Creating Affirming Environments

For this blog, I will describe the type of family day home I would have and the way that it would be supportive and conducive to teaching and promoting anti-bias education in young children.

To begin, if I were a family day home provider I would have a home that visually signals to children and families that they are welcomed in my family day home. I would do this by considering the demographics of the children and families that live in the community. After, considering this, I would take pictures from magazines of children and families and place them around the home in the areas that will be accessible to the children. As the children and families enroll in my family day home, I will take a photo of the families and place them around the room with along with the other pictures of diversity. The toys used in my family day home will be open-ended and representative of diversity. This means that I will include toys that represent abilities, gender roles, and culture. The items found in the dramatic play area will include toys, clothes, and other materials that can be used by both the male and female. The books incorporated in the dramatic play areas will be respectful of the gender roles and cultural traditions. The books in the library will truthfully depict cultural groups and children have a variety of books to choose from. Tokenism will not be a part of my family day home. According to Derman-Sparks & Edwards (2010) tokenism occurs when staff use one teaching material or image to represent a whole group of people. In my family day home, I will include food menus that not only include American food, but foods that represent other cultures. The materials used in the art area will have paper that represent skin tones and supports the need of the children to creatively explore and create.

As I plan activities for the children, I will be sure to include cultural music and the children will be given opportunities to move their bodies creatively to the music. Learning activities will take into consideration the children's current level of learning and abilities. Monthly family involvement activities will be planned to help the families to interact with each other and to help them to learn about the culture of their peers. When the parents need to know about the community resources that are available to them, they will be able to access this information easily as it will be accessible to them on the parent board that has been set up to keep them abreast of what's going on inside the family day home, what the children are currently working on, the menu for the week, and important emergency numbers will also be listed. I really want to provide an environment that is supportive of all the families that I serve and I want them all to feel welcomed and that they really belong. I will also be very proactive in helping children to resolve conflicts that will arise in their day to day play with the other children in the family day home.