Re-Fresh, Re-Charge

I wish it were as easy as it sounds to give ourselves a break. I think we’ve all tried many ways to set boundaries, and to refresh ourselves. Some things work for a short time, some things are just bad ideas, and sometimes we just need a reminder to separate who we are from what we do.

The most beneficial thing for many of us is to spend time outdoors. This works for me whether it’s my backyard, or camping/hiking, or a walk or bike ride. Not only does it get me out of my remote office…, but it’s just different being outside – the sunshine, the fresh air, and the moving around. Any time of year is good, but right now, in the middle of summer is my favorite time to be outdoors! Take time or make time whenever you can, to be outside. When I really can’t get outside, I have found that YouTube has some virtual shows to watch while you walk or even ride a stationary bike indoors. I’ve virtually walked in Hawaii and in a few national parks!

One nice thing I’ve seen happening in your programs is having the children, and so many learning materials, outdoors. Some programs are spending most of the day outdoors when the weather allows. A few years ago, we had speakers at our Pitkin County In-Service present on natural materials for young children, natural outdoor learning spaces, and bringing natural materials into the classroom. It was inspiring to see examples of how the children used the materials – and how peaceful everyone, adults and children were in the spaces! It’s also great that natural materials aren’t necessarily expensive, they can even be “found” objects.

So many of their ideas for outdoor learning areas are even more relevant today – indoor-outdoor transitions, paths, places to gather, decks, sandscapes, waterscapes, edible landscapes, and shade, just to name a few. They have a fantastic website with a ton of ideas and resources, and you can sign up to get their newsletter - https://naturalearning.org/.

For you and for the children you care for – enjoy your outdoor time, it can:

Support gross motor skills
Encourage healthy eating
Improve eyesight
Promote cognitive development
Improve academic performance
Lessen ADHD symptoms
Promote self-confidence
Reduce stress
Boost immune system

Shirley Ritter
Director, Kids First

Great days at Aspen Mountain Tots

Outside play with loose part, frozen ice balls, some with great surprises, watch them melt or chipping/chopping, frozen

Painted rocks puzzle and explore, journey paths and lines

Fort play, social distancing, shade, dramatic play

Game playing with natural parts, tic tac toe

Dramatic play and full PPE

Napping in the shade

What Does Literacy Mean to You?
Emergent Literacy in Early Childhood
(Angela Lewis, Ph.D., ECSE)

Signs of Emergent Literacy by age:

Infants (birth-12 mo.): Infant become keen observers in their daily life, showing attention to speech, ongoing events, and sharing references (eye contact or acknowledging the same object). Dialogic turn taking and independent interactions also occur at this age.

Toddlers (12-30 mo.): Children begin to actively participate in their daily lives. Toddlers are labeling objects and people, asking questions, can follow simple directions, attend to print, and have independent interactions.

Preschoolers: Preschool age children show awareness of patterns, associate sounds with letters, can invent simple spelling for words. They also increase in their expressive skills, and develop book related concepts

How to Enhance Emergent Literacy:

Infants and Toddlers: Create activities that include all five senses. Parents and caregivers can also practice verbal mapping which is putting words to the child’s actions or describing what is happening, what will happen, or what has already happened. Song singing, finger play, rhymes, picture book sharing, and symbol making experiences are also great for infants and toddlers to help develop literacy.

Preschoolers: You can enhance emergent literacy in preschool aged children by having informal conversations, as well as instructional conversations. Include both teacher and peer mediated activities. Children should have access to books and varying types of print. Children should also have plenty of social interaction with peers and adults.

Literacy goes beyond books and letters. As a caregiver it is important to create an environment and interactions that are rich with literacy enhancing activities and materials. Remember to include family in this, asking about literacy at home and sharing idea.

Contributed by Bailey Ostertag - Kids First Resource teacher

Summer has sprouted and we have bean thinking of you.

Our garden is growing at Early Childhood Network.

Lettuce introduce you to our staff:

Joni Goodwin, Executive Director
Kelly Esch, Program Director
Rischma Buchanan, Western Eagle County Early Childhood Coach
Brigitte Buckingham, Garfield County Early Childhood Coach
Soira Ceja, Family, Friends and Neighbor Early Childhood Coach
Norma Baez, Family, Friends and Neighbor Early Childhood Coach

Our mission is to water the seeds to increase the quality, accessibility and capacity of early childcare programs. Basically, we want you to turnip a good crop of cool as a cucumber kiddos rather than young couch potatoes.
If you are in a pickle, cornfused, and need any of our resources, lettuce know. No problem is small potatoes to us. Let’s turnip the beet together!

Romaine calm and carrot on.
Peas on earth,

Early Childhood Network Staff

Stay at home orders and fear of contracting COVID-19 at the doctor’s office have had many families avoid scheduling their children’s vaccines and well visits. Immunization rates have dropped since March because of this, thus leaving young children in a vulnerable place with the potential to contract a vaccine preventable disease.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is encouraging in-person visits to occur whenever possible and are necessary for important services such as comprehensive physical exams, lab work, hearing, vision, oral health and developmental screenings as well as routine immunizations. Doctor’s offices are taking great measures to protect their patients and staff from COVID-19 by separating ill and well visits, use of health screening questions and personal protective equipment as well as increased disinfecting measures throughout their clinics.

Encourage parents to call their pediatrician and schedule their child’s next vaccines and well check today. It’s safe to go and important to keep vaccinations up to date to prevent vaccine preventable diseases from spreading in our communities.

Robin Strecker
Childcare Health Consultant
970-920-5326

Coaching Corner
Megan Monaghan

This year marks the eighth year of Kids First’s goal incentive program, and it's attracted several intrepid teachers. These teachers spent 4 or 8 months working with our coaches to improve quality in their classrooms by identifying SMART goals and working to achieve those goals. There are also a few teachers who are working towards a 12-month goal. We are so happy to celebrate the teachers who have successfully completed their Pilot Program goals. It is because of their continuous dedication to the children in their programs that the 8-month participants have been awarded with coaching throughout their goal period and a monetary incentive. The 4-month participants received coaching throughout their goal period. The teachers chose to receive coaching and work on goals around social emotional development using Pyramid Plus, CLASS and DECA. We all want the best early childhood experience for every child in care in Pitkin County. This program is just one example of how Kids First supports quality improvement efforts and an even better example of teacher’s continuous commitment to our children! Please look for opportunities to participate in our goal incentive program this fall.

Congratulations to the following educators for successfully completing their quality improvement goals:

4-month Pilot Program: 8-month Pilot Program:
Tina Person Brenna Bride
Cristine Chiasson Mitsy Gonzalez
Morgan Ruppenkamp
Tracy Silverman
Ana Carbajal
Susie Arbaney

Raising a Reader support families in the Roaring Fork Valley

Here are some resources from Raising A Reader:

On our English and Spanish Facebook pages https://www.facebook.com/RAR.AspentoParachute and https://www.facebook.com/RARAspentoParachuteEspanol
- More than 40 links high quality learning and reading resources
- Weekly live storytime in English and Spanish on our Facebook pages, which is also recorded and posted on FB after the live session: viewed by an average of 1,755 Spanish speakers and 1,153 English speaking families each week
- Just started a weekly guest storybook reading series with leaders in our communities filming themselves reading a storybook, which is posted on Facebook

RAR is providing online Spanish storytime for Garfield County Library District https://www.gcpld.org/news-and-events

State of Babies Yearbook: 2020

Find out where babies in your state stand.

Telling the story of America’s babies is more important than ever. Last year, the inaugural State of Babies Yearbook: 2019 revealed that the state where a baby is born makes a big difference in their chance for a strong start in life. New data this year shows that even among states with high averages, significant disparities exist in the opportunities available to babies of color to thrive, as well as those in families with low-income, and in urban or rural areas. Now as our country faces an unprecedented crisis, policymakers and advocates can use the data to identify and advance policies that produce the near-term support and long-term stability that babies and families need.

https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/2647-state-of-babies-yearbook-2020

Big Thanks!

Thanks to funding from the Office of Early Childhood (OEC) and FEMA, The Rocky Mountain Early Childhood Council was able to distribute ~$100,000 worth of emergency supplies to programs throughout the region! Supplies such as bleach, soap, paper towels, and toilet paper were now more important than ever for programs during this time. Thanks to all the agencies, and others that played an important roll in supporting these efforts!

Mountain Montessori would like to thank the Rocky Mountain Early Childhood Council. We are so grateful for the supplies to help keep our children safe. But even more, we would like to thank you for the reminder that 'we are all in this together'! - Martha Teien

The cleaning supplies provided by RMECC were a huge help to my small program. It was a weekly chore to find available cleaning supplies to keep my childcare properly clean and safe for children in my care. It was such a nice surprise to receive those and very much appreciated! - Alexa Hill