Valley Impact

Littlest Critics Give Thumbs Up to Children's Museum

Today was the grand opening of the Children's Museum of Phoenix.  I took two of my toughest & smallest critics (my 16 month and 3 year old boys) to the ribbon cutting for a test drive.  The verdict?  It blew my kids away.  My three year said "It was fun!!"....even the birthday party with the petting zoo didn't get as enthusiastic of a post event review.

The museum is 70,000 square feet housed in the former historic Monroe school.  Fifty thousand square feet opened today, with the remainder scheduled to open by the end of the year. It has three floors and is filled with sensory, hands-on, educational fun.  My little guys first visited a giant "forest" of foam tubes hanging from the ceiling. They had fun getting engulfed and running through the tubes.  We next went over to a reading and crawling corner.  I love the little nook filled with books, bean bags, pillows and chairs for spontaneous reading. 

We next ventured to the third floor where we found the cooking stations.  The kids were very engaged in the pizza making.  My oldest spent time selecting his toppings, rolling out the dough and taking care to put the pizza in the brick oven to cook.  My youngest spent the majority of the time, decorating his head with the pizza makings.  None of the staff even blinked an eye...in fact, they encouraged his creativity by handing him more. Both kids then proceeded to the shopping center where they scooped and poured lentils into various buckets.  I couldn't peel my youngest away.  I even transplated him a few yards away and he made his way back to the lentil scooping...several times! Lastly my three year old checked out shoppers with their baskets of groceries.   You can shop for fruit, vegetables and canned goods with kid sized shopping carts.

Next door, my little guy was enthralled by the toddler area with flowers to "plant", another reading nook with books such as Brown Bear, Brown Bear and a small pit of balls. There also were play houses and baby dolls to care for too.

One of our last stops was the atrium.  It is a large area with a myriad of tunnels to crawl through and around.  Flickers of light reflected off the cd wall and placed "dancing" dots on the floor for kids to chase.

On top of the large selection of engaging activities for children , the museum is very kid and parent friendly.  There are "parking spots" for strollers; bathrooms with little people sinks and toilets; diaper changing stations with wipes and a diaper genie.  There is even a gift shop with educational and high-quality toys.

Overall, my little critics give it a big thumbs up.  After witnessing our kids occupied for 2 hours straight, then falling quickly asleep in the car, my husband and I said "where do we sign-up?"  We became charter members and plan to come back often.  It is a great way to get out of the Phoenix heat during the summer and keep kids engaged for hours on end.  I am proud to say that the museum has propelled Phoenix ahead by providing robust early education opportunities for it's youngest citizens. 

Note:  To see more pictures, check out the Children's Museum photo album.  Read more information on how the Junior League of Phoenix is supporting the museum as a core program here.  Coming soon - early childhood educational programming in the museum's "The Junior League of Phoenix classroom". 

New Home Needed for Arizonans for Children

I have personally worked with Arizonans for Children for almost seven years.  As a Court Appointed Special Advocate (C.A.S.A.) and member of The Junior League of Phoenix, I have had many opportunities to leverage and work with their awesome services they provide foster children.  I was dismayed to recently learn that they are losing one of their main homes in Historic First Church on June 30th.  This will substantially disrupt valuable services to kids in need.  They currently serve 1,900 people a month in this facility!

Arizonans for Children is a nonprofit committed to improving the fragile lives of foster children by providing opportunities to help them break out of the cycle of abuse and poverty.  In the words of Kaye McCarthy, "we focus on providing a safe, comfortable and neutral environment specifically designated for supervised visitations with non-custodial parents and other family.  We also work to develop and offer innovate programs which help foster youth improve academic success, develop self esteem and life skills, and make a successful transition to independent adulthood."  One of the valuable programs is Life Books, which the Junior League is actively supporting as a core program call Journey of Me. 

What kind of home do they need? They need at least 5,000 square feet to set -up in a home-like safe cozy space.  They currently have a game room with pool tables, living room settings, toddler room, nursery, kitchen, outdoor play ground and parking.  If you know of a school, charter school, church or some other facility that is willing and able to house these services, please give a shout out on this blog or contact Kaye directly at 480-838-0085 or kayemccar@cox.net.

Building Our Youth for the Future

As I referenced in Arizona's Risk: The Early Childhood Education Challenges, the challenges that make up Early Childhood Education and Development are immense.  Over the last year, the Junior League of Phoenix had to decide where we were going to jump in without boiling the ocean or diverging too far from our mission.  We wanted to stay away from quick fixes, yet at the same time find opportunities that weren't bogged down in legislative or policy issues.  We wanted to make an immediate impact.  We have finalized where we are heading over the next fiscal year (May '08-April '09).  I wanted to share the path we are embarking down.

What is our Impact?  We are preparing children to successfully enter kindergarten

How will we do this?  By focusing on improving the quality of early education programs and addressing family literacy

How is the League impacting Early Childhood Education today?  By engaging the minds, muscles and imaginations of children as a founding member of Phoenix's first children's museum - Children's Museum of Phoenix; and by facilitating high quality educational opportunities for low-income families at Phoenix Day, a child learning center.

Where are we looking to expand our programming?

• Increase the use of curriculum based programming in early education centers
• Provide teacher/center director with skills training & resources
• Raise public awareness of what children need to be ready for kindergarten
• Increase parental involvement in educational opportunities
• Improve the quantity and quality of reading with parents at home

In the very near future we will ready a Request for Proposal (RFP) to send out to potential collaborative, resource and financial partners to develop and launch future programming with us.  In the meantime, I welcome any feedback on the areas we have carved out for our focused efforts.   I also welcome any potential partners beginning conversations around where we can join forces.  As Franklin D. Roosevelt said best, "We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future."  I look forward to building our youth together.

Celebrate: Week of the Young Child

April 13th-19th is the official Week of the Young Child. It is sponsored by the National Association for the Educatoin of Young Children (NAEYC).  This is an important week for us to take time to reflect on the state of early childhood education and development.  Research has proven that children who attend quality early education programs enjoy a better quality of life, more likely to graduate high school, attend a 4 year college, hold down higher paying jobs and avoid a life of crime.  What can you do to celebrate the young child and make a difference?

*  Support Literacy in Young Children and families:  Donate books to Southwest Human Development's Reach Out and Read program or better yet, volunteer your time to read for the program.

* Voice your input to your elected officials:  Children's Action Alliance makes it easy for you.  There is a website that tracks legislation that impacts children and allows you to send a note.

* Partner, volunteer or support The Junior League of Phoenix.  You can have a direct impact together with an organization of trained volunteers dedicated to improving the Phoenix community for the past 72 years.

What ways are you celebrating?

Arizona's Risk: The Early Education Challenges

Research shows that from 0 to age 6 is the most important time in a child’s development.    If care and feeding of the child’s development does not occur, then children are at a higher risk for needing remedial reading and delinquent behavior.  The potential future ramifications will be a burden on all citizens of Arizona. Studies have shown that the future issues can cost Arizona taxpayers and impact our economic future.  For every $1 invested in early childhood education, Arizona will save $6 - $17 in future costs. 

Currently Arizona ranks 36^th in overall child well being out of 50 states (Source: Children’s Action Alliance). Arizona kindergarten teachers report that 48% of all children entering school do not have essential skills to succeed (Source: Children’s Action Alliance).  What are the gaps? 

Lack of affordable & accessible healthcare

Currently there are 250,000 children who are uninsured living in Arizona.  Arizona has the highest rate of uninsured children (source: Children’s Action Alliance).  The Pew Charitable Trust notes that it is important for care to begin in the womb.  Prenatal care plus early health care implemented in conjunction with pre-k programs is essential for successfully development of young brains.

Lack of high quality early education opportunities

Only 17% of child care centers in Arizona are NAEYC accredited (Source: AZ Early Education Funds).  This means that high-quality early education opportunities aren’t widely accessible.  In addition, there is limited access to state funded pre-school programs.  Arizona only has 1-9% of four year old children in state funded school programs (Source: Pew Charitable Trust).  Adding to the low availability of high-quality early education is the growing challenge associated with the ability to draw and retain early education teachers and staff that have a strong educational and training background.  Arizona’s early education industry provides little incentive for teachers to remain in the field.  Successfully early education programs adhere to high standards of quality (i.e. accreditation) and employee teachers with bachelor’s degrees with training in early education.

Low levels of Family Literacy

Quality early education and development requires that children are exposed to extensive vocabularies, reading, writing and counting.  This is severely limited if within the family unit, there are low levels of literacy.  In Maricopa County’s Community Vital Signs Report it was highlighted that in particular, Latino children at a higher disadvantage.  Latino children in the greater metropolitan area have a high percentage of parents who have not completed more than 9^th grade and English is not the primary language. Avondale, Buckeye, El Mirage, Gila Bend, Guadalupe, Phoenix, Queen Creek and the Gila River & Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian communities are the most at risk communities. 

What the Junior League of Phoenix is doing

The Junior League of Phoenix has adopted Early Childhood Education as our new focus area.  We are working with community leaders to solidfy program areas we would like to invest within.  In future posts I will be outlining where the Junior League will make an impact.  I would love to hear your thoughts in the state of Early Childhood Education and what can be done to make a difference.  The jlp website has more information too.