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03/22/2016 03:00 PMThe joy new parents feel when a new baby arrives often is followed by bundles of worries: What must they do to make sure their child grows into a healthy, happy, child? Connecting parents and guardians to resources and services to help these new parents is the goal of the town’s newly re-energized Early Childhood Council.
The town has had an Early Childhood Council before, but in recent years, it has met infrequently. This year, with the coordination of Youth & Family Services’s Jodi Kelly and Goodwin Elementary School Principal Heston Sutman, the collaborative group is back to work. The council members, professionals who work with young children and their parents, share a common interest in working together to promote health, literacy, safety and school readiness for children from birth to age seven.
“It’s all about the seamless transition of students from pre-school to elementary school,” said council member Nancy Marston of Sherwood School.
Current council members include a nurse from a pediatric medical practice, an owner of a child day care facility, principals and teachers from a private local pre-school, a representative from Middlesex County’s Early Head Start program, Sutman, Goodwin special education/early childhood teacher Katy Eley, Acton Library’s Children’s Librarian Karen Giugno, and two representatives from Youth & Family Services, Lisa Jones and Jodi Kelly. Kelly is acting as council coordinator in this re-start year.
“We are committed to providing a continuum of services for early childhood students,” said Sutman.
A new Early Childhood Council program this year is designed to provide professional development opportunities for the area’s pre-school teachers. The first professional roundtable event, hosted recently by Sherwood School, provided teachers of both pre-school and kindergarten children with an opportunity to share their experiences over dinner and to engage in a professional discussion of early learning standards.
In addition to building professional connections between teaching professionals, another council goal has been to make sure parents and caregivers know about the resources, programs and services available to them in the community. Toward this goal, the council publishes an online newsletter.
Edited by Kelly, the newsletter offers information of interest to parents and caregivers of children from birth to seven years old. The newsletter also includes the names and contact information for child home care providers. (To get a name added to the Early Childhood Council newsletter mailing list, send an email to Kelly at jodi.kelly@oldsaybrookct.gov).
One of these programs is called Books on the Beach. A bucket full of books is placed at the Town Beach and anyone can take one of the books to read for free.
Another community program is called Baby Bundles. The Baby Bundle bags, available at Acton Library upon request to new parents, are sponsored jointly by Wildwood Pediatrics, the Early Childhood Council, the non-profit Read to Grow program, and the Friends of the Library. In each bag is a newborn’s onesie (with printing sponsored by the Friends of the Library), a board book provided by Read to Grow, and information materials of interest to new parents.
Also at the Acton Library, Giugno has scheduled a Kindergarten Readiness Story Time event on Friday, April 22.
“It’s open to pre-school age kids accompanied by their parents or caregiver,” said Giugno.
And starting in the summer of 2015 and continuing in the summer of 2016 is a grant-supported free lunch program for town youth under the age of 18. Sherwood School in Old Saybrook is hosting the July and August lunch program for the second year.
“We’re very excited to work in the community,” said Kelly.
The Early Childhood Council meets on a quarterly basis. The next council meeting is Thursday, June 9 at 1 p.m. at Goodwin Elementary School.