“My Support”

“My Supports.”

The main factors in my daily environment that are supportive to me is being to continue afford my home due to being unemployed.  My home provides me and my immediate family with a familiar place that we call home for many years. A place where we know we are protected and feel a sense of safety, security and comfort  I can’t describe what it would feel like to lose our home because it brings us so much comfort and safety, just about everyone in my family is always so excited to come home.

Right now I am facing financial hardship due to the closure of my business and have been depending on little savings and family members to help support me as I seek employment.  I believe that after being self-employed for over 18 years it is difficult to jump back into the job market and find meaningful employment. I am thankful that I put a few dollars away as savings in the event that I did not have continuous income to care for my family.

I believe that if I didn’t have family members like my siblings that will help me out financially when I the need arises, it would be difficult going forward to support my family.  One of the benefits of having such reliable support is to know they are there for me regardless of what I ask of them.  I feel that it would be extremely hard to maintain my family without the support of my siblings.  I am positive that if they were not available to me financially my children and I would homeless.

•Share the challenge you chose to imagine and the thoughts you have with regard to supports you would want and need. Again, describe factors within your daily environment would be supportive to you, including the ways in which these factors would provide support. Describe what you see as the potential benefits of these supports. How difficult would it be to exist without these supports? The impact they would have on your life if they weren’t there?

I cannot imagine living in a homeless shelter after living in a six bedroom house for the last sixteen years with all the necessary amenities available to me.  I feel that if my sisters and brother could not help me out financially it would be strenuously difficult.  I can’t imagine living without electricity, gas, food, a decent bed to sleep in and all the amenities in my home I have become accustomed to. I can’t see my children starving and not having their own bedrooms with their things in it and not being able to live in the home they grew up in. I have one child in college and he is having a hard finding a job and one in High school and it is difficult at times trying to figure out how to pay bills.

I don’t know what it’s like to be homeless but, I do know what it’s like to starve and live in very small environment because of my childhood days of living in South America. I feel it would be very difficult and would cause some serious emotionally stressful and create a very uncomfortable situation for my children and I know for me personally I am dealing with depression on a given day especially when I start thinking of how to budget the funds I have remaining and how long it will last until I acquire adequate employment.

It is very unsettling when I go out on an interviews that I am qualified for and have all the necessary skill set and  the interview goes great but the employer don’t even get a call back or the times when I send out resumes and applications and don’t get a response.  Right now I am waiting on a job that I applied for since October 2012 and have had two very successful interviews in January and February and have not gotten any response thus far.  So it makes me depressed and overwhelmed not knowing what will happen.  What I know is that my siblings will be there for me as long as I need them.

Making Connections to Play

My Connections to Play
“Children of all ages learn by play” (Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/420404)
“Children who learn to play creatively will grow into adults who can think for themselves and be creative in the workplace. “ (Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/420404)

The people in my life when I was younger supported my play by telling me to get outside and play, indoor play was rare and it consist of self-play with a toy or two because we didn’t have lots of toys or special places to play. My outside play consisted of throwing rocks, climbing trees, making mud pies and pretending coconuts was our baby doll. There were no instructions given in how to play we just did it by trial and error and eventually conquered. I do recall my older siblings play house with me and it was always tea time. My childhood was a very happy time for me because I had so many opportunities to explore outdoors with the children in the neighborhood. The memories I share are so unique that I really have not spoken to any person my age that had the same play time that I did as a child because of their environment. I grew up in a country that was very poor and we did not have fancy schools and daycare centers but we had the best outdoor environment to explore and we engaged and socialized with other children in the neighborhood every day. I wish my children could have a few weeks of my childhood.
Our writing tool – a nail and slate
I feel that in certain environment children are allowed to have play as part of their curriculum which is similar to the way I enjoyed play time. I don’t feel that school age children today have the same opportunities that I had for play because testing is the focus and teachers are so busy trying to teach to the test that play becomes less important. I hope that all children in preschool and elementary school are given the opportunity to play either in a learning center environment and outdoors. I feel that it will allow the children to be very creative as they grow and develop. I definitely that young children should be given an opportunity to play meaningfully because, through play, children sometimes learn what adults cannot teach them.

Using old bicycle tire with a piece of twig to roll the tire down the street
I enjoyed playing as a child all the way to adulthood, in Guyana; South American where I grew up play was all that we do. We climb fruit trees, caught fish in the trenches, and did long walk into the cane fields. I believe play provided me with meaningful opportunities to be a creative person; it provided me with great social skills, good physical skills and great critical skills as I grew and develop. As an adult I can use the skills that I have learned to pass on to my own children and also to other children I come in contact with. I encourage children to get out and play but as a mother of three boys in the video game phase I have seen that children prefer to stay indoors playing video games instead of going out to ride their bikes. But as a parent you encourage them to get out and play and also encourage other sports that will keep them active and healthy.

Playing cricket with an old paint bucket and a piece of wood
As I have explained my mother is hearing and speech impaired so she taught us by showing us how to do certain things. She never measured the ingredients to bake bread but used average to put her ingredients together. It’s strange that I still don’t use measuring cups when baking or cooking certain foods.
We did not have toys except at Christmas my great aunt would buy us a doll for the girls and a toy gun with caps for the boys and we would play Indians and cowboys around the house when it was raining outside or outside around the house when it was dry. We played so many games, Red light, Green Light, hopscotch, cricket, field hockey, badminton, word games etc. At school we were encouraged to participate in school sports which entailed running track, high and broad jumping and a variety of track and field related activities. We stayed very active as children. I participated in Girls Guides from the age of 6 as brownie to the age of 15 as a Girl Guide leader. During this time we went camping and hiking and camped out many nights listening to stories.
I enjoyed visiting my cousins when school was out in August because they lived on the Demerara River bank and the only to get to their house was by canoe and where they lived was like the rainforest with tons of fruit trees and lots of farm lands. My uncle had a mini farm with a few cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, birds and dogs. We would go for walks along the river bank/beach and swam in the river at any time we wanted to. My aunt did her laundry at the river bank with a basin and scrubbing board. I learned so much about various trees and when they bloomed and about the outdoors like you can smell when it was going to rain and can tell when it was high or low tide. I learned to weigh fruits with my hand and learned how to cook and bake very early.

Homemade scooter using wood and ball bearings
As an adult I played soccer, field hockey and jogged, I enjoyed playing on vacation playing cards, and lots of beach games. I feel that play brings out so much in a child because they learn how to taking turns and learn how to interact with others in a social way. I feel that play provides an outlet for children and adults to blow off steam and show their skills at certain task.

Reference:
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Power-of-Play—What-Children-Learn-by-Unstructured-Play&id=420404