December 2018 Newsletter

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Newsletter – December 2018

SPARK is the hub of a valuable wheel. An education initiative of Fox Valley United Way, SPARK (Strong, Prepared and Ready for Kindergarten) connects underserved Aurora, Illinois, families with early education and childcare opportunities that prepare their young children for success in school and life.

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Play.Learn.Connect. Family Resource Center at VNA Healthcare

If you have visited the second floor at VNA Healthcare on Highland Avenue, you may have noticed that it looks quite different from a typical waiting room. There are a lot of good things happening in this space!

VNA and SPARK staff have worked in partnership to transform the space into a Family Resource Center. The goal is to create a family friendly space in which children can engage in fun and child appropriate activities and parents can be supported by SPARK staff and volunteers to learn more about early childhood resources in the Aurora community. As one parent described, “it’s a one stop shop.” Wait time has become more meaningful as parents learn about community resources and receive valuable parental support.

The transformation of this space into a Family Resource Center was made possible by generous grants from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, Dunham Fund, Gustafson Family Foundation Fund of the DuPage Foundation and the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley.

If you are interested in becoming a SPARK Volunteer, please contact us atspark@foxvalleyunitedway.org. Our volunteers receive early childhood training to ensure they have the knowledge and confidence to support our families and children. They are also trained to conduct developmental screenings for children birth to 5 years old.

SPARK Calendar

Our SPARK monthly calendar will introduce a monthly book from the Mind in the Making book collection. Each book will be accompanied with an activity that fosters the Seven Essentials Life Skills.

About Mind in the Making

Mind in the Making, a program of the Bezos Family Foundation, is an unprecedented effort to share the science of children’s learning with the general public, families and professionals who work with children and families.

Mind in the Making has partnered with First Book, a nonprofit social enterprise that provides books and educational materials for educators serving children in need, to curate a groundbreaking Mind in the Making Book Collection that combines children’s books with tips for building The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs (HarperCollins, 2010) by Ellen Galinsky

To learn more about the Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs visithttp://mindinthemaking.org/7-essential-skills/

To learn more about the Mind in the Making Book Collection by visitinghttp://mindinthemaking.org/firstbook/

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Download in Spanish

Let’s Talk About Shapes!

The holiday season is a great time to talk to your kids about shapes. Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa are celebrations that are full of different shapes from evergreen trees to candles. It gives the perfect opportunity to talk about shapes that you may not usually see during the year!

You can have a Christmas tree scavenger hunt looking for all different shaped ornaments. Or, you can talk about the shapes of candles and candle holders for Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. No matter what you celebrate this holiday season you can make it a fun and easy learning experience for you little one! Remember talking is teaching!

Keep Young Children Safe in the Car

IEL has revised its tip sheet Keep Young Children Safe in the Car to align to the latest rules regarding car safety seats and positioning young children’s seats when transporting them in vehicles. This tip sheet is available in Spanish, Polish, Korean,Simplified Chinese, Arabic, and French.