The Importance of the Early Years
Last week was the Week of the Young Child for the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Sometimes, it feels like that every week! But these seven days were a special celebration for one of the world’s largest organizations for kids. The aim of the week was to promote and support young children and families because the early years are so very important.
Just how important are these years? They are critical for children. 90% of the brain develops by the age of 5. The impact goes far beyond too because what happens during this time will influence kids for life. While their lifetimes are shaped by what happens now, it involves the whole world. Kids are 20% of the population and 100% of the future.
In order to support children, we need to be there for families. After all, parents are the first teachers and home is the first school. But do parents need to turn their homes into learning centers? Their days are already busy enough, how will they find time for something more? This can be quite overwhelming for those with young children.
As a parent, do you sometimes wonder what to do about early learning and how to do it? Thankfully, Mother Nature must have recognized that this would be a challenge. The best way for children to learn is through play. Kids need time and space to explore, build, create, discover, take apart, and pretend and then do over and over and over some more.
Hopefully, that takes off some of the stress. As a parent of young children, what questions do you have about early learning? Would you like to know more about play? What kind of support would be helpful for you? Keeping in mind the intention of the Week of the Young Child and supporting families, I would like to invite you to ask your most pressing questions. Then, in the following days, I will do my best to give you some answers and information in the play-of-the-day blog posts. Can you come out and play?