“With Liberty and Justice for All?”

Keynote Address: Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund

Wednesday, September 24, 4:00 p.m.
King Concert Hall

for more information visit http://www.fredonia.edu/convocation/

It is with great enthusiasm that we are delighted to announce that Chautauqua County Association for the Education of Young Children has been awarded a Value of Membership grant through the National Association for the Education of Young Children! This project not only provides for free CCAEYC memberships, but also offers environmentally friendly educational trainings. The trainings will focus on the environment and how to help conserve energy. There will be two training sessions offered in both southern and northern Chautauqua County. These trainings will be offered to child care professionals and teachers, who will then educate the children and families they work with on environmentally friendly ways.

The benefits to being a CCAEYC member are numerous. The application process is easy. If you are interested in becoming a CCAEYC member, simply complete the application form available here. All applications must be received by June 30, 2008. Don’t wait, join now, become one of the first members through this special project and your membership fee is waived.Membership grants will be awarded on a first-come first-serve basis.

Watch for more information to attend these local workshops on going green and environmental awareness.

Come Celebrate the Month of the Young Child With the Music of Ivan Ulz

When: April 26, 2008 at 10:00 AM

Where: Silver Creek Central School

The concert is free of charge, and is made possible by:

• A Youth Bureau grant from the Office of Child & Family Services
• Cornell Cooperative Extension
• Lake Shore Family Center
• CCAEYC
• Silver Creek Central School

Photo Credit: ivanulzsongs on Flickr

Statewide Turnoff Week 2008, April 21-27

By 3 months of age, about 40% of children regularly watch television, DVDs, or videos on average 1 hour per day by age 12 months. The reasons parents choose this is for education, entertainment, and babysitting (Zimmerman et al, Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med, May 2007).

As part of the Month of the Young Child, the New York State Department of Health and the Center for SCREEN-TIME Awareness are inviting you and your school or community organization to participate in the 2nd Statewide Turnoff Week which is April 21-27, 2008. This is a great opportunity to continue to meet the needs of all young children and their families to find fun, active alternatives to hours in front of a screen. Some suggested activities to do during this week are:

• Family dinner nights – Have each member pick a night which cannot be changed, after dinner pull out a board game, a deck of cards, or something else to do and make a night of it.
• Mealtime fun nights – Cooking nutritious meals with each other and learning measurements and feeling the texture of vegetables and seeing the various colors make completing the meal fun. Enjoy the conversation with each other as you work together to finish up the meal and discuss how delicious the meal is at the dinner table. This may just be the start of your very own “yum-yum recipe book”.
• Library days – Spend time at the library, look through various books, educational magazines, and learn some facts about the city/town where you may live. You may be surprised what may have existed in your very own neighborhood.
• “I spy” hunt game – Prepare an adventure with your family as you walk through your neighborhood or downtown depending on what may work best for your family. Start with looking for certain shapes/colors of items such as mailboxes, windows, shapes of homes, birds, or cars that may be parked. For example you say “I spy a red shovel.” The other family members job is to look for the item and let you know where they see it. Keep in mind this would be based on ages of children as you do this fun game.