Helping Our Children Succeed

Do you know that the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care has a team of five early childhood experts helping to “build brains” in libraries and museums throughout Berkshire County? These experts are known as family engagement specialists, and they provide a wide range of learning opportunities for families and children - from the time they are born until they enter school.

The programs they offer range from preschool gym time to story times to STEAM activities for little scientists and everything in between. For example, in partnership with South Berkshire Kids, the Berkshire Museum takes some of their most popular programs on the road to south county locations, introducing young minds to reptiles and small animals. Miss Jess invites the children in attendance to touch them, as she cautions, “This reptile is small, so you need to pet him with just one finger, very gently. He likes to be stroked from his head down to his tail.”  As each child patiently waits his or her turn, with a pointed finger and an inquiring mind, they make observations and ask questions - “He is soft, and really cold,” and “Why does he have spots?” 

Learning happens everywhere, and we all want our children to succeed. To learn more about these and other early learning programs, please visit our website. By supporting families and promoting early literacy, we can all help our kids arrive at school ready to learn!

Karen Vogel
Director of Community Impact

School Readiness Begins at Birth

When people talk about children preparing for kindergarten, reading, writing and reciting the ABC’s are among the first things that come to mind. While the development of these skills plays an important role in kindergarten readiness, there are additional things we can do to help our children succeed.

This includes helping them develop the skills necessary to plan, focus their attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully. While we aren’t born with these skills, we are born with the potential to develop them through interactions and practice.

Berkshire United Way, in collaboration with our partners at Childcare of the Berkshires, South Berkshire Kids and Kidzone Child Care Educational Centers, has created a “school readiness” Growth Chart. The chart is designed to help families support their child in developing these skills from birth right up to age five. Our goal…to help our children arrive at school ready to learn!

Easton and his parents love using their Growth Chart to measure his growth, both physically and developmentally!

Our Growth Chart includes multiple activities you can do with your children to develop fine and gross motor skills, language and literacy, problem-solving, and social-emotional skills. It also highlights the importance of community building skills, which include visiting our local library, museum, and attending playgroups and early childhood preschool programs.

The colors and photos in the growth chart design were carefully selected to engage children and their caregivers. One local grandmother recently shared the following story with us.

Imagine my delight as my 5-year old granddaughter, Anna exclaimed, "Thanks for the growth chart Mimi!” Anna is 46" tall and her younger brother, Maverick, is 29" (it was a challenge getting his height because he likes to be on his tippy toes).

Anna can do most of the things she should be able to in year 5 (she can't quite take care of her own hair), however, Maverick can do the 1st year things and a few 2nd year things. Anna and I had a great time talking about it!   -  A local grandmother, aka Mimi

Anna measures her younger brother, Maverick, using the Growth Chart.

To obtain your FREE growth chart, please email me at sadornetto@berkshireunitedway.org.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Stephanie
Coordinator of Early Childhood Development

FREE play groups offer so much more than play!

Did you know…that talking to babies right from the start and carrying on conversations with young children can result in a higher IQ, verbal comprehension, and language processing for children up to 10 years later!  Results of a 10-year longitudinal study by Lena researchers further shares that two-way conversations with children from 18-24 months are particularly important.

Berkshire United Way’s aspirational goals include making sure every child in Berkshire County enters kindergarten with the skills needed to be successful in the years to follow. Berkshire United Way partners and supports many programs that foster parent-child relationships, increase knowledge of child development, and help connect families with community resources.

One such program, the Coordinated Family and Community Engagement (CFCE) supports five regional community-based programs that promote family engagement. Each region hosts a variety of monthly literacy-based activities designed for young children and their families. Recognizing parents as a child’s first teacher, parents can work with their children to build on strengths, encourage creativity, and have fun meeting new friends. FREE for all families, programs offer playgroups, parent education classes and workshops, and connections to local resources. Some programs have free diapers, a clothing exchange, and most offer monthly family events.

A participant in a play group held at the The Family Center in North Adams, expresses her inner artist!

Check out the links below to find a playgroup near you and please share this blog with a family you know!

The Family Center North Adams

South Berkshire Kids

Central Berkshire Regional School District CFCE

Pittsfield CFCE

Community Health Program CHP Playgroups

Talk to you again soon -
Stephanie

Coordinator of Early Childhood Development

Creating a world of wonder

Yesterday, a child came out to wonder.  He caught a dragonfly inside a jar.

Fearful when the sky was full of thunder, and tearful at the falling of a star.

So begins The Circle Game, a song by Joni Mitchell about growing up. 

For some families, the early years are full of this sort of curiosity and wonder; filled with summer days with skinned knees, berry stained fingers, buckets of minnows, jars of fireflies, campfires with sing-alongs, or hot dogs at the ball park. Chapter One, a Berkshire United Way-led coalition, is working with community partners to ensure that all families, no matter how stormy the skies may be in the struggle for stability, have access to experiences that build connection and curiosity.

We invite families to join us on the journey to kindergarten at our upcoming Get Ready for K Day, on Saturday, April 7 from 1 to 3 p.m. at Berkshire South Regional Community Center in Great Barrington. Hosted in partnership with CHP Family Services and South Berkshire Kids, we’ll launch the Word Project’s 1^st Annual Kinder Art Show, featuring art work by students in Sunshine Preschool, Head Start and CHP’s Play and Learn group.

Families who attend will have an opportunity to practice carrying their lunch trays as part of the lunch tray relays with South Berkshire Kids.  They’ll also be able to obtain information about kindergarten registration from local schools, play and learn with the Parent Child Home Program, and learn how to tell stories and watch them come to life with The Word Project’s Live Actors!

Michelle Hayden, playgroup leader for South Berkshire Kids at the 1^st annual Get Ready for K Day on April 8, 2017.  Interactive activities build social, emotional, cognitive and physical connections.

Together, we can ensure each kindergarten class arrives at school ready to learn, and begin their wonder-filled journey. As The Circle Game says, the years quickly spin by, and yes, some dreams may lose grandeur coming true. But we can ensure our community is one where all children have learned how to use their sense of wonder to overcome their fears amidst the thunder storms of life, so that together, we make new dreams, and plenty of them.

 

Amy Taylor
South County Community Liaison

Building a better tomorrow

Two years ago, I met Angeline D’Oro in a conference room at the Fairview Hospital Workplace Campaign Ice Cream Social. As I spoke with Angeline about the investments Berkshire United Way is making in our community, I told her one of our goals is to close the achievement gap faced by young children in southern Berkshire County. When she placed her pledge card in my hand, she asked, “If I give you my $3 per week, you will work to make sure that what happened to me, doesn’t happen to the next generation?  That tomorrow will be better than yesterday?” 

Angeline’s donation is one voice in a chorus of donors, volunteers and advocates who are literally forming a united way, or path to success for every child in our community. 

Last month, the Maternal Child Health department at Fairview Hospital met with Chapter One’s Resource Coordination work group.  This group includes the Care Coordinators of Macony Pediatrics and CHP, Pediatric Development Center, Discovering Your Baby Project of Austen Riggs, Lifeworks Studio, South Berkshire Kids and CHP’s OB/GYN.

‘Welcoming each baby to the spinning Earth’  from left to right:  Amy Taylor of Berkshire United Way, Gina Kirchner of Fairview Hospital, Maureen Atwood of Pediatric Development Center, Ilana Siegal of Lifeworks Studio, Kate Jewson of Austen Riggs, Dr. Donna Elmendorf of Austen Riggs, Dr. Claudia Gold of Austen Riggs, Jessica Maloney of South Berkshire Kids, Lisa Fraine of CHP OB/GYN, Elizabeth Nichols of Fairview Hospital, Jamie LaFreniere of Fairview Hospital, Adrien Conklin of Macony Pediatrics, Cynthia Segui of CHP Family Services.  Photo by Deborah Phillips of Fairview Hospital.

Each individual and organization brought with them the voices of the parents and babies in their care.  Together, we work to strengthen the ingredients of a good day for each new baby, from prenatal care to family support, creating happier, healthier and stronger families. The collective resolve sounded quite like a refrain from a beloved children’s book, On The Day You Were Born.  One could almost hear this same chorus of hushed voices saying, “Welcome to the spinning Earth.  We’re so glad you’ve come.”

To every mother, father, community member and caregiver, we are slowly but surely realizing Angeline’s dream.  Tomorrow is going to be better than yesterday.

Amy Taylor

South County Community Liaison