Every year Regional Kids First works towards ensuring early learning is fun and accessible. In relation to this dedication towards youth 5-years-old and younger Regional Kids First hosts a day of IMPACT (Intriguing Minds: Parents and Children Together) days in communities.
On Thursday, Jan. 23, the Arcola School's library was the place to be for parents and their young children.
Here Madeleine Valentine with Regional Kids First was able to bring a curriculum forward for a fun early learning day focused on ensuring youth have the developmental skills needed at their age.
The library was filled with different stations focusing on four over arching themes: Physical Health and Well Being, Communication Skills and General Knowledge, Language and Cognitive Development, and Social Competence.
With 10 different stations set up around the library, youth and their parents visited each one. From playing hopscotch to reading to putting together puzzles different skills were being put to use as the youth busily worked at each station.
After visiting and completing a station the youth then received a complementary gift including puzzle books, colouring books, finger puppets, PlayDough, and much more all directed at helping develop skills pre-schoolers should have.
In order to provide such an event Valentine applied for and received a Community Initiative Grant through Kids First to give parents and their children the opportunity to take part in such an event.
This is the second year that Arcola has hosted the event. In the past they had previously worked in conjunction with Carlyle's IMPACT day; but, Arcola now has a large enough population to support the event on its own which has been met by success.
Overall Regional Kids First looks to ensure youth are growing and are supported by caring families. A joint initiative of the Ministry of Education, Health, Social Services, and First Nations and Métis Relations it has seen success in community development.
With four goals, Regional Kids First, continually looks to make positive impacts in the community. First ensuring a positive interaction between parents and children, secondly they are focused on child development and well-being, they also have resources for providing information to ensure a healthy pregnancy and birth, while they also strive to bring awareness to early childhood development which IMPACT is strongly focused on.
"We basically look for opportunities in communities to advance learning for ages zero to five," Valentine explained. "We try and make the best of their first five years."
Valentine went on to say that the volunteers who help are integral in the success of the IMPACT program.
"Thank you to all of the volunteers in Arcola," Valentine said. "I put the curriculum together, but it doesn't come to fruition without them. There's lots of great early childhood volunteers here today from the school, the library, and the community at large."
