GROVE CITY, Pa. – The Grove City College Early Education Center, Education Department and student education honoraries, in partnership with the newly created Grove City Early Childhood Council, will sponsor activities surrounding the national observance of the Week of the Young Child, April 13-19. A special free event open to the public called the Early Childhood Community Celebration is set for 6 to 8 p.m. April 15 in the Intramural Room of the Physical Learning Center on the Grove City College campus.

Activities planned for the celebration include refreshments, helium balloons, face painting, a dramatic play area, physical activities and games, science and math activities, two puppet shows, clowns, an art area, a recycling construction zone and stories. Participating groups from the community include Grove City Head Start, Grove City Area School District, Grove City YMCA, Little Treasures Learning Center, Children’s Patch Learning Center, Books from Birth, Our Children Our Future, AmeriCorps, the Grove City Education Center for Adults, Grove City Community Library and the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV.

Participants are encouraged to bring pennies to donate for each activity. One-penny donations at each station will support the Grove City Community Library’s children’s reading programs. All community and campus families with children 8 years old and younger are encouraged to attend.

Other events that will be held in observance of the Week of the Young Child include:

• Imagination Parade – 11 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. April 17 in the Grove City College Early Education Center, Hall of Arts and Letters. Community families are invited to come with children dressed in their favorite costume or simply observe the parade.
• Costume Parade – 9:30 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. April 18 beginning in the Grove City College Early Education Center, Hall of Arts and Letters. College and community children may wear their favorite story or video character costume. The parade will circle outside the Early Education Center classroom to the Student Union, weather permitting. In the case of inclement weather, the parade will be held in the hallways of the Hall of Arts and Letters.

The Week of the Young Child is spearheaded by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of early education programs. According to the NAEYC, children attending high-quality preschool programs are more likely to develop the language, math and social skills necessary to succeed in school. Thus, the week seeks to support the healthy development and early learning of children.

Activities are co-sponsored by Grove City Early Childhood Council, the Early Education Center, the College’s Department of Education, the Tau Alpha chapter of the Kappa Delta Phi education honorary.

The Grove City Early Childhood Council was established during the 2006-07 academic year to promote collaboration among families, community providers and educators for the purpose of increasing awareness of and involvement in quality early learning experiences. All children in Grove City will have access to age appropriate, meaningful, and positive early learning opportunities allowing them to enter school ready to learn and to succeed.

The council meets monthly at the Washington Kindergarten Center and is comprised of staff from the Grove City School District, the YMCA Learning Center, Little Treasures Learning Center, Children’s Patch Learning Center, the Grove City Early Education Center, the Grove City Community Library, Mercer County Head Start, Books from Birth, Grove City Area United Way, Grove City Education Center for Adults, the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV and parents of preschool and kindergarten students.

The Grove City College Early Education Center, under the guidance of Dr. Lois Johnson, director, and Carolyn Patterson, assistant director, has classes for 3- and 4-year-olds and 4- and 5-year-olds. The goal for the Center is twofold: to offer the children of the community a high-quality education that focuses on their overall development; and to help prepare Grove City College early childhood education students to become high-quality professionals. Education students complete course work in the Center, learning how to implement the theories of early childhood education they have studied in their classes. Debbie Mincey also serves as a part-time teacher.