Alphabet mix-up

P is now replacing the letter K in K -12 Education

By Linda Saari

Brandon-Evansville Early Education Coordinator

There has been an alphabet mix-up. P is now replacing the letter K in K-12 education. This surprising change adds a noteworthy focus for Brandon-Evansville’s activities related to The Week of the Young Child.

This change was the topic of Minnesota Department of Education’s Mike Brown’s regional presentation at BrandonEvansville School. When our teachers first heard Mike’s presentation on this topic, we tried to quickly get up to speed.

We wondered if the letter combination P-12 stood for Preschool to Grade 12. This just shows you that teachers are always needing to learn as well.

Mike, and his Minnesota Department of Education team, went on to tell us that the term P-3 means Prenatal-3rd grade Education. This new label, P-12, means that all children, from Prenatal12th grade are included in our school systems.

Brandon-Evansville

Superintendent Louisa Glenetske is excited to welcome the youngest of children into our P-12 school system.

Jana Anderson, Brandon-Evansville School Board chairperson, feels the same.

Here is a short summary of the plan being used to carry out this project:

Connie Fields, from the Douglas County Early Childhood Initiative, is now leading a Minnesota Department of Education sponsored study group to help Brandon-Evansville PreK-Kindergarten educators to ease any transition line that may come up between the two grade levels.

As research shows that the brain neurons for love and learning start with the beginning of life, B-E schools are working with Lakes Country Service Cooperative to pilot a new program. This program is called Raising a Reader. The mission of this program is to engage caregivers in what Raising a Reader LCSC Coordinator Deb Berry calls “book cuddling.”

This “book cuddling” will go on to foster healthy brain development, healthy relationships, a love of reading, as well as the language and literacy skills critical for school success.

Resource support for our Raising a Reader program has been provided by the Douglas-Pope County United Way, the L. A. Amundson Foundation, the Minnesota Department of Education, the Douglas County Public Library, the Douglas County Early Childhood Initiative, West Central Community Action Head Start and LCSC.

Additional training for starting education at the beginning of life has been provided by West Central Initiative and the University of Minnesota Morris. The two partners have teamed together to sponsor the Fulbright Scholarship of Dr. Iiris Happo from Finland.

In the last year, Dr. Happo has made many visits throughout our region to share information with us on how Finland has some of the highest reading scores in the world. One of the important points from Dr. Happo’s presentation includes the fact that funding for each child’s education begins at birth.

At the initial step of that funding, parents are given a full year of support to stay home and be with their child. During that first year they can access the Early Care and Education system and all the resources it provides to Finnish parents. Those elements of the Finnish Education system provide a strong foundation towards reading competency for students.

As much as people in our region were impressed with the support that Finland provides for young families, Dr. Happo was impressed with how Minnesota provides Early Childhood Family Education. ECFE is our program for parents and children to learn together.

The Minnesota ECFE program goes from P-3rd grade.

In addition to carrying out the activities involved with the new P-12 plan at Brandon-Evansville, the school’s ECFE program continues to look for ways to include and provide services for more area children and families. By using the Raising a Reader program, we have been able to expand the number of children and parent participants to 140 families. Our goal is to increase this number in years to come by further expanding the program to more of our local Child Care Educators.

An African proverb says that “It takes a village to raise a child.” That is so true. We all need to contribute to the meaningful education and positive development of our children. So “cuddle up” and treasure your children as you celebrate their young lives this week. Doing this now has never been so important. Positively building and improving the meaningful bond between you and your children will impact their lives, and yours, forever.

Years of research in neurobiology have shown the importance of positive early experiences, especially in the first five years of a child’s life, and how those experiences shape brain development, impacting future social, cognitive, and emotional abilities.

In order to feel secure and flourish, infants, toddlers and children need attentive, supportive and nurturing parents and caregivers.

Family home visiting services, such as those provided for our community by Horizon Public Health, have been shown to be a link to connect parents and caregivers to the support and resources they need to facilitate positive parenting and healthy child development.

Other positive outcomes have been shown to include improvement in maternal and newborn health, improvement in birth outcomes, improved school readiness and parent-child relationships, reduction of domestic violence, prevention of child injuries, abuse and neglect, and improvements in family economic self-sufficiency.

Family Home Visiting programs recognize parents as their child’s first and best teachers. There are many families, however, who benefit from the guidance and support provided by nurse home visitors, especially those with certain risk factors such as limited support system, mental health challenges, history of substance use, financial or housing insecurities, limited parenting skills, teen and young parents or a history of child abuse or neglect.

Horizon Public Health offers an evidence-based family home visiting program called Maternal Early Childhood Sustained Home-visiting, where parents are enrolled either prenatally or until the baby reaches 8 weeks old. MECSH nurses visit with families until the child reaches 2 years old and cover a variety of topics including prenatal care, breastfeeding, safe sleep, child development, maternal wellbeing, nutrition and home safety.

Prenatal, postpartum and Traditional Family Home Visiting are also offered. These programs do not have a specific enrollment period but are open to all families either prenatally or with young children. Horizon Public Health also offers a multitude of other services for members of the community including the Women, Infants, and Children program, the Follow Along Program, child passenger safety, Child and Teen Checkups and breastfeeding classes. Call 320-763-6018 or visit horizonpublichealth.org/services/ children-and-families/ to learn more about our programs or to enroll.