Early childhood educators and a kindergarten teacher offer suggestions to help parents create a smooth transition for children entering a preschool program for the first time.
Category: General
Happy First Birthday, Nebraska Step Up to Quality!
Nebraska Step Up to Quality celebrated its first birthday July 1 and celebrated a year of working to improve early care and education quality, and increase positive outcomes for young children to close the achievement gap.
New Website Offers Extensive Resources for Early Childhood Educators
Patriotic Books for Toddlers
Parents are their children's most important role models—and reading aloud is the most important thing a parent can do to prepare a child for reading and learning. Here are a few great seasonal books for this time of year.
10 Ways Children Benefit from Involved Fathers
Did you know that numerous studies point specifically to the long-term benefits children receive when their fathers are actively engaged in their care? Research shows that involved fathers relate to their children in ways that produce specific developmental benefits.
Nebraska Department of Education Revises Rules on Early Childhood Education
The Nebraska Department of Education held a hearing on June 2 to take comments on its revisions to Rule 11. The most significant changes to the Rule related to requirements for prekindergarten programs that provide parent education.
Nancy Perez: Sixpence Parent Educator
Nancy Perez was introduced to Sixpence as a teenager when pregnancy complications forced her to drop out of school. Through Sixpence, she discovered her passion for early chlidhood education, and now is a Sixpence parent educator. She was the first parent educator in Nebraska to receive a perfect score on the HoVRS, which the University of Nebraska Medical Center administers to evaluate parent coaches and they support they give.
Children’s Book Week Is May 4-10
Next week is Children's Book Week. Reading to children helps increase their vocabulary, comprehension, concentration, memory and curiosity.
How Does Poetry Help Children’s Development?
Reading poetry to children facilitates their language, cognitive and even physical development, but most of all, it's fun!
Quality, Accountability, Results: Hallmarks of Wise Investments in Early Childhood
In recent years, Nebraska has opened new opportunities for genuine investment in the development of children who stand to lose or gain the most from their earliest experiences. Among these, the Sixpence Early Learning Fund rises to the top as an investment opportunity that meets the most stringent criteria for quality, fiscal accountability and demonstrable results.
Early Experiences Shape Brain Architecture
Babies are born ready to learn. At birth, the brain contains about 100 billion neurons that are connected by synapses carrying electrochemical signals in response to stimuli from the world around us. During the earliest years, those synapses are firing at an astonishing rate, and they become the neural foundation upon which everything else is built.
Sixpence in Broken Bow: Where Early Learning is Hard, Soft, Squishy, Smooth, Shiny Work
It’s a beautiful, mild October afternoon in Broken Bow—a good day to get out with kids, which suits Nancy Ferguson and her colleagues nicely, although no one is quite sure how many families to expect for today’s activity.