How childhood development leans towards learning, education and play

As a child between my birth and age 5 when it came to learning new things I was very observant and adaptive to my environment. I loved learning as much as I loved playing, because it gave me a sense of knowledge and that made me feel good. It was substantially easy for me to learn new things, because I caught on to new things quick. My favorite learning activities was the kid channels that teach you in exciting ways things that were beneficial to me in the future. My forms of play as a young child was tag, hide n seek, riding my big wheel, etc. From ages 3-5 I loved to watch television the most, and then try to put a show for my family due to what I saw on television, I liked to go swimming and play on the playground. When I first got put in a daycare at the age of 3-4 the experience was at first nerve wrecking, simply because I was nervous to be away from my mother and around strangers I never met before by myself. As time went on I got used to it and I played with the other kids and made new friends. My favorite activities was story time, naptime, lunchtime, and riding bikes. My mother provided little children books where I can gain some reading skills, and when I was in daycare we did all kinds of English and math exercises so I can learn some math and English skills when I’m older… My mother took me site seeing in Chicago and I learned about geography and the scenery. When I was 5 my mom bought me a mini hoop with a basketball and that’s how I developed a love for my favorite sport which is basketball.

My general feelings towards school was that I was going to have to get it out the way so I have to deal with it. Being in school can have good and bad moments depending on how I would feel pertaining to the situation. My favorite subjects were Math and English, because I was always good with numbers and caught on quickly to the lesson and I love to read and comprehend things. My least favorite subjects were social studies and science, because I couldn’t really comprehend all the way and I would have to work extra harder than the other subjects. The role that my parents played in my school life is that my mom came to every event and chaperoned, and also sport events she came to my school plays and parties. My mom took me on certain field trips to improve on my science and social studies. She took me places like the science center and historical museums, and I gained basic knowledge of both subjects and started progressing in those subjects.

When I was 0-5 years old my growth rate was fairly constant due to the fact that I would grow like 1 inch each summer, and my weight was slim for the first 5 years because of my metabolism level. My physical development was definitely typical of other children my age; I would say it was probably one or two kids out of many that had a fast growth than myself and other kids. When I was five I experienced a little height than some other kids my age and a little but more weight. My motor skills developed for me all throughout preschool. Having said that there were several activates I participated in that promoted my fine and gross motor skills. The activities that promoted my fine motor skills were the following: painting, playing with Legos, building blocks, drawing pictures, etc. The activities that promoted my gross motor skills were the following: playing catch, racing, playing on the jungle gym, hopscotch, playing hide n seek, playing tag. My health issues were minor and I had very few at a young age. I’ve had a common cold and fever from age 0-5 and also chicken pocks which is known to be very common amongst toddlers and children. My physical activity and exercise was simply playing in the park and running around till I was tired, for example kickball, freeze tag, two hand touch football, etc. My eating habits were normal at a young age I’ll eat breakfast lunch and dinner each day and maybe a snack throughout the day like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a lunch able. I really liked pizza and lasagna. My food choices were very much healthy giving the fact that my mother made most of my meal choices. For the most part when it came to certain foods I was a picky eater, because there were certain things I couldn’t eat due to allergic reactions such as, onions, and tomatoes. My sleep routine were a constant nightly bedtime of 9: 30pm on weekdays and 11: 00pm on weekends until I got pass the age of 5. I got the necessary rest that I needed; that way I wouldn’t be so tired at school. My wake up times were 6: 30am for school. I didn’t have any trouble sleeping, because by time I go to sleep I’m already tired and my mother reads a bedtime story every time before I go to sleep from the time I was 3 -5 years old.

In my elementary school years I gained a few extra pounds over the summer and 1 inch of height, but I was still short. My physical growth was not very typical of other children simply because other children hit their growth spurts earlier than me. I enjoyed a lot of activities that promoted my fine and gross development. The activities that promoted my fine motor development were the following: entering in the essay writing competition, participating in the spelling bee, learning to play the piano and flute in music class etc. The activities that promoted my gross motor skills were the following: playing on the football team, handball, soccer, basketball, etc. Throughout elementary school I pretty much had some of the same common illnesses that I had when I was younger such as chicken pocks, fever, headache, etc. My injuries started when I fell off my bike and had to get two stitches in my arm, and I still have the scar till this day. My gym class and when I played outside when I got home was my exercise. We organize a pickup game of football or basketball in the neighborhood, ride bikes and race downhill, and dodgeball. My eating patterns from k-6 changed in a tremendous way. Having said that I would eat a little more junk food than I was supposed to. On the other hand I would eat fruit but my favorite food to eat was from McDonald’s and that’s how I gained my weight that I did. I would say my food choices were unhealthy for the most part. I was still a picky eater, because there was just some foods that my taste buds couldn’t get use to at all. My sleep patterns were on and off track. My sleep routines would be stay up till like 11 and then go to sleep on a school night. I always got enough sleep at least 7 hours of sleep if not 8. My wake up times were the worst, but when the school days began it would wake me up. I would fall asleep to the TV.

My relationship with my peers were good and bad. I’ve had at least 6 friends and they all lived by me their names were Kendall, John, Brian, Tyler, Pierce, Cornelius, and other kids I just played with on the playground. We all enjoyed playing tag and hide n seek together, and riding our bikes together. For the most part I got along with all 6 of my friends, but there were times where we didn’t agree on everything and we fought each other sometime and said we weren’t friends for that day but always get back together as friends the next day and apologize. The conflicts were resolved by our other friends that didn’t want to be in the middle or our parents. Between the ages of 3-5 I was on a pee wee football league, and also in a choir were I met new people and became friends.

My relationship with my peers progressed, but similar to how it was when I was much younger. I still had the same 6 friends that I started out with it never changed. We enjoyed singing in choir class, playing basketball and football, and participating in our school’s talent shows. In elementary I got along with my friends way better than I did when we younger, because we was more observant to situations, and when it came down to it we stood up for one another. Our conflicts were resolved mainly by sport competitions. I was in yearbook club.

When I was 0-5 I looked at life in a very positive way and I always saw the upside of things and was happy the majority of the time. From time I was born to five I would say I was mainly extroverted, because I would speak my mind and shy wasn’t even in my vocabulary. I was real easy-going and open to a lot of things and understanding. My self-concept and self-image were mostly confidence and competitive. For the simple fact I looked at life positively things would go right, and even when they went wrong I wouldn’t lash out; I just wouldn’t give up. I common fears like being afraid of the dark and spiders, and my worries in life were being alone. Being around my friends and being able to be myself and they would like me for me made me extremely happy and excited. The other things that made me happy and excited was amusement parks. A lot of things can irate me, but the main thing that cause me to be frustrated was when unfair things would happen to me. Sometimes I would handle the situation in an explosive way, because I wasn’t thinking straight from the built up frustration.

My outlook on life from k-6 was for the most part positive, but I had times where I looked at life in a negative way based on the current events that caused me to view life in that way. I was more positive than sad and sometimes satisfied, because I knew whatever made me sad wasn’t fixing the issue and it’s not the end of the world. My personality characteristics were still same extroverted easy-going characteristics. When I was in elementary self-concept especially in class was egotistical andarrogant which indicated that in my mind I was best at everything than the other kids were. Many people would call the way I was acting a negative self-image, but I just call it confidence. I developed an ego when I got into elementary which was a sudden change from my early years. My common fear was still the darkness and spiders which didn’t change from my early years. What made me happy and excited was school dances and going to the arcade and playing video games. Failing an assignment in my class made me both angry and frustrated, because it’s not a good feeling and I knew I was smart enough to do the required work. I responded to my frustration by channel my anger into football and also studying harder so I could get the grades I deserved.

During my early and elementary years the values that were encouraged by my family were: honesty, trustworthiness, hard work, and perseverance. The beliefs that my family had for me never changed up from my early years to elementary years. My morals were principles that my mother wanted me to live by for example: to get a good education, respect my elders, always be polite to women, be kind and courteous to others, but at the same time don’t let people walk all over me. Those morals are still applied to this day and they haven’t changed since my early and elementary years. My mom style of discipline was mainly punishment which was the worst. I wasn’t a bad kid in my early years so I wasn’t punished frequently, it wasn’t until my elementary years when I would hang out with my older brother and we would break the general rules of the house which was don’t touch the walls because they were new, but in the mist of playing we did it anyway and when we did we got put on either a 3 day punishment and was banned form going outside or she would take something away like our video game for three days. The discipline was extremely effective, because as I’m older I’ve grown to respect rules and back then it would make me listen a lot more than I use to before getting punished. My family was and still is a Christian family and we would go to church every Sunday to keep god closer. When I went to church in my elementary years I learned and gained so much a s a person and growing up, but my early years I didn’t really pay close attention to it, and it wasn’t because I didn’t care it was because I didn’t understand it yet.