30 Day Movie Challenge: Day 05

I forgot to post my movie challenge again and, this time, I'm four days late! So, rather than bombard you with four movie trailers at once, I'll pick up where I left off, and final the challenge a few days late. After all, who's counting?

~ Jewels

Day 05: Your Favourite Drama Movie
Little Women (1978)

'When your 7-Year-Old son says, "I want to be gay"' - Daily Life

I just read a beautiful, inspiring article from The Daily Life section of The Age, with the same title as this post. If you want to, you can read the article here, and I hope it brings as much of a smile to your face as it did mine. This is an example of acceptance and unconditional love within a family unit, and if every child was raised in such a loving, non-judgemental environment, society as a whole would benefit.

~ Jewels

30 Day Movie Challenge: Day 03 + 04

Forgot to post for the 30 Day Movie Challenge yesterday, so, once again, two trailers of some of my favourite movies, presented for your enjoyment.

Day 03: Your Favourite Action/Adventure Movie
The Avengers (2012)

Day 04: Your Favourite Horror Movie
Jaws (1975)

Note: This is actually the only 'horror' movie I've seen. I have no stomach for the terror that modern day horror audiences are subjected to. I watched this movie in my Year 10 Media Class, as my teacher wanted to show us what 'scary' movies were like when she was growing up. Also, I want to make it clear that the portrayal of the Great White Shark in Jaws is false, and as far removed from scientific fact as possible. Sharks are fearsome predators, yes, and they deserve our respect, but they're not 'mindless eating machines'.

Because toddlers have, and deserve, a voice

I just read the most terrible article. It literally made me sick to the stomach, and I felt I had to say something, or I'd be guilty of spreading the myth the article perpetuates. The myth that toddlers, and other non-verbal children, don't have a voice.

If you want to read the article, you can do so here, but, I warn you, it doesn't make for pleasant viewing. What's even more disturbing is that the woman who wrote it runs a popular parenting blog! Good God in Heaven, but, if we followed her advice, child protection would be knocking on every door in Australia!

The main gist of the article is this: that children have opinions, but they're not as important as the opinions of adults, and shouldn't be of interest to a parent. This makes me both sad and angry, the idea that parents shouldn't listen to their child's opinion. Now, this does not mean that a child, particularly a toddler, should be choosing where the parents go for lunch/dinner/brunch/breakfast/coffee, but any parent who does not listen to, respect, and value their child's opinion does not deserve to be a parent.

The article gives an example of so-called 'indulgent parenting', where a young couple and their toddler-aged son arrived at the cafe the author worked in a the time. They were there to have brunch, and, according to the author, the following exchange took place.

Author: Table for three? 

Parents: We'll need a minute. Sweetie, what do you want for brunch? Do you want eggs? Do you want to stay here? 

Toddler: DAK! 

Parents: (to toddler) Oh, OK honey. (to author) Sorry, he wants pancakes, you don't have those do you? 

Rather than recording her answer to this very reasonable question, the author proceeds to tell us that she laughed, yes laughed, at these parents. She tries to justify it by saying that she couldn't 'quite read their faces' but 'they've got to be joking', and that she 'chuckled', rather than laughed. Whatever she calls it, she laughed at potential customers, and then proceeded to viciously mock their parenting in her article. Did I mention that they left with their son? And so they should have! I would have left too if a staff member laughed at me. To me, it sounds like the author was simply annoyed that this family chose not to stay in her cafe, which means she missed out on a tip. Petty much?

The author then comments:

Maybe, just maybe, your child isn't making words at all and you are ridiculously projecting some kind of foodie personality on him already. That could be a possibility, couldn't it?

Or, perhaps his parents are more in tune with his babbling than you, who has only seen him once, could ever be, and know that 'DAK', is his word for 'pancakes'. Just because you don't understand it, doesn't mean his parents don't. Young children are constantly practicing their language skills, learning how to make intelligible sounds, and naming objects around them in their own baby language. Unfortunately, most adults don't understand this baby language, and we call it 'babbling', but it's an important part of a child's development. Dismissing babbling as 'nonsense', which this author does, is to say that a child's attempt to talk and communicate as adults do is worthless. Sounds like a classic case of 'children should be seen, not heard'.

But, I haven't even got to the most disturbing part of the article yet. Twelve paragraphs in, in ALL CAPS, the author makes the following statement regarding toddlers:

THEIR OPINIONS JUST AREN'T AS IMPORTANT AS OURS.

Well, I'm disgusted that any rational, loving parent could possibly believe this in any way, shape or form. If I heard any parent at the daycare say this, either to another parent, a staff member, or - God forbid! - a child, I would be reporting it to my director immediately, and recommending that the parent be offered some resources to educate them on the importance of understanding, and respecting, their child's opinion.

Respecting your child's opinion doesn't mean slavishly allowing them whatever they want. For example, if it's dinner time, and you're having steak and three veg, and it is your child's opinion that double chocolate ice-cream would make a better dinner, don't leap to your feet and get them a bowl of ice-cream. Instead, tell them that ice-cream is a treat for after dinner/weekends/birthdays or whatever you have decided. Tell them that it's important to eat their dinner, so they don't go hungry, but don't fall into the old trap of forcing them to eat. If they want to eat the steak, but not the vegetables, don't get too fussed about it. Ask them why they don't want to eat the vegetables. The likely answer is going to be 'I don't like them'. Ask them why, and get them to think about why they don't like them. If you get an answer along the lines of 'Because they're yucky', I would recommend just leaving it there. Keep trying with the vegetables but, as long as your child is not underweight, or in any other way unhealthy, don't push too hard. My sister hated vegetables all through her childhood, and even perfected the art of screaming with her mouth closed when my mum tried to feed her anything green. She's changed her tune now she's older, and enjoys her home made smoothies, and fruit and veggie juices. She even brought herself a home juicer.

The point? Your children's tastes will change as they grow older. Just because they don't like it now, doesn't mean they will be forever at odds with it. Furthermore, how would you feel if someone bigger than you tried to force feed you something you thought was disgusting? Something I was taught when I did my studies was that you should never do to a child what you would not be prepared to do to an adult.

What I'm trying to say is that, just because children can't verbalise their opinions doesn't mean they don't have them, and that they shouldn't be listened to. Babbling is an important stage in a child's language development, as they learn how to make sounds, and attach meanings to everyday objects. Don't write their attempts at speech off as 'cute, but meaningless', they have as much right to be heard as we do.

~ Jewels

30 Movie Challenge

Yesterday, just for the hell of it, I started the 30 Day Movie Challenge. I've never been able to complete any of these challenges before but, this time, I'm determined to succeed. Since I started yesterday, there'll be two posts today, but, from tomorrow, there'll be one post a day until the 30 days are up. Sometimes, I'll put the posts at the end of a longer post, but, if there's nothing to share, I'll just do a short post, like this one.

Day One: Your Favourite Movie

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Day Two: The Last Movie You Watched

Thor (2011)

Chromebook - My love affair with Google

It's been a while since I've blogged, I know, I've been busy. That always seems to be my excuse, doesn't it? Well, it's true. I've gone from twiddling my thumbs all day in Mildura to working my butt off in Melbourne, but I'm loving it. You know what I'm also loving? Pay day! I'm paid fortnightly at ECKids, so, every two weeks, a big, fat sum of money makes its way into my bank account. Some of it goes into my savings account, I'm hoping to go on a little trip next year, and some of it goes to pay my bills. The rest sits in my everyday account for me to spend at my leisure.

Clothes have been my major purchases since I started earning dollars, and I've splashed out on some fun things like classy sleepwear and cheeky underwear ;) However, my biggest purchase occurred yesterday, when I brought myself a new computer, and not just any old computer, but a Google Chromebook.

I've been interested in Chromebooks since they first came out in 2011. At that stage, I had already been using Gmail (Google email) and Google Docs (word processing) for several years, and was in the process of switching to Google Drive for document storage. Chrome was my preferred internet browser, despite the fact that I had a Microsoft Windows laptop at the time. I wasn't surprised to see that Google had entered the operating system market, although I did wonder how they'd go competing against Apple and, of course, the operating system king, Microsoft. It wasn't until very recently, when I seriously considered getting a Chromebook, that I started doing some more in-depth research about what the Chromebook, and Google's operating system Chrome OS, were about. 

Where Chromebook differs from other makes of computer is that it has no hard drive or memory of its own. Everything on the Chromebook is stored on Google Cloud, all on the web, and the computer itself is just a gateway to the Wonderful World of Google. Take Google Drive, for instance, which is Google's Office Suite. Docs is a word processor which can do everything Microsoft Word can, with a few formatting exceptions, and Google Sheets is a spreadsheet app that works exactly the same way as Microsoft Excel. There are some very large, successful businesses that don't use Microsoft Excel to do their spreadsheets, but do everything with Google Sheets. There is also Google Presentations, which makes slideshows in the same way PowerPoint does. While you're working on your document, Google will be automatically saving your work as you go, so if you suddenly run out of battery power in the middle of writing that important assignment, don't stress, Google will have saved it up to the minute for you.

Nothing is stored on the computer itself, all your apps (Drive, Gmail, Google Play Music [yes, you can store your music with Chromebook], Google Play, Calendar etc.) are all stored on Google's cloud, which means that, wherever you go, you can log onto your Google account and access all your documents, bookmarks etc. without your Chromebook. Although, I don't know why you wouldn't take your Chromebook with you wherever you go, because it's slim, compact and, most importantly, light. The Samsung model, which I have, weighs in at a measly 1.1kgs, and is about 11ich wide. It's smaller than most computers, but it more than makes up for it with a super-bright screen, and a spacious keyboard.

Anything you can store on a regular hard drive, photos, documents, PDFs etc., you can store on Google Cloud, simply by installing some handy (free!) apps from the Chrome Web Store. The apps on the Chrome Web Store are the 'software' for Chromebook, and you can find everything fun, friendly and practical in there. There's offline apps as well, so if you ever loose your internet connection (very frustrating, I'm sure you'll agree) you can still read emails, edit documents, and upload photos.

One of the best things about Google is that you only need to sign into your account once to access all your Google apps. To log onto the Chromebook, you just need to type in your Google password, and the world is yours, well, the world of Google, anyway.

Chromebook comes with most of the essential apps built in. Gmail, Drive, Chrome Web Store, Google Search, Youtube, Google Maps and Calender all come as standard with the Chromebook. From there, you can choose from, literally, thousands of apps to personalise your Chromebook. 

Speed is another thing the Chromebook as going for it. The Samsung model boots in less than 10 seconds (a standard laptop takes between 20 and 30 seconds to boot), and there's no need to install anti-virus, or updates, the Chromebook does that automatically.

Well, I don't know what else I can say about my Chromebook, other than I think it's absolutely the bees knees. I love it, and I can't wait to continue playing around on it and learning how it works. I'm sure you'll be hearing from me when I do.

From the Chromebook,

~ Juliana 

Being the best version of me

Sometimes, just when you weren't sure of yourself, everything becomes clear. Or, maybe not clear, but you can see a lot more clearly than you could six months ago. Three weeks ago, I had one of those moments. I'd finished my Cert III in Children's Services, and had thoroughly enjoyed my week off, lazing around, and firing off a few job applications. I was ready to start getting up at seven in the morning again, and settling into a routine, apply for some more jobs, and generally prepare for what would, undoubtedly, be a long wait before I got so much as an interview, let alone employment.

The two job applications I sent off during my week off had been sent on a whim, that is, I liked the sound of the jobs advertised, I had the necessary qualifications, they were in a good location, and weren't asking for experience. I didn't expect anything to come of them, because I'd never got a job on my first try before, and I wasn't terribly hopeful. It was mid-year, a bunch of Cert III courses would have finished, and every just qualified Sarah, Sally and Sue would be looking for an assistant level position in children's services.

So just imagine my surprise when I received a call from Eltham College Kids Melbourne City, asking if I could come in for an interview early the next week. Not daring to hope, I said yes, I was available, and a quietly confident feeling settled in my stomach for the rest of the day. The reason for this feeling was that the woman who called me had said something no other potential employer had ever asked me when asking if I could come in for an interview: Are you still looking for work?

It wasn't the kind of question prospective employers asked if they just wanted to screen you for a position, after all.

When I arrived for my interview, I took the lift up to level four, and rang the door bell. Like most childcare centres, ECKids kept the doors locked, and you needed to type in a code on the keypad to open the door. Reception could open the doors from the inside without the code if you were a new parent or staff member. The handle was also positioned higher than usual on a door, so that if one of the children managed to escape their room and get out to reception, they would not be able to reach the door handle and escape the centre.

Through the door was a lovely, clean reception area, with a comfortable, white leather couch and two matching chairs. There was a round, glass table in the middle of a rug, and lounging under the table was a large, caramel colour rabbit.

I told the receptionist I was there for the interview, and she showed me a small meeting room off to the side. It was a group interview, as my interview time had accidentally been double booked, but the woman I was interviewed with was wonderful, and we've actually become great friends since.

Truth be told, it was the best interview of my life, because I came out of it with a job! Yes, a job. My very first application turned into my very first job.

I've been working at ECKids for about three weeks now, on a casual basis, 'floating' (as we call it in the industry) between different rooms. There are eight rooms in the centre, six downstairs, and two upstairs (yes, the centre is over two levels), and I've worked in five rooms downstairs and one upstairs.

ECKids is different from the centers I did my placements at, first of all in size (ECKids has places for 160 children a day), but also in set up. In most childcare centers there are three rooms, 0-2yrs, 2-3yrs, and 3-5yrs, and they take children from 6wks to 5yrs. ECKids takes children from 6wks to 6yrs, and not only has a childcare centre and three-year-old kinder downstairs, but two structured, government accredited kindergartens upstairs, run by bachelor qualified kinder teachers. One is for four year olds, and one for five year olds. I haven't been in the four year old kinder, but I did spend the day in the five year old kinder last week. I didn't enjoy my pre-school placement when I was at TAFE all that much, but I really enjoyed the structured pre-school environment at ECKids. It was different to placement, I grant you, because it was a five year old pre-school, rather than a three-five year old room at a daycare. However, my favourite room I've been in so far as been one of the toddler rooms, 1-2yr olds.

By the time the children get to this room, Toddler A, they're walking, and they're saying several words, or are able to communicate, relatively clearly, what they want. One thing they all love is singing songs, so I've been brushing up on my nursery rhymes. Most of the children can say the name of their favourite song, and most can sing the majority of nursery rhymes, even if they can't use the words out of that context. It's lovely to have a group of little children at your feet, contentedly singing along with you. They're like a little chorus birds, a little out of tune, but lovely to hear all the same. Some hands down favorites have been: Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Ring Around the Rosy.

So, what does this have to do with being the best version of me? Well, I had to do an employee induction before I started work at ECKids, and there was one part of this induction that really stayed with me. That was the part that said that all staff working at ECKids must strive to 'be the best version of you'. I've really taken that to heart in the last three weeks, and strived to become the best version of me that I can possibly be.

So, there you have it, a little late in coming, but, as they say, better late than never. I'm sure you'll hear all about my adventures with the children at ECKids as time goes on, and I start to know them all a bit better. But, for now, just remember this:

~ Juliana