In the first days of this course I had visited the website of the National Black Child Development Institute. My interest in the website was based on the fact that the Institute was conceived and still run as an advocacy group for the development and promotion of strategies aimed at improving the life circumstances of the Black child through policy change. In my past post, I had mentioned the aims and goals of the Institute and in addition mentioned one issue that was of particular interest to me: the black - white test score gap in America's public school system. The information from the website about test gap got me thinking and made me see things clearly thus realizing the need to close the black-white test score gap as the best of indicator of the promotion of racial equality in the United States.
On my visit to the website again this week, I found an interesting and highly informational section of the site- the CHILD TALK section of the site. This section can be assessed through the Initiative menu and it has many highly researched articles which provide a range of information for professionals, families and centers with young children on topics related to their health and well-being. Two of such articles are “Being Healthy is Fun” and “How can Children be Obese and Hungary At The Same Time?” It may be surprising, but the truth is that hunger and
obesity can exist together in the same child, adult,
family or community (Johnson-Askew, 2011). I found this a hard pill to swallow but Dr Johnson-Askew, using many researches in the field of Science, Medicine, and Nutrition shows the connecting dots between obesity and hunger.
The issue of obesity among children deserves the attention and action of all in view of the health implication for the children and the society. This is the focus of the article “Being Healthy Is Fun” the article focus on programs making the difference in improving the health of children and
families in communities across America. One of such program is Donna
R. Joyner Foundation “GROW Green Get Fit”
curriculum
. The GROW Green Get Fit program aims to instill into
children the virtues of a healthy and positive lifestyle
based upon 5 key seeds of growth:
• Seed 1 – Physical activity 5 days a week will help our
bodies get stronger
• Seed 2 – We can grow 5 fruits and vegetables
ourselves
• Seed 3 – We can eat 5 fruits and vegetables each day
to practice eating healthier
• Seed 4 – Each week we can do 5 things to help others
• Seed 5 – we can volunteer to help others 5 times this
year.
This program involves activities that will in addition to bringing movement and nutrition
awareness into the classroom give children the
opportunity to plant and watch a garden grow as they
and their parents work together to bring a message that a
meal can be good and still bless your heart.
Sources:
National Black Child Development Institute http://nbcdi.org/
http://nbcdi.org/blog/2010/08/27/child-health-talk
Shola,
ReplyDeleteThe issues of obesity in children are becoming more intense! I checked out the CHILD-TALK section of the web-site you wrote about. It is very informative! I am currently on a nutritional health kick with my child care. I will take more time to research your site. Thank you for sharing!
Mary L.
The GROW Green Get Fit program sounds great. It sounds like a great way to encourage good health and also to encourage relationship building between parents and their children. This is something that i encourage many of the parents i work with to do often, engage in ongoing activities with their children.
ReplyDeleteI have not yet researched this website, but only looked at it briefly. I will soon be looking more into it, it sounds like a great resource.