As the nation celebrates Week of the Young Child this week, Osceola’s The Village Early Childhood Center works to remind of the importance of education in the lives of young children.
Celebrated annually for the last 55 years, the Week of the Young Child is sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. Week of the Young Child seeks to celebrate the needs of young children and their families, as well as the importance of programs and serviced offered by early childhood programs.
“The point is to get advocacy out of the importance of early childhood education, just because we kind of get lost in the shuffle a lot, and how important we really are,” said Crystal Hansen, executive director of The Village.
Week of the Young Child features a different theme each day - Music Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Work Together Wednesday, Artsy Thursday and Family Friday. Typically, Clarke band seniors perform for the kids on Mondays, The Village kitchen makes a fun meal on Tuesdays, the kids travel to the nursing home on Wednesdays to work on a project with residents, make art projects on Thursdays and do something fun for families on Fridays, especially the parents.
“We wouldn’t be here without them choosing us, and we try to celebrate back to our parents,” Hansen said.
While this year will be a little more quiet around The Village, they do still plan to visit the nursing home and having a fun Tuesday meal.
Importance
According to the Five First Years Fund, the first five years of a child’s life have a big role in their development and growth.
“Ninety percent of the brain develops by the time of age five. So by the time they go to kindergarten, most of the brain’s already developed,” Hansen said. “Early education is extremely important in that.”
With the brain at its most flexible, those five years are crucial to learning and growth, and lay the foundation for school readiness with both learning and social-emotional aspects.
While formal preschool at The Village begins at age 3, learning starts well before that in the infant rooms, as Hansen said by age 3, a great deal of development in the brain has already begun.
The Village offers creative curriculum for ages six weeks to 12 years, tailored to the age group. Younger kids start with fine motor and gross motor skills, and as they age up add in science projects, daily math, music and literacy to name a few.
“The earlier they get education, the better,” Hansen said.
In addition to 3-year-old preschool and daycare, The Village offers before and after school programs for kids up to age 12, as well as summer programs. There are no income restrictions to partake in any of the programs, they are based on openings.
Garage sale
With 110 kids aged infant through 12 at The Village - with about 40 at with HeadStart who rent part of the building - they are looking to make some changes to accommodate their growth by converting part of the walk-out basement into a second school-age classroom.
“All our rooms on our main level are full,” Hansen said. The large room in the basement has previously been used for indoor recess.
To make room, they are going to be cleaning out and holding a garage sale from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. There will be toys, baby dolls, puzzles, games, shelving, ride-on toys and other large items. The garage sale is open to the public.