Hello Angie,

NAEYC WEEK OF THE YOUNG CHILD 2024: a fun-filled week celebrating early learning, young children, their teachers, families, and communities.

April 8-12 is Week of the Young Child. This is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the nation’s largest organization of early childhood professionals with more than 80,000 members and a network of 300 local, state, and regional affiliates.

The purpose of the Week of the Young Child is to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs/services that meet those needs.

NAEYC first established the Week of the Young Child in 1971, recognizing that the early childhood years (birth through age 8) lay the foundation for children’s success in school and later life.

We are taking a break from our usual Creative Curriculum studies & activities this week to celebrate the Week of the Young Child:

MUSIC MONDAY

Today is all about music and movement! Each classroom will find the beat to connect music, movement, and math. We will practice clapping, drumming, or stomping to the beat of the music while counting. Some classrooms may do a parade through the center and some classrooms may have a dance party in the large motor classroom!

TASTY TUESDAY

Did you know that cooking together connects math with literacy skills, science, and more? On Tasty Tuesday, we’ll be cooking up a storm! We’re starting the day with a yogurt bar with yummy toppings and will make our own afternoon snack!

WORK TOGETHER WEDNESDAY!

We’re going on a scavenger hunt and will be working together to find all the animals hidden in the classroom and hallway! The older preschoolers will also be working to do some cleaning at our playground and get it ready for spring!

ARTSY THURSDAY

On Artsy Thursday, we’ll celebrate the joy and learning children experience when engaged in creative art making. To make the day even better—please wear specific colors for each of our classrooms (we’re making a rainbow!):

Infants: Red & pink

Pandas/Roos/Koalas: Purple

Puppies: Blue

Penguins: Green

PreK: Red & pink

FAMILY FRIDAY

Our toddlers and preschoolers invite you to come for an afternoon picnic snack at 4 PM. Please bring a blanket to sit on. If the weather is good, we will picnic outside, and if not, we’ll stay in our classrooms. We will provide the snack food & beverages!

Parents: you can support our amazing Early Childhood Educators by bringing in some yummy treats for the teachers this week. There will be a Sign Up Genius to donate treats (and we will also have a teacher appreciation luncheon in May, so don’t worry if all the spots are filled quickly). We thank you for your generosity!

CENTER HAPPENINGS

COSTUME KIM

Costume Kim will visit our toddlers and preschoolers on Friday, April 19, with her “Ribbit for Rain and Earth Day” show, starting at 10:30.

INFANT HAPPY HOUR

We invite our infant families to another Infant Happy Hour on Tuesday, April 23, in the Edinborough Office Conference room, starting at 4:30 PM. Mr. Kyle, our music teacher, will be joining us for a rockin’ good time! We’ll serve some simple snacks and will be sure to wrap up by 5:30 PM. We hope you will come and meet our other infant families and parents!

SPRING DANCE RECITAL

Our Spring Dance Recital for children who are enrolled in Kid Dance will take place Wednesday, May 22.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

THANK YOU, READERS!

We had so many fun parent and grandparent readers during the month of March and wanted to send out a special thank you to everyone who came and read stories to us! Reading is so important, and it’s even more fun when you can share it!

EFC BOOK BAGS

We have a new selection of book bags available in the staff lounge/office area! Children can stop by and “check out” a book bag, take it home, read the books and bring it back a few days later for others to use. In some of the bags, a stuffed animal may accompany the books. We hope you will enjoy this added literacy opportunity!

FAMILY REMINDERS

EFC will be closed for Teacher Professional Development Day on Friday, May 24, and for Memorial Day on Monday, May 27.

Spring Conferences will be held in late May.

ESPECIALLY FOR PARENTS

I have a confession to make…I don’t always enjoy playing with my kids. I know that makes me sound like a terrible parent, so let me explain (and try to defend myself a little!). Play is important for kids – more than important, play is essential. Knowing that, I seek out as many opportunities as possible for my kids to play. But when they ask me to play with them, I sometimes bristle. Imaginative play, such as playing make believe, just doesn’t do it for me. I struggle getting into “character” and if I am honest, I find the whole thing just a little dull. Phew, it feels good to confess!

But just because I don’t like a certain type of play doesn’t mean that I write off the importance of play altogether. As much as we have all read the research on the important role play has in early childhood development, we may not be as aware of the fact that play is critical for us as adults too. Even for adults, play has some serious benefits: it encourages creativity, releases endorphins, and improves brain function. Play reduces stress and promotes joy. And we could all use a little less stress and a little more joy.

The good news (for me and hopefully for you) is that there are many different ways to play. So if you, like me, don’t exactly love sitting down to a tea party, rest assured that there are many ways to engage in play with your children that are fun for you and for them. Brené Brown, professor and nationally recognized author, writes that play has three key elements:

It’s time spent without purpose
It’s something you don’t want to end
It leads to a loss of self-consciousness.[1]

By those metrics, there are a myriad of ways that we as adults can embrace play in our lives. Make believe is only one type of play, but (thankfully) there is the rough-and-tumble play of sports, the ritual play of games like chess, the body play of hiking or yoga, and the object play of building legos or making a fort.[2] In all of these types of play we can get lost in the moment with our children and embrace the joy of play as simply that – something done joyfully and without and end in mind. So get out there and find your favorite way to play.

[1] https://www.shortform.com/blog/brene-brown-creativity/

[2] https://wanderlust.com/journal/the-importance-of-play-in-adulthood/