Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative

Start your day with a book! Comment your favorite book below 📚

With the new school year, dropping off your little scholar may be an anxious event for both you and them. Need some tips on how to manage separation anxiety?

1. Develop goodbye rituals- Create a rhyme for you and your kiddo to do every morning or always give a hug before they enter their classroom.

2. Help your child make a smooth adjustment- Reassure your child that you will be picking them up at a given time and exit the room quickly to avoid the tears!

3. Get to know your teacher- You can relax more if you create a relationship with your child's teacher. They can reassure you of the transition, provide you with peace of mind with your child's schedule, and a safety net for your kiddo.

4. Reinforce the bond- When you are reunited after school, spend intentional quality time cuddling, reading, or playing a game together to make up for the missed time.

Comment a ❤ if these tips were helpful!

And just like that the first week of school has come to an end! ELNC parents sent in some “My First Day of Pre-K” photos to show off some first day excitement. Drop your first day photos in the comments! We’d love to see more smiling faces✏️🧠📚

In honor of the first week of Pre-K, let's play a game of Guess Who! Check out some of our staff's early childhood photos and guess who is who in the comments ( match the number to the letter) 🌟

Our once quiet classrooms are back bustling with our wonderful scholars! They learned, played, and made new friends all on the first day. 🧠✏️📚 -k

One more day until we learn and play! School starts tomorrow, so rest up and enjoy your Labor Day. 🌟 ELNC offices will be closed today and regular hours will resume tomorrow.

Comment what you think your kiddo is most excited about for the program year!

Our ELNC kiddos know how to celebrate National Play Outside Day every day! Whether you go for a walk, play on the playground, or enjoy some fun at the beach, utilize this exciting day to stay active with your little scholar. 🤸‍♀️‍🤸🏿

Last week, ELNC teachers and staff gathered to receive training on the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ). An ASQ gives a snapshot of a child's developmental milestones and their progress. This allows our teachers to know where a child is developmentally and if they need additional support in certain areas.

Each classroom also received items that were geared toward the Planned Language Approach which includes Alphabet Knowledge and Early Writing, Background Knowledge, Book Knowledge and Print Concepts, Oral Language and Vocabulary
Phonological Awareness.

Thank you to Family Futures for guiding our team through this training and thank you to everyone internally and externally who made this possible. We cannot do this work alone!

Who's excited for the first day of pre-k? Only 8 more days until our little scholars gather together to learn, teach, and grow! 🧠📚✏

Enroll today! 📚✏🧠

Due to yesterdays storm and power outages, ELNC sites and offices will be closed for the day. Regular business hours will resume Monday August 28th. Have a great and safe weekend!

ELNC stands by 4 core values that support our mission to provide our community with educational resources that will increase early childhood education access to our youngest scholars. ✏🧠📚

Those values are:

Outcomes: Driven, results-oriented - We must ensure our children develop and are educated, not by our good works, but by evidence of their increasing knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Cultural Competence: Children develop and grow best in ways that are consistent with the cultural rhythms and patterns of their families.

Creativity and Innovation: Current efforts leave far too many children in under-resourced neighborhoods lagging behind in development and education. We must find and use new and different objectives, strategies, and activities to help our children thrive.

Place-Based: We are committed to the belief that the best environment for the early education of children is rooted in what is local-the unique history, environment, culture, economy, literature, and art of a particular place--that is, in a child's own “place”; or immediate schoolyard, neighborhood, town or community.

Meet Tiffany Cerrato, our family disability advocate for ELNC GR. Since February, Tiffany has been working extremely hard to help children excel in their education and is a shining star! 🌟

" I work with parents, kids, teachers, staff, and partners to bridge the gap and help fill any developmental needs our children have and help them to thrive."

Empathetic, compassionate, and caring are the words that describe Tiffany, and those traits are reflected daily in her work.

Fun fact about Tiffany: She used to do Kung Fu!

Comment a ❤️ to thank Tiffany for all her continued hard work for ELNC families.

Is your little scholar struggling to prepare for preschool after a fun-filled summer? Check out this article to learn more ways to make the switch from Summer to school!

https://www.scholastic.com/parents/school-success/school-life/back-to-school/10-ways-to-make-switch-summer-to-school.html

17 more days until we get to make exciting new Tik Toks with our little scholars! Comment a 😍 if you love our videos.

National Nonprofit Day celebrates nonprofits' good works and impact on their community. ELNC has been in the community for over a decade, providing families with accessible and quality early childhood education for children 0-4. 🧠✏️📚

Interested in helping us continue this mission? Click the link below to donate and help us get little scholars ready for Kindergarten!

https://elncgr.org/donate-today/

ELNC scholars carry all the potential inside of themselves already! Though ELNC supports partners and their classrooms, we acknowledge that each child and their family already have the magic inside. ✨

Happy graduation! As graduation season ends and the new program year begins, we reflect on the amazing things our scholars achieved during their time in our ELNC-supported classrooms. Look at those cute faces! 🎊

Congratulations to Vanessa Davis for her achievements in the Parent Policy Council! She has completed PPC this year and received the prestigious Pre-K Co-chair award. Vanessa is a true inspiration and her dedication to Early Childhood Education advocacy is commendable. We are grateful for her leadership and unwavering commitment to making a difference. Thank you, Vanessa, for being one of our many shining examples of leadership! 🌟

Thank you to our Parent Policy Council members for their dedication to our children and the mission this program year! We celebrated them last Thursday with certificates, awards, and flowers. Thank you for helping us continue to grow! 🌹🤩

Members of the Parent Policy Council work hard to be advocates for our children. Through training, parents are equipped to speak out on behalf of their children and influence policymakers on issues affecting them at the local, State, and Federal levels.

ELNC directors and staff gathered to learn more about vicarious trauma and how the work that we do can affect not only the mind but the body as well. Thank you to Brooke Aernouts, Family Future's Trauma and Resilience Coordinator for her insightful presentation, and thank you to our site directors and staff for their continued dedication to children and families.

It's Exercise with Your Child Week! Staying active with your kiddo is essential to their development. Need ideas on how to celebrate?

💃🏽Dance! Turn on your child's fave song and dance around to get their blood pumping.

⛅️ Go for an evening walk after dinner and watch the sunset together. You can even do a nice, brisk walk in the morning with your little one to watch the sunrise!

🏊🏿‍♂️ Go swimming together and play fun water games!

🧘🏼‍♀️ Do kid-friendly yoga moves together and incorporate learning games into the activity

And just like that, the program year is about to start! In just 27 more days, our little scholars will return to the classroom to soak up all the knowledge. Comment a ✏ if your kiddo is ready for school!

In August, we acknowledge Children's Eye Health and Safety Month!👁 Ensuring the well-being of our little ones is a crucial aspect of their educational journey, which is why every child in our ELNC-supported classrooms undergoes vision testing to ensure their eyes are in good health throughout the program year.

We are all smiles as we prepare for the upcoming program year! Comment a ❤️ if you are ready to see new and exciting content with our newest group of little scholars.

Preschool is the path to kindergarten! Enroll your child today in our high-quality early childhood education programs for 0-4-year-olds ✏🧠📚

Happy Graduation! 🎓 Little Scholars at our partner site Hands Connected ended their program year with smiles, family, raffles, and food! Congratulations to all the graduates. We can’t wait to see what you do next 🫶🏽