Personal Childhood Web

Due to the dynamics of my family of origin, I don't feel that I had five people in my life that cared about me and took care of me as a child. Only one comes to mind, and that is my half sister, who is a generation older than me. My parents were two generations older than me and not involved in my life. Additionally I dealt with abandonment when I was nine years old. I have moved on from that as much as possible and tried to turn the bad into good by giving back to children in the form of teaching and through adopting my daughter from India. I could wish I could say I didn’t carry the baggage into adult life but I somehow found myself in an abusive relationship and another one that involved a lot of intimidation. As an adult I dealt with having cancer as well. Somehow, I feel that having to rely on myself as a child allowed me to get through these adult challenges and still come out of it intact. So, having said that, I don’t feel I can put my parents in a role of caregiver. I'm sure they did care for me in their own way, but not in a way that a child needs to grow and thrive. I really don't have more than one person to list as a person who cared about me. No teachers stood out either. I was a shy, quiet girl, and kind of blended into the scenery and always did what what I was asked to do at school.

The one person who did care about me is my half-sister, Barb. She is 21 years older than me, and though we never lived in the same house, we did things together a couple of times a month. I would stay over at her house on weekend nights now and then and she would fix my hair and paint my nails. We would eat yummy, child friendly food, the types of treats I don’t remember having at home. Throughout my teenage years she began talking to me about how getting a good education was important and continued to through my college years. I was proud and happy to see her at my graduation last June. At 72 years of age, she is still supporting me in my education. Though she has always been good to me, I would not classify our relationship as close. She is a very private, closed off type of person that has trouble exposing her real self to anyone else.

Here’s a picture of my sister, Barb, and I at my graduation from Portland State University last June.



Out of the Mouths of Babes

Today my co-teacher told me a funny story that I thought was perfect to share with you. When she was teaching older preschool in Colorado she posed a question to her students at circle time one day . The question was "what do you want to be when you grow up?" As you can imagine, she got as many answers as she had students. The funniest response by far was from one little girl who said she wanted to be a senior citizen when she grew up. She then went on to explain the reason behind wanting to be a senior citizen was so she didn't have to work!

Baby Shelley

I am nine months old and a very curious young learner!

A wonderful Quote with a Young Learner's Rendering

This wonderful bookmark was made by the staff and young learners at Helen Gordon Child Development Center in Portland, Oregon. I had the opportunity to work at this child development center as a student teacher for three years while I was working on my bachelors degree. The center is a learning lab on the campus of Portland State University and this bookmark was designed and offered to people who attended a campus open house event. I personally taught the young learners who did the artwork and worked with the teacher who designed the layout! I think the quote is perfect!

Welcome to my first blog about Early Childhood Education



Graduation from PSU - 6/11/2011

Hi everybody, I'm Shay (Shelley), and I'm creating this blog as a way to express my thoughts about my journey of working in the field of early childhood education. I am currently working on my Master's degree in Early Childhood Studies and so I'll be using this blog as a way to communicate with my colleagues and friends. Stay tuned as I continue to make frequent posts here. I welcome you to subscribe and also provide feedback. Talk to you soon!