My Connections to Play

Quotes:

“When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do.” 

-Walt Disney

“Before you met me I was a fairy princess

I caught frogs and called them prince 

And made myself a queen

Before you knew me I traveled 'round the world

I slept in castles and fell in love 

Because I was taught to dream”

-Lori McKenna 

Play items:

When I was younger everything was based on my imagination. My mom did home daycare and their was always a lot of kids around. Watching tv was not an option, my mom always encouraged us to go outside and play or make up games to play.

I feel like a lot of things have changed since I was a child. I am 24 years old and I can see a difference. In my preschool class some parents base their parenting on electronics, I have children who get rewarded with i-pods and i-pads. I do not think using your imagination is support as much as it was when I was little, kids have so many toys and so many options, they do not need to use their imaginations to stay entertained. 

When I was little I was content with my princess dress, my bag to put things I collected from outside in and my treehouse. I hope for the future that children are able to be children, that they are able to explore, create and imagine. 

Relationship Reflection

Relationships/Partnerships are so important to me. The people who I have relationships with are the people I depend on. I am 24 years old and moved away from home about 1 1/2 ago and am still making choices about what I want to do with my life and who I want to be. I look to the people around more for guidance and support.

Kathy (my mom)

My mom still lives in Iowa but she is the person I can tell everything to and I know she will support me know matter what. Over the years my mom has changed from the parent figure to more of a friend. To keep our relationship we talk everyday at least once. It can be challenging being so far way from each other but we know that communication is so important to keeping our relationship the way it is. My mom is also a preschool teacher and has been doing it for a while. She helps me through problems I might be having at work and shares new ideas to make me a better teacher.

Andy (my boyfriend)

I have been seriously dating my boyfriend for a little over a year now. He is in the Navy and from Iowa like me. He is the person in Hawaii who I depend on. He is very supportive and a better communicator then I am. For maintaining our relationship we have to be very open with each, communicate and trust each other. Challenges for us our his deployments. He recently got back from a 6 month deployment and trust is very important for maintaining our relationship. We definitely have a partnership. He is the person who is the most supportive in me going back to school and furthering my education. 

Brennan (my roommate)

Brennan has been my friend for over 5 years. She is the person I go on adventures with. We have lived in Italy, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands and Japan. We decided to move to Hawaii together and have been roommates sense. Communication is the key to our relationship, it is not always easy being someones great friend and roommate but we make it work. Brennan is also a preschool teacher for the Department of Defense but works at a different school. Having someone going through the same things that I am is really comforting. We are both young teachers at the schools we teach in and its nice to have someone to go through it together with.

Prima (my co-teacher)

Prima is my co-teacher. She has been working at my school for over 20 years and I could not ask for a better person to work with. I call her my mom in Hawaii because she definitely guides me and has helped me grow so much as a teacher and personally. Having a co-teacher can be challenging because you can’t just make discussions for your class you need to work with your partner to come to the discussion. Working that close to someone you see how important teamwork is and how you need to communicate all the time. Prima is a great partner and mentor to have.