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| 'Week of the Young Child' events scheduled for Windham include many unique activities at the Windham Public Library along with a weeklong scavenger hunt for area families. COURTESY PHOTO |
With a full slate of activities scheduled over the coming week
in Windham for the Week of the Young Child®, organizers are hoping to raise
awareness of the vital role that early childhood education plays in a
community.
The Week of the Young Child® is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the world's largest early childhood education association, with nearly 60,000 members and a network of 52 Affiliates. The Maine Association for the Education of Young Children (MaineAEYC) is the state affiliate of NAEYC and has over 450 members statewide and serves as part of the Leadership Team of the Right from the Start Coalition.
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 and services that meet those needs, said Heather
Marden, Policy Director for the Maine Association for the Education of Young
Children.
“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. The Week of the
Young Child® is a time to plan how we, as citizens of a community, of a state,
and of a nation, will better meet the needs of all young children and their
families,” Marden said.
She said this issue is significant here in the Lakes Region and across Maine because many families require access to affordable, reliable and quality childcare programs to maintain employment.
“Cumberland County data shows that 75 percent of children under 6 have all available parents in the workforce, Marden said. “A child's brain is around 90 percent developed by the time they reach kindergarten, and their early care and learning experiences lay the foundation from which they build their learning upon.”
According to Marden, early childhood years are so crucial that
economists calculate that for every $1 invested in these younger years, the
return is anywhere from $8 to $12 in the future.
“Strong early experiences can shape outcomes such as reducing
incarceration rates, increasing graduation rates and leading to better
physical health and well-being,” she said. “However,
childcare is often a struggle to find and difficult to afford for the average
Maine family. Yearly childcare tuition can rival an in-state college
tuition.”
While the cost of
childcare remains a significant expense for families, programs cannot afford to
pay wages that are competitive with other Maine businesses or education jobs,
Marden said.
“Many childcare
programs operate on less than a 1 percent margin. Childcare educators earn less
than 98 percent of all other workers in the U.S. according to a Sept. 2021 U.S.
Department of the Treasury Report. Yet childcare is a critical element for
parents to participate in Maine’s economy.”
Communities are stronger when our youngest citizens are
supported, and Marden said that we are beyond the years where childcare was
often thought of as simply babysitting.
“Families accessing quality childcare and educators providing
nurturing learning environments can vouch that childcare is so much more.
The research and knowledge we now know about the first five years being the
most foundational years for brain development, shows that every relationship
and experience shapes the architecture of a child's brain,” she said. “As
families, educators and community members we can all play a role in creating
positive environments for our youngest children.
The public can get involved in boosting early development
programs in the Lakes Region by supporting early learning opportunities for
children, Marden said.
“Businesses can evaluate their employment practices in
supporting their employees in accessing childcare,” she said. “A business
leader simply getting to understanding childcare challenges for employees can
lead to discussions on what type of support might be needed. Childcare programs
need reliable substitute teachers. Many educators struggle to get time
off for medical appointments, let alone well-deserved vacation days.
Marden said community members can reach out to programs to
find out how to become a sub and that families can show support for the child
programs through words of encouragement and acknowledging the particularly
difficult hardships that childcare programs faced to try to stay open through
the pandemic.
“Most of all, we can support policy initiatives that provide
support for this vital sector in our community,” she said. “The Week of the
Young Child has always been about celebrating and raising awareness.
While COVID-19 had many of the in-person activities on pause for two years, we
are so happy to have given out 14 grants this year to communities to bring
these events back in person.”
With the tremendous difficulties families, children and early
childhood programs faced through the pandemic, Marden says that people are
receiving the Week of the Young Child® with joy and triumph for persevering
through such challenging times.
Week of the Young Child® events
in Windham include a fun family scavenger hunt hosted by the Windham Public
Library, Creative Explorations, Little Log Cabin Montessori, A Joyful Noise,
Birchwood Nursery School and A Child’s World and families can enter a drawing
to win a prize basket worth more than $100.
“Maine lost over 140 childcare programs over the last few years, and we are looking forward to supporting the rebuilding of the childcare system in Maine to come back bigger and stronger,” Marden said. “In particular the field is excited about potential policies to provide ongoing wage stipends for childcare educators to boost the systemic low wages in the field that cause significant turnover and reduces quality programming for children and families.” <
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