CCECC News
Kids Connection Article
Creating your own celebration for the Week of the Young Child
April 25, 2012
It’s time to celebrate! Celebrate the warmth and beauty of spring. Celebrate the natural warmth and beauty children bring. Celebrate the important role parents and adults have in raising children.
It’s easy to get caught up in our busy schedules and forget the reason we are working hard. Take a few minutes or an hour or a day to enjoy the results. Celebrating gives us time to reflect on the good that we sometimes overlook.
Many across the country are celebrating Week of the Young Child (WOYC) focusing on the idea that “Early years are learning years.” WOYC is an annual celebration sponsored by National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The celebration focuses on public attention of young children, and their families, while recognizing programs and services that meet those needs. There are many ways to celebrate, including simple celebrations.
Take an extra hour this week to be with your child. Make their favorite breakfast or dinner and tell them why they are a special kid. Take them to story time at the library (each Wednesday at 10:00 am). Go swimming at Tot Parent Swim at the Salida Hot Springs Pool each day, Monday through Saturday, from 10:00 am to noon. Pool prices are reduced for this activity.
While you are celebrating, remember to honor your role as a parent, caregiver, or special adult in a child’s life. Parenting is hard work and it is a critical job. Take time to pat yourself on the back. Make a mental or handwritten list of the things you have done well for your child. Reading a book every day. Giving them your full attention when they tell you a story. Preparing healthy snacks. Going for a walk.
Chaffee County is fortunate to have many experienced professionals that support parents with young children including many licensed day care providers, experienced preschools, agencies that support families with nutritional and health care programs and resources about healthy physical and emotional growth. We have many beneficial county resources that deserve recognition.
The Chaffee County Early Childhood Council brings these professionals and agencies together in a network that helps identify needs and work together for the benefit of families. Their work provides realistic and useful tips, resources, the Raising Children Made Easier brochure (available in print at local libraries and on their website www.CCECC.org). They are also working to support families and ensure children arrive at kindergarten ready to learn and begin their journey to adulthood successfully. One of their programs is an Ages & Stages workshop for service care providers – preschool employees, day care and nursery workers, and others who support families. Ages & Stages helps parents and service providers identify where a child excels and where they might need some extra practice or support. This workshop will be Saturday, May 5 from 9 am to 1 pm at the Valley Fellowship Church (608 South San Juan in Buena Vista). Register by calling 221-5114.
It takes all of us to learn from each other, support each other, and celebrate together.
January 20, 2012
Submitted by Lezlie Burkley
Our children’s world: experience it without spending a dime.
We are surrounded by technology – cell phones, IPods, TVs, Wii, and laptops. Whew! It is a new world that is exciting, sometimes over stimulating, and expensive. This is the world, the future, of our children. It is important to remember that children need to understand technology and be comfortable with it. It is also important that they see the non-technological world around them. Imagination. Nature. Relationships. The time to share or explore these areas are free, while technology costs.
What can you do to explore non-technological worlds?
Consider a technology free time during your day or week when cell phones are turned off and computers are shut down. Try it and see what happens. Read books together. In warmer weather take a bucket of crayons and paper outside and draw what you see. Have dinner together (without answering the phone) and talk about the best part of your day. Make cookies. Hammer nails in an old board. Take a walk and listen to the crunch of autumn leaves or new fallen snow. Play at the park. Throw rocks in the river. Listen to the birds. Plant sunflower seeds and watch them each week to see when they sprout. Go fishing. Play hide and seek.
Show your child that technology does not have to be a part of every moment and that time together is valuable. Let them see and touch the beauty of the world around them. Research shows that time outdoors and away from computers and TVs can reduce your child’s stress while increasing their creativity and curiosity. Your child can also benefit by improving coordination and decreasing the likelihood of obesity. There are some who say a break from computer screens may make kids less likely to need glasses.
So, turn off the cell phone, the TV, the computer for a brief time. Explore another world with your child. Enjoy the world that is at their fingertips, beyond keyboards and screens. It is free and it will make their lives richer.
Lezlie Burkley is the marketing coordinator for Chaffee County Early Childhood Council. For more tips on raising young children visit the Council’s website at www.ccecc.org or call Chaffee County Early Childhood Council at 221-5114.
