week, where they develop their bodies and learn to coordinate their movements. The children are taught to move confidently, they acquire the awareness of space and develop their motor skills. These lessons help them to feel their bodies better, to raise the level of confidence and teach them to move in a way for not to damage their bodies. The nursery PE classes are usually decently equipped, which allows the children to develop various groups of their muscles. Nowadays the healthy lifestyle became fashionable, and lots of adult people attend the gyms. In the nursery PE classes the children learn how to use the sport equipment. The PE instructor teaches them about the goals of using this or that piece of equipment, the ways of using it, and the safety rules. The kids also learn how to care for the equipment. In the nursery school the children are taught to take care about their health, they are given the guidelines for keeping themselves healthy and fit. The teacher should explain the pupils about the importance of eating healthy food an exercising, in order to form the positive health habits. The exercises should be designed in order to answer the needs of the specific age group. The PE teacher should encourage the children to lead an active lifestyle from the early childhood, as the number of young preschoolers who led the sedentary lifestyle becomes greater with each coming year. The trainer’s task is to convince the children that exercise is fun and useful. A menu for a day, which promotes a balanced diet for a child The author of the book Dr. Paulas Good Nutrition Guide for Babies, Toddlers and Preschoolers, Cathie Robertson, states that the products can be divided into the four groups, which’s Grain, Fruit and Vegetables, Milk and Meat or Alternatives groups. She states that different children need different amounts of food daily, and she proposes to provide the child with the amount of the servings he/she requires daily, provided that it is no less than 5 and no more than 12 servings of grain products, 5-10 servings of Fruit and Vegetables, 2-3 Servings of Meat and Alternatives another 2-3 servings of Milk products. The children have to be provided their meals on the regular basis, in order to ensure they feel themselves secure. There also has to be the nutritious but low-fat snacks for the children during the day. The kids shouldn’t be forced to eat if they don’t want to, and they should be given food in case they request it. Here is the exemplary menu for the child for a day that should satisfy all of his/her nutritional needs: Breakfast: cereals – 100g serving size (1 grain products) with milk - 100ml serving size (1 milk products) bread - 50g serving size (1 grain products) chicken – 50g serving size (1 meat and alternatives) banana (1 vegetables and fruit) Lunch: salad – 125 mL serving size (1 vegetables and fruit) bread - 50g serving size (1 grain products) Dinner: noodles - 125 mL serving size (1 grain products) braised beef - 50 g serving size (1 meat and alternatives) carrot coins - 75 mL serving size (1 vegetables and fruit) fruit salad - 125 mL serving size (1 vegetables and fruit) with yogourt - 100 mL serving size (1 milk products) oatmeal cookie - 1 cookie serving size (1 grain products) Supper: Steamed rice - 125 mL serving size (1 grain products) Omelet – 75 g serving size (1 meat and alternatives) Orange (1 vegetables and fruit) This is a healthy and balanced diet, as it provides the child with all of the essential groups of foods in a recommended quantity. This menu is designed for the five year old child, as the quantity of food is quite big. The younger children need the food in the same proportions, but in smaller quantities than it’s recommended in this menu. The servings for the children of different ages also differ a lot, and the serving fir the 5 year old may be twice as big as the 3 year old kid’s. In feeding a child it’s important to remember that from the age of 2 and to 5 the children often prefer to express their independence from parents through their food behavior. That’s why they may refuse the food they eat the day before, or request the same products every day, or refuse to taste new foods. It’s important for the teacher to ensure that the child’s nutrition is full and healthy without damaging the child’s self-confidence. The Role of the Adult in Maintaining and Promoting a Positive Environment. The authors of the Comprehensive Classroom Management: Creating Positive Learning Environments for All Students, state, that there are three key aspects of the positive environment which are ensuring diversity, civility, and ethical behavior. As we’ve already noted, the preschoolers and toddlers depend greatly from the opinions the adults have of them and their work. The adults are the role models for the young children; they trust their parents and teachers without any restrictions, and they value the positive adult’s attitude very much. Thus the adults, the teachers, and the members of the staff, play the key roles in designing, maintaining and promoting the positive environment in the nursery school. Thus it is the role of the adult to design the tasks for the children, encourage them to complete those tasks and evaluate the results of their work. At the early age, when almost everything in the child’s world depends from his/her parents, any creative activities are the ways to express the independence from the adults, the work for which the child didn’t receive any specific guidelines from them. But in spite of all the subconscious endeavors to free from the adult’s tyranny, the kid cannot live without the approval only his parents and teachers are able to provide him/her. Thus the approval of the results of the child’s activities is one of the steps to forming the healthy identity, as the adult fulfils one of the main kid’s needs. It’s also important that the children who don’t have the adult near them, that can explain and point on the defects in the communicational sphere, often make judgments about people being guided by the stereotypes and prejudice they saw on the TV screens or heard from their friends. The task of the adult is to explain them the impropriety of this type of behavior, and to provide them the guidelines for changing their types of behavior. The young children are unable to organize their life in a way they need it, that’s why it becomes the task of the teacher or other staff members to structure their fosterlings’ working schedules. The teacher performs one of the most important duties, as he provides the child with the sense of security he/she so desperately needs, and that can be partly provided by organizing a daily schedule. Also the teachers do their best for the child not to hurt himself or herself while playing or learning. The young children are more likely plump into more accidents than the adults would, and the teachers together with the staff members have to look after them in order to prevent the incautious actions. The importance of working as a member of a team. It’s well-known that nursery school isn’t the most relaxing setting to for earning the living in it, as working with children is the great responsibility both in front of the kids’ parents and the society itself. Children are often unpredictable; they do the things an adult person would’ve never done. What is even worth, the nursery school staff member doesn’t have a right to make a mistake, as it will result in something of much greater importance than the broken contract or low-quality product. The results of the nursery school teacher’s mistake will be engraved on the psychic of his/her pupil. The work in the nursery school requires lots of nerves and efforts, thus the need appears in someone who will understand and help the staff member. The other members of the nursing school’s team are often ready to help one of their colleagues, which can make his/her psychological condition much better than it was beforehand. The good moral climate within the staff team increases the productivity of work of each of the team’s members. The productivity of work is one of the main parameters for evaluation the labor. Usually the members of the staff have different duties to perform; they each have their own tasks, which are the little parts of the bigger one. Cooperation helps to make their work more effective, thus making the quality of the services they provide better. The human being is a live creature; he/she cannot be referred to as a combination of parts that aren’t connected to one another. Thus the specialist that deals with one sphere of the children’s nurturing sometimes cannot solve the problem that emerged without the help of the other specialist, who works with the other part of the kids’ body and psychic. The human being is the complex creature, and his/her parts can’t be viewed apart from the other. Working as a one team creates the positive environment for both the children and the employees. When the members of the staff cooperate, the psychological climate in the organization becomes better, thus the work becomes more effective. The positive environment also depends a lot from the team’s psychological climate. If there is little or no cooperation in the setting thus the education provided there is not full, as the teachers do not cover all the aspects required. Staff cooperation also gives children the example of the effective common labor, the one that he/she will adopt and later, possibly use in the same or likely situation. Thus it’s the duty of the members of the staff to demonstrate the role model of cooperation within the borders of a family-like environment. And, of course, positive environment is of no less importance for the staff than it is for the children, thus the members of the staff should work on maintaining the good relationship with others in order to make the moral climate within their team healthier. Note from the writer: you requested the essay that won’t exceed 3000 words without the references. It’s 3177 words including the references, but if you need the 12th page finished please request it asap. Good luck! Works Cited 1. Jones, V. Jones, L. Comprehensive Classroom Management: Creating Positive Learning Environments for All Students. 4th ed. Prentice Hall, 1994 2. Elbirt, P. Dr. Paulas Good Nutrition Guide for Babies, Toddlers and Preschoolers. Da Capo Press, 2001 Read More