Personal Childhood Web

MY CHILDHOOD WEB

Personality photo: mom(nurse and seamstress) and dad (outdoorsman and mechanical engineer/ EMT), (left) older brother the photographer and NASA IT specialist, me the fashion designer and model, little brother the athlete, older sister the cowgirl, and my oldest sister the Assistant Principal 

My child defiantly created a positive web of support and love. My imediate family (mom, dad, sisters, and brothers) of course played huge parts in constructing my web, but my grandmother played a monumental part as well. 

My family and I have always had an extremely close relationship. 

       Dad was always extra involved with all of us as far as outdoor fun. He openned us up to the world of hunting, fishing and most importantly adventure. My dad was always support of my dreams and made sure to allow me to go beyond the normal and strive to be better than him.

       Mom is the one that taught me everything I know about design. She also showed me how to become and be an awesome mother and wife. My mom was extraordinarily supportive of my fashion career as well as my educational career.

       My oldest sister and I did not have a close relationship growing up, but she was still cared and made sure I was doing my best at everything I tried. Later in life we did get a lot closer, she was the one that assisted me in getting my educational career started.

       My oldest brother and I had a little close relationship, but not as close as I would have liked. He as well was always extremely loving and always came home to help me with sports and growing up. 

       The second oldest sister, my best friend, has defiantly influenced my childhood and adult life. She has always been that main back bone in everything adventure I have ever set my mind to. Regardless if I really had the abilities to succeed in my activity, she was always there to pat me on the back if I was successful and pick me up if I failed. She still is one of my biggest supporters.

        And finally, my younger brother; he has also been a huge part of that support system as well. We are 18 months apart and prettymuch grew up as twins. Him and I played cops and robberies, cowboys and indians, and loved to just be around and protect each other. As adults he is still like my twin, we do not live close anymore, but we still communicate regularly and continue to care, love and support each other.

       And one of my biggest and life-long influences in my childhood web was my grandmother. When my mom was not there (work) my grandmother would watch us . She taught me a lot just about life ingeneral. She was strict when she needed to be and extremely loving when necessary also. Anytime I had an issue in life I knew I could run to my grandmother and cry on her shoulder. My grandmother passed away in 2007 while I was in college. Her death was a huge plow to my life, but she still is a big influence.

Being a kid is tough...

 

"Bitter are the tears of a child: Sweeten them.
Deep are the thoughts of a child: Quiet them.
Sharp is the grief of a child: Take it from him.
Soft is the heart of a child: Do not harden it."
      -Pamela Glenconner

 

 

I love Pamela Glenconner's quote because this is the way every one in child care should feel. She captured my feelings perfectly. It is always my goal, regardless of who, what, when, or how we in this child care field should always want to wipe tears of sorrow away and replace them with only tears of happiness, take away any stress or fears, and do our best to only raise a child's moral. I know with my students, they know they can come and talk to me about anything with no judgment. Sometime we are the only ones that really care about this kids, so it is our obligation to be that shoulder to cry on or that hand to guide them in the right direction.

 

 

One of my favorite children's books of all time as to be "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch. The book is about the love of parents to a child, but also the love of the child back to those parents. During the book the quote,, “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be,” is repeated over and over. I showed my mom this book and we immediately started crying because it is completely true about the love and child and parents should have. I saw my mother and grandmother having this type of relationship growing up and when my grandmother got too old and sick to take care of herself, my mom appreciatively traded places with her and took care of her. I know I would/will do the same for my mom. This book defiantly finds that soft spot in peoples hearts and minds, bringing up feelings you didn't know you had or didn't want to share. We all have special things that we pass on child to child within families, this book just puts those actions on paper.  It is awesome, I know I will read this book to my son.

A child that touched my heart was when I was a substitute in 2011, and had to opportunity to be a long term replacement for a first grade teacher out with the flu. In this class there was one particular little boy that caught my attention. This little boy was smaller then everyone, had clothes that was not "up-to-date" and too small, very quite, but happy. Shortly after being introduced to the class as their teacher while the other lady was out, the teacher's aid came to me and stated that the same boy that I noticed earlier was a "trouble-maker". I asked why she felt that way. The aid quickly let me know that his family was dysfunctional and he never did his work, he was late every day to school, and frequently talked back and even used vulgar language towards adults. The things she was telling me, to be honest, kind of scared and stunned me. This kid looked so innocent and beat down. I made it my mission to help this little boy, or at least figure out the break in the chain. That afternoon when I was handing out homework, I made sure to give him a little extra attention. Later that night I went to a REC basketball game where I accidentally saw the little boy. I made sure to go talk to him and even introduced myself to his dad. I reminded the boy about the homework and told him I looked forward to seeing him the next day. The next day at school he came in a little late, but he was still there. The aid immediately began to yell at him and was ready to send him to the office to receive detention for getting his third tardy. I asked the aid to talk outside, and explained that by yelling at him in front of his peers and giving him detention was not going to help the situation at all. Of course she from then on she hated me, but she left the little boy alone. After that I would be sure to allow the little boy to answer questions, read loud, be the leader of group time. Eventually he became more confident and  actually seemed to want to come to school. I felt like I had saved a little boy from becoming a troubled young man. I was only at this school for a month, so I am not sure what happened to him after I left, but I sure hope I had a lastly positive influence on him and the aid.

 



I know this image isn't technically a drawing, but I still love it. This is a Christmas Tree that is made from my son's little feet.  I love this drawing because it is not only artwork, but it is a like a time-stop image. I will save this paper forever as my little boy's first Christmas, my first gift from my son, and a documentation of how little and innocent my little man was in 2012. LOVE IT!

I have this passion to serve and help others. It seems like once the kids get to me in high school, it feels like I am too late to help or "save" them. I feel like I need to go to the beginning of the story of these kids' lives. I know I can make a difference, maybe not in every child or parent I come in contact with, but I know I can help many of them.

The Journey

Hello All:

My name is Fran Logan, from Houston, Texas. I have recently embarked on the journey of my life, starting a Daycare Center. I am extremely excited and nervous about this life changing career path and will take any and all advise out there.

Let me tell you a little more about myself:
I am 26, married (9-10-11), and a new mom to an awesome little boy. I graduated from Louisiana State University in Apparel Design, Textile Sciences, and Visual Merchandising in 2009. I became a certified Family and Consumer Sciences and EC-6 teacher in June of 2012. I have worked in a variety of places; from David's Bridal as an Alterations and Beading Specialist to a Doctor's Assistant for an OBGYN.

Life:

As a child I always had a passion for teaching and sewing. I can remember my favorite toy as a toddler was a  mock sewing machine that rolled out stamps instead of sewing. I was finally allowed to start sewing around the 3rd grade, making small pillows and purses. My mom was and still is a huge supporter of my sewing and designing, but I know her dream for me was to be in the medical field. Because of my parents dreams for me, I went to LSU with the mind of a doctor, but the heart of a designer. By sophomore year I had transferred to the Design Program. I absolutely looooove college after that transfer, I was finally in my element. I had to typical college life: parties, friends, football game, pledged a Sorority (Delta Sigma Theta); it was great. I competed in numerous fashion shows and excelled to third in the nation in 2009 for fashion design students. I had to awesome opportunity to study abroad in China in 2009 and interned in Dallas, TX that summer.

All of this sounds perfect until graduation. Life hit me hard, going from having the best college and career life to not having a job or any real experience to get my dream job was extreme embarrassing and hard for me. I thought about becoming a teacher in Texas in the fall of 2009, but did not have the money to even sign up for the classes. I ended up having a huge breakdown, feeling like a complete failure at life and that I wasted my full scholarship on getting a degree in a hobby! I cried and prayed about everything and ended up moving back home with my parents. I started working for an OBGYN as a Doctor's Assistant (thank God I got that certification prior to college). I got my life back on track, started my first Master's journey towards education EC-6 and Family and Consumer Sciences. in March 2010 I met my now husband. He was a huge supporter of everything I wanted to do with my life. In November 2010 I decided to move to Monroe, Louisiana to be closer to him and finish my Master's program at the local university. March 2011, he proposed at my fashion show with all of my sorority sisters' help (best night ever!!). We got married 9-10-11 in my hometown; Sulphur, Louisiana. After getting married we moved to Houston, Texas where I became the Fashion, Interior Design and Child Development/Guidance Instructor at a high school. My husband got a job as a Chemical Technologist at a chemical plant. We decided to start a family right away, and we literally got pregnant right away! On June 1, 2012 we had our first child; a beautiful baby boy.

So far life has given me lots of downs, but way more ups. I look forward to the future.