ktmeng/mec huggingface dataset:
Topic: family

When he rolled over, I was there to witness it. When he began crawling, I crawled right along with him. And when he took his first steps, I stood right beside him. It’s amazing how twenty two months have passed and that natural feeling is still with me I knew exactly what to do, and how Every day brings with it new joys and new challenges of interesting observations. I believe from the moment I saw my sons smiling face, and big beautiful brown eyes that l was ready, and Convinced [ have done everything to welcome this little angel into this world with love, joy and comfort, I have learned a lot about pregnancy, all the twists and turns that come along with it. My biological trait was the icing on the cake. Evidently all mothers are always trying to overcome the daily challenges. Sometimes there are things that are learned over a period of time, that aren’t inherited such as daily struggles, such as trying to be attentive when you’re running on 3 hours of sleep, trying to take care of yourself as much as you do your child, and coming to terms with the fact that my life decisions are based on my son’s well-being and his happiness, not solely on my own.
Topic: family

I have done my best with what I learned and what was hereditary. Overcoming the everyday challenges of waking at the crack of dawn, with a smile on my face, to change his diaper, feed him breakfast and get him settled and ready for the day I taught him how to walk by 8 months. He now has a 30 word vocabulary, saying things such as Noah (his Aunt Emmy’s Maltese dog), high five, God, mommy, daddy, Emmy, light, Nanny and Tada (my grandma and grandpa), Bampa (Grandpa) and Nana (Grandma). I have taught him many things, and he has taught me many things in return such as, Patience and most significantly responsibility Andrew is twenty two months old and sleeps with us He has a set schedule, a night-time routine, where he drinks a bottle and goes to sleep by himself.
Topic: family

I guess being new parents, like others. We were extremely overprotective putting him in his room alone, and let’s be honest: we wanted to spend as much time with our new addition as we could. I know sometimes people would argue this statement, and that’s fine and understandable. Unfortunately, us individuals are all different and do things our own way. I slept in bed with my mother until I was 8 years old. I loved every waking moment of it. I felt secure and calm at night in my mother‘s room. My fiancé Andy as a child used to get out of bed in the middle of the night to sleep with his parents because he was scared and felt safe. We are all raised differently. Of course, as it is, right now I can’t completely sleep. I sleep in the fetal position, curled up in the corner of the bed, practically falling off, because I don‘t want to accidently roll on Andrew and hurt him. Occasionally I wonder ifAndrew sleeping in his own toddler bed at night, alone, will help him to develop more stability and independence I also wonder from time to time if this will be beneficial for my partner and for me. Andy and I, after spending each waking minute with Drew, deserve some quiet time for ourselves at night, to wind down, relax and reconnect.
Topic: family

Now I have to think of a plan that will help me achieve this goal. Should I let my child cry just because I think it might help his independency, Should I brake him from his amazing bed time routine and start al over again “he will be ok.” But as a mother, it breaks my heart. If only he wouldn’t cry, this would be a mission accomplished, and not a goal I feel so much pressure to achieve, I’ve tried everything. I have tried to make his room feel like a comfort zone: safe and warm I’ve tried feeding him rice cereal before bedtime to fill his belly and help him sleep peacefully. I have a musical glowworm to give him soft sound a little bit of light, just in case he is scared. I have rocked him to sleep, and put him down, only to have him awaken and scream as though I were trying to abandon him, I have slept in his crib with him, and as soon as I sneak slowly out and make my way towards the door, I am caught off guard by the look in his eyes, the tears on his cheeks and he got me again! My new plan of attack is, to try and not listen to him cry!
Topic: family

I am going to try and putt my I-pod on and have Andy have an open ear for unusual screaming, muffled cries and any other unfamiliar sounds! I am also going to attempt to listen to my sons doctor, and trust her medical expertise when she tells me to put him in his crib at bedtime, Making sure he is fed, not sick and with a clean diaper! My mother has also stated that he is going to fall asleep and be comfortable, sol am going to listen to her. After lot of heartache and taking Andrew Into his own room whenever he gets out of bed has Finally paid off. Months later, with the common rutine of “this is your bed, and this is mommy‘s bed” has made such a huge difference in my life. I have learned a lot from this expierence and have gained a lot of patience and Encouragement with not only my son, But myself as well! I had a wonderful.
Topic: family

I once believed that the world was filled with happiness and joy. After all, as a child, it is reasonable to see that innocence had existed in me all thanks to my loving parents who protected me from the evils around the world. I had always thought that this was a normal life, where children were to have parents that had always loved them from birth and also protected them.,.. even at the cost of theirjobs or even their lives in their OWN home country I was very fortunate to have this opportunity in which my parents had devoted their lives for the care of me and my brotheri But before entering in the new country, America, I was separated from both of my parents… I had to live with my long grandparents who was very kind and loving.
Topic: family

It was my naive characteristics as a child that kept my optimistic perspectives of the society and the world back then, I never had believed that crimes had existed including murder and rape. I had lived in a small bubble in which everyone was very calm and peaceful. I had continued on with this lifestyle for 2 years until one snowy day after school. I see my loving mother in front of my school waiting for me. I had been astonished by the fact that after 2 years of living with my grandparents, I was finally able to see my motheri She was there to take me back home… well our new home. My new home was not in Korea nor in Asia… in fact, it is in America, a foreign land to me.
Topic: family

My mom has jet-black curly hair, she is about 6 feet tall, and her complexion is age» defying, like Julie Andrews as Peter Pan. Her skin is as soft as a hand quilted blanket that keeps you warm during the winter. Her eyes a tigress gold and sea green in color. The two colors look as if they were in a constant battle for dominance, She smells of a sunny spring day when all the wild flowers are in bloom. This is what makes up my mom’s looks, here’s what makes up her soul.
Topic: family

My mother’s name is Sarat She was born in Macon, Georgia. Her dad was judge in the courts of Georgia and her mother was a housewife, They also had a maid by the name of Milly, They raised my mom with an upper-class stern hand, teaching her under the code of the South. She was an only child living in the 50’s when there was no television. The only entertainment she had was her baby dolls and a vivid imagination.
Topic: family

She would tell me stories of the time she would spend at an old, child-size oak table, hosting tea parties for her dolls. She would have conversations and arguments, drinking invisible tea as the adults did in those days, She said she would always mimic her mother’s friends when they would come for tea. When she finally matured into a young teenager with the knowledge of the world, began to rebel (as all teenagers of the 505 era did), running around with young boys, cursing the strips, and smoking cigarettes with her influential friends.
Topic: family

Luckily, she still made it through high school and graduated as valedictorian, After high school, she decided to attend the University of Georgia in the fall with the influence of her parents backing her decision. Not really ever having a chance to “expand her horizons,” she spread her wings as if a newly hatched bird learning to fly for the first time She probably stayed in school for maybe 10 months until she decided that she did not need an education, Her best friend in school talked her into believing something and they took off, leaving all of their belongings, They left in such a hurry that my mom forgot to pack her shoes. Their destination was Washington, D.C. Once they got there, my mom’s brilliant ideas came to stop, and they had nothing. While my mom was gallivanting around in Washington, a student in Georgia began to worry about her. His name was Michael, and he was a basketball player who liked my mom a lot.
Topic: family

He found out that she indeed had left school and was off finding herself in Washington. He then got the notion to go find her, scoop her up, and bring her back home and marry her. After he brought her back, they settled down and he finished schoolt Then they moved to Massachusetts so that Michael could attend grad schoolt In the process, my brother was born in February 1972, Here a problem arose on how to afford grad school and keep a housewife and newborn happy, so my mom willingly took the role of a working parent. She worked two jobs to keep her husband in school, food on the table, and put clothes on her son’s back. They lived there for three years. Deciding they could not afford living in Massachusetts, they moved north to Vermont. Then my father once again applied for grad school at the University of Vermont. Same as before, my mom was the sole provider for the household, Yet this time she was pregnant again with my sister. Nine months later, my sister was born.
Topic: family

Then my dad graduated from grad school and found a good local job. Now that my dad was out of school, my mom got her chance to return to school, so she applied to University of Vermont and attended for two years, when suddenly my dad decides to move again, not thinking of my mom’s wants or what he may be doing to the family. They move to Rhode Island, Never going against her husband’s word, mom goes along with his plans. Once there, she applied to school at the University of Rhode Island. There she stays for three years, completing her bachelor’s degrees I say “degrees” because as much transferring as she did, she accumulated many credit hours and graduated with four bachelor’s degrees, After she got her degrees, her and Michael mutually decided to move to New Jersey, This is when my mom decided after seven years that she wanted another child. They discussed it, but Michael did not want a third child.
Topic: family

This did not stop my mom, so she waited until she was ovulating and got pregnant, unbeknownst to Michaeli Nine months later, Michael gets a phone call from a Philadelphia hospital saying that his wife was in labori On April 1977, I was born. Soon after, we decided to move to Tennessee They lived there for about a year and a half and then moved back to Georgia, coming full circle. It was here my mom decided to defy her southern morals and leave her husband. Now alone with three children, she moved to Hillsborough, Nonh Carolina. At this point, my brother and sister were 12 and 13 years of age, so this gave my mom a chance to find a good job close to home, She found a job working for the mayor, For the first four years of living in North Carolina we had no car, We had a red flyer wagon that my mom would pull to the store with me in it, getting groceries from the A&P. When I turned 6 years old we got our first car.
Topic: family

It was an orange Honda Rabbit with only one car seati We took two kitchen chairs and placed them in the back and whoever sat shot gun had to sit in the floor. Imagine going to school and being dropped off in that. l have one memory of being dropped off at school and as my mom pulls away, the passenger side door fell off. We had to get a hefty cinch sack and make it into a door. Then my mom bought our next car for $300. It was a Chevrolet Duster that was extra-long and green. This car would leave a smoke trail thick enough for Hansel and Gretel to find their way home. When we would pull into the schoolyard in this car all the kids would start singing in tune the Batman theme as we got out of the car. Finally, my mom met someone new. I was about eight at the time we decided to move to Mebanet We still live in Mebane, where we are living happily togethert Again, I admire my mother for her constant effort in keeping her children safe and the fact that she was always strong-willed enough to accomplish all of her personal goals. Lastly, but most importantly, her attitude in never letting the tough obstacles to get her down. I love my mom with all of my heart, and I always and forever will.
Topic: family

There are a lot of people in this world that sit very high with me. I like almost all the people I know, and many people inspire me. The person whom I admire most would have to be my mothert The reason for this is that she had a tough life at the start of her adult years, and she has worked her way up to be a very successful person A few of the reason that I admire my mother so much is that when she was sixteen, she found out she was pregnant with her child, which was me.
Topic: family

Her mother was very happy, but her stepfather was not, he kicked her out of the house and made her live on her own. She moved to Knox Street, which is one of the worst neighborhoods in Maine. She stayed in school the whole time she was pregnant with me and she also maintained a job She finally had me in January 1984. Despite living on her own and having a baby, she stayed in school and completed her senior yeah This is the first reason I admire my mom —- she had so much willpower to keep going when life was at its low point, Another reason that I admire my mother is when she was about eight her mother and father split up.
Topic: family

This is very hard on all children, but her father hated her mother and the children Through the years they had some contact, but In the last five years she has not talked with him whatsoever. When she sees him in a store, she wants to say hi, but he walks by as if she is just a strangeri I really don’t think ifI was in her shoes I could have made it through, but she stuck it out and is still sticking it out today.
Topic: family

My mother has many jobs through the years. Having me, she had to start work at sixteent She never made good money, and her life was not very good for some years She finally found a job in banking that she likes, Since getting this job, she has transferred out of one company and moved to another, which she has been working at for seven years. She went from a normal worker at minimum wage to a supervisor at her work. She is a very important person at her work and her work wouldn‘t be able to function if it weren’t for her, so for this I truly admire her. I love my mother to death with all my heart, and always will Even if she wasn‘t my mother and I did not know her, I would still admire her for all she has been through and where she has worked herself up to today, She is a great caring loving person and is definitely someone I can look up to.
Topic: family

Access to high quality education prior to kindergarten is key for children’s development. According to the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), a well-respected research and advocacy organization, the earliest years of a child’s life are the time of greatest brain development and opportunity. Children’s early experiences and environments build the foundation for future health, education and life outcomes . CDF’s vision for early education is that every family, regardless of income, has access to a continuum of high-quality, comprehensive early childhood opportunities that meet their needs and the needs of their families.
Topic: family

Unfortunately, business as usual does not support this goal, but rather parents are often forced to make the choice between working and early education for their children. It seems counter intuitive that a low to middle income parents ability to work is so intrinsically correlated to their children’s ability to go to school, if a parent works their family cannot afford early education options. This paper explores the important role early education plays in children’s development, anchors early education as a justice issue and explores the political landscape to establish ways in which Missouri might choose to implement a more equitable option for children and their families.
Topic: family

Studies show that children who experience high-quality early childhood programs are more likely to graduate from high school, hold a job, and make more money and are less likely to commit a crime than peers who do not (Children’s Defense Fund, 2017, p.26). One of the foundational studies in the field of early education is the Ypsilanti Michigan longitudinal study. The Perry Preschool Project, carried out from 1962 to 1967 provided high-quality preschool education to three- and four – year old African American children living in poverty and who were assessed to be at high risk of school failure . Though a relatively small study, including 128 three – and four- year olds, it has been found that those who had been enrolled in the preschool program were, at age forty, more likely to hold a job, had a higher income, and were less likely to have committed crimes than their contemporaries who had not received the same education .
Topic: family

Across the country and within Missouri, many low income parents find themselves making difficult, and nearly impossible decisions for their children. As low income individuals begin to earn more money, many parents become ineligible for child care subsidies which had previously helped families access quality child care. Without this support, parents are forced to choose whether their jobs, that bring in this income, are worth the necessary child care costs. This is particularly salient at the time of this writing as MO voters just voted to raise the minimum wage. As the minimum wage increases, even a modest amount, the necessary support families receive will dramatically decrease. Approximately 44,000 Missourians will be affected. Importantly, more than 7 in 10 of the workers who will be affected are women, many of whom are raising children. Increasing minimum wage to a living wage is an important justice issue, but it can’t be done alone Clark Fox Policy Institute, 2018, p.5).
Topic: family

According to the Clark Fox Policy Institute, experiencing poverty during childhood has deep and lasting effects (Clark Fox Policy Institute, 2018, p.5). Children living in families who earn a living wage tend to perform better on tests, and graduate from high school at higher rates (Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, 1997, p. 56). Interestingly, children from low income families who enroll in preschool, such as a Head Start program, there are limited differences between those who received preschool and those who did not on tests of academic achievement (Yoshikawa, et al, 2013, p. 1). However, evidence from long-term evaluations suggests that there are long-term differences that include high school graduation rates, earnings, crime levels, and teen pregnancy. It is a current area of research to explore why these long-term effects occur even when test scores tend to be similar.
Topic: family

As is the case across the country, in Missouri access to early education is an issue of racial justice and equity. As established early education is key to the child’s development and can have lifelong impacts. Despite the important role that early education plays, access is intrinsically tied to financial capacity. In Missouri, the average annual cost for an infant to attend infant center-based childcare is $9,100. This becomes an issue of equity because 19 percent or 261,353 of MO’s children lived in poverty in 2016 (Children’s Defense Fund, 2017, p.29). Unsurprisingly the distribution of poverty is not equitable. 37 percent of Black and 31 percent of Hispanic children were poor, while only 14 percent of White children lived in poverty (Children’s Defense Fund, 2017, p.29).. If Black families earn an average of $29,000, the $9,100 cost of infant care is prohibitive. Families are forced to make choices among a series of bad options.
Topic: family

Early Head Start and Head Start are both federally-funded high quality early childhood programs that provide comprehensive services to low income children and families. Services include child care, mental health, nutritional and other developmental services that connect poor children and their families with additional community resources. Though both are high quality programs with positive results, they are restricted by limited funding. A such only 5 percent of eligible infants and toddlers are served by Early Head Start programming. Additionally, Head Start only services 54 percent of eligible 2 and 4 year olds (Children’s Defense Fund, 2017, p.27).
Topic: family

The National Institute for Early Education Research has established evidence-based quality standards for preschool programs for 3 and 4 year olds. The 2017 report, based on the 2016-17 school year finds first that state-funded preschool program enrollment has exceeded 1.5 million children, 33 percent of 4-year-ds and 5 percent of 3 years-olds. State funding has grown two percent year over year. Despite the increased enrollment and funding, the number of state funded preschool programs to meet all 10 quality standard benchmarks increased by only one, to three early education programs. More disheartening is that ten programs met fewer than half of the quality standards, and seven states to not invest any state dollars in preschool (NIEER, 2017).
Topic: family

Six states that the National Institute for Early Education has identified as State’s to watch in a positive sense after having expressed intention to provide universal pre-K to children in the state, are West Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin, Alabama, New York, and Illinois. Of these states three have largely achieved the goal to provide universal Pre-K, WV, VT, and WI. WV has enrolled about two thirds of four year olds, and ten percent of 3 year olds. The states standards among all six states are relatively high, as is funding provided to this program. Additionally, the benchmarks are promising; gradually each state has increased the number of hours of preschool each year during which children are being served (NIEER, 2017, p. 23).
Topic: family

Over the past two decades Wisconsin’s program has achieved pre-K for 71%-90% of the preschool aged children (NIEER, 2017, p. 23). This program arose organically, gradually increasing the number of children enrolled through increased local demand. Wisconsin’s program has been funded through State start-up grants, and the state constitutions provision for four year olds. It has been suggested that WI’s approach, of slow and steady program growth over 20 years could be a model for other states willing to add pre-K to the State K-12 funding formula (NIEER, 2017, p. 23).
Topic: family

The Illinois model is also an interesting model to learn from. In 2010 the program served 32% of 4-yeear-olds in the state. Unfortunately, the program impact has declined, in 2016-2017 school year the state served 26% of 4-year-olds. Over this period funding per pupil also dropped. Illinois demonstrates the fragile balancing act that must occur between program quality, and expansion (NIEER, 2017, p.23). The Illinois state preschool model is funded through the Federal Governments Preschools Development Grant. They were awarded $226 million for one year, and it is renewable for four years (Illinois State Board of Education, 2018). The State Departments of Education and Health and Human Services administer the Illinois program. In addition to the federal funds, in 2017 the State began matching federal funds.
Topic: family

To participate in the Illinois preschool program youth must meet eligibility. 75% of the children enrolled must be 4 years old by September 1st, and in families 200% of the Federal Poverty Line. Children who are given preference include children from homeless families, children from families below 50% of the Federal Poverty Line, Children involved with the child welfare system, and children with IEP’s (Illinois State Board of Education, 2018).
Topic: family

Missouri struggles with entirely inequitable access to early education. For the 2016-2017 school year Missouri is ranked 42nd of all states for access for four year olds to preschool. During that same school year only 1,845 or 2.5 percent of four year olds were enrolled in state pre kindergarten. Even fewer, only 801 children, or 1.1% of 3 year olds were enrolled (NIEER, 2018, p. 13).
Topic: family

The Missouri Head Start Association is a statewide non-profit association that serves as the unified voice of Head Start providers across the state. Nobel Prize Winner in Economics James Heckman estimates the lifelong return on investment from quality early childhood programs is more than 13 percent a year for every dollar invested (Children’s Defense Fund, 2017, p. 26). The MO Head Start association estimates that for every $1 invested in Head Start the state reaps a ROI ranging from $7 to $9 (MO Head Start Association). Despite the documented results, in 2016 Early Head Start served only 5 percent of eligible infants and toddlers and Head Start served only 54 percent of eligible 3- and 4-year-olds (Children’s Defense Fund, 2017, p. 27).
Topic: family

Despite the bleak landscape described above, there is momentum within the St. Louis child advocate and the education community to build state funded early education options for 4 and possibly 3 year olds. Key among the considerations are funding options. The Federal Preschool Development Grants support states to either build or enhance a preschool program infrastructure or to expand high quality preschool programs in targeted communities (U.S. Department of Education). Currently Alabama, Arizona, Hawaii, Montana and Nevada have received the development grant and Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia (U.S Department of Education).
Topic: family

Another funding option that has been used to bring early childhood education to cities is through sales and property taxes. In 2006 Denver voters passed a sales tax to help the families of 4- year-olds pay for preschool. Key factors that allowed Denver Referendum 1A, Denver Kids Tax to pass was that the mayor, Mayor John Huckenlooper agreed to champion a version of the “kids tax”. The mayor’s championed raising Denver sales tax by .12% to net about $12 million annually for the Denver Preschool program in ten years. Currently the city serves nearly 51,000 children annually (Rose Community Foundation, 2014).
Topic: family

Could the Denver model work for St. Louis? There are three variables that seem key to consider. Would St. Louis city and county voters favor an increased sales tax? A sales tax is a regressive tax which would have a disproportionate impact of low income consumers. Also important to consider is the disproportionate burden placed on the country as that is where the majority of the sales options are. The second factor to consider is that in contrast to Denver, the city and the county have multiple mayors, and there is no single political figure that can champion such a policy with unified power. Third, do St. Louis voters know enough about the important role early education plays and would they vote in its favor?
Topic: family

From the National Institute for Early Education, the work of the Clark Fox Policy Institute as well as the advocacy of the Children’s Defense Fund we have been given a few key recommendations as St. Louis continues to explore the option of increased accessibly to early education options. A list of five considerations compiled by the EdSource includes first, quality cannot be sacrificed for expansion (Stavely, 2018) (NIEER,2017, p. 23). This is an incredibly tight rope to walk, as reach is important but so is quality. Second, staff, salary and professional development must be considered in the development of any program (Stavely, 2018) (NIEER,2017, p. 23). Many states have worked with local colleges to improve teacher prep programs to incorporate workforce development.
Topic: family

The third recommendation by the Ed Trust is to fully integrate an existing programs into any new preschool initiative (Stavely, 2018). In Denver this means that they accept the same application for Head Start. Similarly, WV develops their own programs in collaboration with existing Head Start programs (Stavely, 2018). The fourth recommendation is to place an emphasis on research and data tracking from the outset. Finally, to remember that no one size fits all (Stavely, 2018).
Topic: family

We are presented with a unique opportunity, to learn from accessible preschool programs across the country and to adapt lessons learned from all to meet the needs of St. Louis city and county children. It’s likely that a sales tax will not be popular with St. Louis voters as it was with Denver voters, nor will the option to compete for the federal development grant be feasible. It is interesting to contemplate the other funding streams that St. Louis voters might be more amenable to.
Topic: family

When new foods are introduced to infants, they should be presented individually to encourage infants to taste and accept individual flavors. Infants should have a variety of fruits and vegetables of different colors. Infants should be introduced to one new food every three to five days to help identify food allergies and/or intolerances. When infants start being introduced to new foods, it would be good to coordinate with parents and serve that same food that the child has already tried.
Topic: family

When feeding food, avoid feeding from a jar. Double dipping into a jar, causes bacteria to grow in unfinished jars of food, as this can lead to food poisoning. Food allergies start at a young age and any known food allergies should be posted in clear view in both cooking and serving areas at the childcare center. As there are just a few steps to planning a healthy menu for infants until they reach to be a toddler. When they have just about reached this stage, it causes some rapid changes. Some may show a food preference, become independent and even refuse foods. As toddler stage approaches, there are steps to follow to make a healthy menu.
Topic: family

Toddlers are very active, and their bodies need nutrients on a regular basis, even when they don’t feel hungry. First, food safety is very important at any age. Both food poisoning and choking can have serious consequences. Younger children have a weaker immune system; it is very important to use safe food handling and preparation to reduce the risk of spreading food poisoning. When toddlers are eating, encourage them to take their time. Always watch and encourage them to chew their food. Offer finger foods that are finely cut up. Some foods that are choking hazards are: chunky peanut butter, raw veggies, taffy, whole grapes, popcorn and nuts. (Ben-Joseph, 2018). It is also important to follow any food allergies kids may have.
Topic: family

At this age, it is crucial time when families discover that their child may be allergic to nuts or strawberries. If children have any known allergies, this should be kept on file and have a protocol to follow if that child were to ingests that food. Any known allergies should be posted in clear view of both cooking and serving areas. When planning a food menu, one also needs to keep in mind children’s backgrounds. Ask families from different cultures if they have any food they cannot eat. For example, some cultures cannot eat pork. In this case for meat substitute would be needed. Instead of giving ham, one would receive turkey. Diverse food cultures and habits of Americans makes eating interesting and an enjoyable learning experience. Early and frequent exposure to a variety of foods is a great encouragement to healthy eating habits. Exposure to other cultures brings a personal meeting. This helps influence on what children of all ages think and believe. As toddlers are getting older and becoming more confident so is there menu choice. Menu grow and change with the child.
Topic: family

As children get older, they become more confident in making decisions and taking responsibility for their actions. Children choosing what they eat allows them to explore these skills and build confidence for a happy and healthy life. A healthy menu for children would include fruits and vegetables, nonfat milk and dairy products, lean meats and whole grain cereals and breads. (Ben-Joseph, 2018). Many daycares and schools have programs where they are required to safely serve nutritious meals and snacks that meet the requirements and are appetizing to children. Children need about 1,200 to 2,000 calories depending on growth and activity level. Portion size is also adjusted by age group.
Topic: family

There are several polices regarding meals that childcare providers must meet when participating in the CCFP. The CCFP stands for Child Care Food Program and is a type of United States federal assistance provided by the United States Department of Agriculture to provide food service to children nationwide. (US. Agriculture, 2016). Some examples of this would be, while planning food, also keep in mind cultural foods. As mentioned, some families don’t allow certain meats for their child to eat.
Topic: family

One can ask parents what cultural foods they do eat and include in menus if it meets regulations. Keep in mind of allergies to foods. Many food allergies have made their appearance by this age. Keep a list of any food allergies in view of both the cooking and serving area. Allergic reactions happen fast. They can range from mild skin sensitivity to very severe. Be sure to check labels, avoid cross contamination and consider prohibiting certain foods. For example, if you have a group that is allergic to nuts, it would be wise to be a nut free zone. Arranging menus for children of various ages requires making a few steps. Menus are to meet certain criteria and funding requirements and are appealing to children.
Topic: family

In Relationship level, a connection between child with family, friends, intimate partners or peers may impact the child of becoming a victim or culprit of savagery. e.g.: having violent friends may influence a young person to engage in violence or becomes a victim of violence. e.g: violent parental conflict, low social financial family status, friends that engage in violence, forced marriage, household savagery. Individual level, the personal history and biological factors influences how individuals behave and increase their livelihood of becoming a victim or perpetrator of violence.
Topic: family

Violence can be seen at different phases at: Parental and birth as female foeticide, death and injury Early childhood ( 0-9 years) as toxic stress, destitute childhood advancement results Middle childhood (5-9 years) as injury, misery and anxiety, poor education outcomes  Early adolescence as alcohol, drug, addiction, post traumatic disorder, suicide  adolescence as alcohol, drug, addiction, post traumatic disorder, suicide, disorder eating, self harm, unintended pregnancy, STD/HIV.
Topic: family

Some of the critical targets are: SDG Target 5.2 address the urgency to eliminate all forms of violence against women and children.  SDG Target 5.3 provides the target eliminating all harmful practices like forced marriage, Female Genital Mutiliation.  Target 16.1 address the violence resolving all the forms of violence and death rates. States are obliged to gather information on forms of violence and death rates and to ensure that.
Topic: family

In a community where half of the adult’s lack supervision of their kids and let their own kids run all over them and let them do whatever as they please, is sadly from a community I live in. Located Beltway 8 and Aldine Westfield also known as East Aldine is a community that is mostly known as low class area and a quit dangerous area. East Aldine can be a very peaceful place but there’s always a hand full of people who act so ignorant and causes this peaceful community to turn and sound horrific and nasty.
Topic: family

In this community, it’s like kids/young adults never heard of respect. All of this happens because of the adult allow it to happen, they allow the kid to do whatever they want and run all over them and this is the reason why kids walk around and act like if they don’t have any home training. For example, I had gone to a friend’s house and my friend had an older brother who was always in trouble for being so rude to his siblings and parents. I was sitting in the living room with my friend and her older brother comes and tells his mom ‘I’m leaving, and she would tell him, ‘No, you can’t go’. And his response, he exclaimed and said, ‘Shut up bi**h and mind your business’. She stood there and did not say one word, and this kind of behavior makes the kids act ignorant which causes the community to look like the adults have no control over their kids. Since kids/young adults act like this, it leads to the community being dangerous. These younger kids run around and try to look for trouble and if they can’t find it, then they’ll start trouble.
Topic: family

For example, just a couple weeks ago group of teenagers were driving, exiting 59 and East Mount Houston when a car had cut off the group of teenagers and the teenagers followed the car home and shot up the car. When kids are driving around with guns on them is when you know that either their life or someone else’s life is in danger.  Despite the ignorant people that make the community look filthy and dangerous, I’m surrounded by lovely neighbors who make the community itself much more peaceful, lovely and safe. My neighbors may seem a little nosey but that’s what they do, we look out for each other. If one of us sees something that looks a little suspicious, we call that neighbor to let them know, and if they ask us to check it out for them, we do it. And what I love about my little neighborhood is that we all get together and try to make the community a better and safe place.  Even though East Aldine is considered a low-class area, it can be a safe and peaceful area, if we the people, more as in the adults, decrease the lack of supervision on their children.
Topic: family

Discrimination is an unfair comment or statement towards an individual or group of people based on the race, gender, age, sex and culture. while prejudice is, the remarks given either negative or positive depending on the race, culture, even skin color. In my culture from Kenya, some parents will not approve their children marrying anyone of a different culture, race or religion. In these cases, parents believe that their cultural background is superior to others, they want to preserve the purity of their ancestors without any other nationalities mixed in.
Topic: family

First, it is always good to get involved with in community activities or any social groups. This way, you might find people who have had experiences you have and get connected with those people to help you to figure out how to address situations and respond to experiences of discrimination in ways you haven’t thought of in the past. This will gain support any awareness for anti-prejudice. Also, training courses about prejudice will help in reducing the biases we have and give us a sense of direction in these large societies we live in.
Topic: family

Another way to reduce prejudice is by teaching our kids or new members in any organization is the importance of positive intergroup relations either black or white we are one in the presence of Almighty lord above. He created us in His own image so let love one another. Also let’s teach our young generation by telling them that family is not about blood, it is about love. This kind of intervention can influence our children or new members of society to be positive. The bible tells us that train up a child in the way he/she should go, and when he/she is old he /she cannot forget it. Any of the lessons we learn at the early stages of our lives it matters what type of person you will be.
Topic: family

Everyone in every school in the country will experience emotional destress during their life and that might not be a man enduring mental health problem, but we need the literacy, the skills to be able to cope with those challenges throughout our childhood and then into our adult life. According to the current presence data which is way out of date at the moment, about one in ten judging people have a diagnosable mental health needs, so that’s about three people in every class room.
Topic: family

As a mental health advocate speaking to the broad of education I am anticipating that prevalence will go up so there will be more children, young people who could be diagnosed with a mental health condition you may of heard that the government are rolling out or piloting a program to support schools to try and find a way that they can have some form of infrastructure for mental health that’s both in terms of a designated lead and specialist mental health Support team who provides the second tier off that’s going to be in one in four schools by 2020 to 2023 it will be those frontline teaching staff, families and themselves, peers and young people who will creatively have to find their way through emotional distress and emerging mental health needs.
Topic: family

They are not there within the community anymore to the same level they used to be and that has to be part of answering the challenge we face with children’s mental health in schools that the idea of community is really important and I have found unless that you established that first and you cannot do the work that follows a little bit later on so making sure students do trust who’s around them, making sure that they are open and making sure the we take place modelling some of those difficult conversations and how to set up those conversations in a space that’s safe and where students can have confidence students who are underachieving or disengaged doesn’t like learning or perhaps they are poorly behaved but actually getting to the root of cause of behaviour understanding it as unmet need and spending time with students to work in great detail, the challenged that they face and just get into a dialogue with students about that has been fundamentally important for schools it will transform a whole school approach to raising attainment, its transformed a whole school approach to student support just that real unwavering emphasis on relationships for learning openness transparency and when that has been done, we can hook in things like mental health awareness programs such as kids helpline and the #mentalhealthawareness which is spreading rapidly over social media and it means there is a fertile ground for students and I think students will invest in and something they listen to and will engage with.
Topic: family

The Image in my power point highlights you the effects of the chemical levels of a brain affected by depression, student’s way looks fine on the outside but once you see real glimpse inside their mind its whole different story, the biggest issue with mental health in schools is the confidence to approach students, identifying the issue. Talking to students in their mental health and ongoing to talking to their parents, and the way the Staff supportive behaviours impact on a student’s wellbeing and how to raise awareness activities and signposting students onto other sources of mental health in the school’s environment what is the school’s approach is towards the students. Children need to be healthy to learn and then children who learn well go on to be healthy young people and healthy adults and again I think this sort of feeds into that growing knowledge and understanding of what we need to do to make sure the children can learn and that we are responding to their needs. Ensuring that you’ve got a strong culture and ethos.
Topic: family

We have all been into places that your walking and say “oh wow this is a great place” to be that participation of young people is vital to their understanding, their thoughts that’s there’s a positive evidence-based curriculum everyone knows what they are doing, what success looks like and what they’re going to do next and that this has patrol care linked to community services and underpinned by brilliant leadership and I think the challenge is about scale about intensity and about resources to make that happen yeah realistically we have to ensure that mental health training is included as part of initial teacher training that teachers need to be thinking about this right at the outset clearly, we need to ensure that every teacher is trained in evidence based mental health awareness in order to create a stronger platform for that culture change both within schools but ultimately within wider communities where we are all able to talk and make sure that metal health is an everyday conversation at schools.
Topic: family

I feel very blessed for having been raised. But this resulted also to some difficulties nowadays, in my adult life. I am not satisfied with anything less than what I had lived in my parent’s family. Their kind of relationship and communication is extremely rare, and it is very difficult to be established. My relationships with my husband I think most of the time is successful, but there is times that we fail, and get into an arguments. Such as an incident in the summer of 2018.
Topic: family

Thus, effective nonviolent communication is extremely important. It involves learning to listen compassionately to the feelings, needs and requests of the other person, then, after sharing your own. In order to have healthy, loving family we need to learn how to compromise for each other. It is entirely in our own hands how we react and what we are going to become. No one should have to see someone they love getting abused by someone they also loved and trusted. I will close out this personal story with the most important thing in my life, my family. I am married to my best friend, Eugene, we have wonderful 11 year old boy and another one is on his way. I understand that domestic violence is an extremely toxic, destructive behavior that causes serious harm to people around me as well as myself. Domestic violence is unacceptable violation of basic human rights.
Topic: family

Domestic violence, an ongoing problem within many households, is an act of aggressive behavior typically involving the violent abuse of a spouse or partner. The perpetrators who engage in the violence leave long-lasting scars within the child’s memory, as their minds are developing. According to a statistic formulated by Hamby, Finkelhor, and Turner approximately 18% of children under the age of 18 years are exposed to physical domestic violence and about 16% are exposed to psychological domestic violence. This exposure can range from either watching the violent event, hearing the distressing sounds, direct involvement, and or experiencing the aftermath.
Topic: family

These children often feel flooded with feelings of helplessness and anxiety from the initial chaos occurring within their home. Grych and Fincham devised the two stages of processing regarding the initial exposure to interparental conflict and how the child interprets the situation. Their two stages, known as primary processing and secondary processing, accounted for the in depth thought process a child experiences upon witnessing the conflict. They hypothesized that those individuals who don’t cope effectivity to the experience are more prone to the effects dealing with anxiety which can take a toll onto their behavior down the line.