Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

I have hopes of establishing contact with someone from Ireland, England and perhaps Australia or New Zealand. My husband has family members in three of these countries. The name of Siobhan Fitzpatrick has come up as the contact for Ireland, so I will try her. Failing that I will try someone in County Donegal directly. A family member living in England (Madeline Reddington) has been a teacher of small children for a number of years. In Australia, I hope to use a niece as a contact to the early childhood educator that teaches her children. E-mails have gone out, I await their reply. These three countries are more socialized than we are in America. Two of these countries are having trouble with budget cuts. I am wondering how that is affecting the school systems. Australia is in stable financial condition but does have an influx of immigrants from Asia plus their own indigenous people which can pose challenges.

To expand my resources, I have signed up to Donegal County Childcare Committee, Ltd. They have an enewsletter. http://www.startstrong.ie One of their current articles is about expanding learning through play all day long! Early Childhood Australia, http://earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/ has a magazine entitled “Every Child”. I am currently reading their article “Catering to Diversity”. I plan to also check into the Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families for their newsletter. The National Association for the Education of Young Children will be a spot I go to also. By the way I saw on their web site that the week of April 22-28 has been designated as the week of the young child. “Early Years are Learning Years”.