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Blue Ribbon Commission

Early childhood education, while incredibly important, is a struggle in our small state of Vermont. It is a struggle for families to find and afford high-quality care. It is a struggle for programs to reach or maintain high-quality status due to the lack of funding available. Programs rely on tuition to cover the costs and our budgets are not big enough to pay for everything. There has been a lot of attention paid to these issues over the past couple of years. Let's Grow Kids has done a lot of research on the importance of high-quality early childhood care as well as the development of children during the first few years of life. The work that is done in an early childhood program, supporting children's learning and development, has a lasting effect on children.

We take our work seriously here at Mountain Village School. It takes dedication, commitment, and a lot of patience. We are constantly working on educating ourselves more, reflecting on our daily work, discussing new research, and finding ways to improve what we are doing. I sit on several different state committees that discuss the issues in early childhood that we face. We take advantage of every grant opportunity and training program that comes our way. Our partnerships for universal prekindergarten have also had a big impact on our ability to offer higher quality education.

The Blue Ribbon Commission was put together in 2015. It was a group of people from all over the state with an interest in finding out more about the challenges facing early childhood in Vermont. They just completed their work and their report was published in 2016. Here is their final report: Blue Ribbon Commission on Financing High Quality, Affordable Child Care. The commission reported the following:

1. Defines the elements of high-quality child care program.

2. Models how much it would cost per infant, toddler, and preschooler to provide high-quality early care and learning.

3. Estimates the total cost of high-quality care based on the number of children under 6 who have all available parents in the labor force and are therefore likely to need child care.

4. Recommends how much families should be asked to contribute to child care to make it affordable for them.

5. Calculates the current investment gap that would need to be filled after existing early childhood funding and parent contributions that are taken into account.

6. Recommends potential funding sources that could be used to fill this gap.

Source: Let's Grow Kids

The findings and suggestions from the Commission are just the beginning. I will attend the Early Childhood Day at the Legislature to continue to voice the need for more financial support. We can all work together to become more aware of the work being done and to advocate, loud and clear!

Classroom Updates

Infant I: We've had a good week of getting back into our routines and exploring our environment in new ways. We were amazed at some of the changes and progress our children made over the holiday break - a great reminder of how much can change in a week in the infant world. We spent a lot of time outside and are becoming much more comfortable wearing all those layers and also took several excursions to various hallways where we practiced moving our bodies on ramps, played peek-a-boo with large curtains, and enjoyed the freedom of open space. Several of us have also developed a strong interest in boots, so if you find yours tossed all around where they were once neatly lined up, we may be the culprits!

Infant II: It was a nice, calm, and mellow week in our classroom. The transition back from break was smooth. The children really enjoyed getting back into their routines and interacting with their peers and teachers. This week we have enjoyed lying in pillows with peers and dolls, balancing while walking across large wooden blocks, socializing with classmates, and some have had a lot of fun with humor and making peers laugh. Outside the children have been gathering around the barrel as one child takes a ball and waves it back and forth, all of the children watch and laugh and each take a turn.

Toddler I: We were a classroom happy to be back to our routines and classmates. Monday morning was full of smiles, welcoming hugs, and waves. This week we welcomed a new student to our class, the children were sure to show her the routines and our classroom jobs. We continue to work on tasks that promote independence in the classroom throughout the day. This week we also explored our sense of taste while experimenting with their concept of sweet, sour, and tart. We tasted oranges and lemons. While the oranges proved rather sweet, the lemons were a new taste, the children enjoyed exploring this new taste. Several children exclaimed "It's spicy!", "I like it, spicy!". The next day the children asked for "more lemon juice"! Social skills have also been increasing dramatically among the children. There have been invitations to play together, lots of conversations about what they should do, and games between 2-3 children. All of the socialization has been initiated by the children, without any help from teachers!

Preschool I: What a week! We've been spending more and more time integrated as a whole group and are making progress on kind and gentle communications. We're also getting much more focused at circle time, which allows us to explore more about singing and rhythm sticks. Indoor play has seen a dramatic increase in imaginary kitchen play, both using imaginary and real props to prepare pizza. We are also using more tongs and other fine-motor skill toys. The dolls have also gotten a lot of us this week - the children are learning how to properly wipe and diaper a baby. Outside we are spending lots of time sliding on ice, sometimes on purpose.... sometimes not. It has been a great incentive for working on gross motor skills!

Preschool II: We have had a quiet week in our classroom. One of our classmates welcomed a new baby sister! We spent a lot of time practicing writing letters and practicing letter sounds. During circle, we have been working on identifying words based on sound. It requires a lot of listening and practicing. The children have really gotten good at hearing the differences between the sounds. We worked very hard to build the start of an igloo with the children from Jen and Kate's class. Sledding has also gotten pretty intense. The children know how to steer themselves to go in the direction of their choice, very impressive to watch. We also planted an amaryllis bulb, we are excited to watch it grow. On a sad note, our fish, Bubbles, is sick. We have talked about what could have happened and are working on trying to find out how to make her feel better.





PreK: We worked on remembering our rules and routines after a long winter break. We welcomed a new classmate from preschool I and are working on being good role models and helping him learn about our class. Mostly we've loved getting outside to play in the snow. Sledding, sliding, and building with snow are our favorite things. Inside we've been into dressing up in scarves and reading lots of quiet stories in small groups. We are also getting so much better at putting on all of our outside gear quickly and all by ourselves. 












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