Saturday, April 16, 2005
11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Week of the Young Child Fair
 
Laurel Ball Field Park
On Laurel Road Between Rose and O’Hara, Oakley
Sponsored by the East County Regional Group
More Info

Friday, April 22, 2005
3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Shore Acres School Readiness Fair
 
351 Marina Way, Bay Point
Parents with children five and younger are invited to attend Shore Acres’ School Readiness Fair. Activities include games, an obstacle course, giveaways, storytelling, health information, and more. Contact Gina Covello for more information: 925-682-8000 ext. 7410.

Saturday, April 23, 2005
10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m
Week of the Young Child Fairs
 
Church of Christ
1020 East Tregallas Road, Antioch
Sponsored by the East County Regional Group
More Info

Monday, May 2, 2005
6:00 p.m.
Commission Meeting
 
East County location tbd. Click here for an agenda and the latest on meeting location.

Monday, May 2, 2005
7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
First 5 Lecture Series: Reading to Young Children
 
Clayton Community Library
6125 Clayton Road
Lyn Palme, Children’s Specialist for the Contra Costa Library, will provide a workshop called “It Works! Why, How, and What to Read to Children.”

Monday, May 9, 2005
7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
First 5 Lecture Series: The Scientist in the Crib
 
Clayton Community Library
6125 Clayton Road
Alison Gopnik, Professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley and international leader in the field of children’s learning, will share information about how babies learn.

Childhood Matters schedule
 
Tune in to Childhood Matters Sundays from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on 98.1 KISS-FM
for parenting information and advice. Visit
www.childhoodmatters.org
to learn more and listen to past shows.

4/17/05:
Preschool & Kids With Special Needs

4/24/05:
Resolving Conflicts and Preventing Violence

5/01/05:
Smoking & Asthma

5/08/05:
Teen Moms

5/15/05:
Understanding Temperament

5/22/05:
Disciplining Our Children With Respect

5/29/05:
Fun Adventures with Your Kids

Nuestros Niños Topics
 
Childhood Matters’ Spanish-language counterpart, Nuestros Niños, airs every Sunday at 8:00 a.m. on KLOK Cumbia 1170 AM and KBBF, La Nuestra 89.1 FM.

4/17/05:
Nuestros Niños Enjoy and Learn to Care for Our Planet

4/24/05:
Resolving Conflicts and Preventing Violence for Nuestros Niños well-being

Turn off the TV and plug into parenting! April 25th – May 1st is National TV-Turnoff Week. Young children are spending more time than ever before in front of the television. Excessive TV viewing has been linked to all kinds of negative outcomes for children, such as obesity and its related illnesses, less family time, and poor reading skills and attention spans. You can find low and no cost early learning activities on our Web site that encourage you to cook, dance, play, read, and create with your children http://www.firstfivecc.org/tigo.html. TV-Turnoff Week is a great time to try these activities!

-- Brenda Blasingame, Executive Director

• Our 2003-2004 Evaluation Report is now available.
• The Richmond Art Center and East Bay Center for the Performing Arts have started new sessions of free arts enrichment classes for preschoolers. Two six-week sessions are planned, one in Rodeo and one in San Pablo. To sign-up, contact Rebecca Hawley: (510) 234-5624 ext.20.
• East County parents have created an online resource group called the Delta POST (Parents Online Sharing Together). This online forum is a great place to get parenting support, organize playgroups and swap children’s toys and clothes. To subscribe to the group, email DeltaPOST-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
• First 5 Contra Costa has two job openings! We’re looking for a part-time Bilingual Community Liaison in West County and a full-time receptionist in Martinez. Click here for the job descriptions.

Mt. Diablo Unified Superintendent Gary McHenry shares his ideas on UPK

More than 300 early care and education providers, elementary school teachers, parents, principals, and school superintendents attended our recent forum on Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK). The forum was the first step in a process to develop a strategic plan for UPK in Contra Costa County.

Drs. Sharon Lynn Kagan and Karen Hill Scott, national and state experts on the subject of universal preschool systems, served as keynote speakers. Following their presentations, a panel with a school superintendent, a principal, kindergarten teacher, early care and education providers and parents discussed various aspects of designing a local universal preschool program.

We are taking the lead on the UPK planning effort, in partnership with the County Office of Education and the Contra Costa Child Care Council, and provide staffing, meeting facilitation, and project support.

We are not committing funds for universal preschool, but anticipate eventual funding from the state. A statewide initiative is currently being drafted for the 2006 ballot and state legislation has also been introduced.

A 30-member planning team has been meeting with us for several months to shape and steer the planning process. The planning team will review the information from the forum and help to develop a vision statement, guiding principles, and critical elements of the strategic plan. Community input will also be solicited throughout the process.

We will keep you updated on our progress and provide information on the statewide initiative in future e-newsletters.

The RAND Corporation issued a new study last month on the benefits of universal preschool in California. The report showed that investing public money to make preschool available to every 4-year-old in California would generate an estimated $2 to $4 in benefits for every dollar spent.

The benefits of this investment include significant increases in lifetime earnings, a reduction in special education costs, less grade repetition among K-12 students, less youth and adult crime, and a more productive workforce.

The study estimates that California society would break even by the time a child enrolled in universal preschool reaches age 14. To access the full report from RAND, please click here.

We are seeking applicants from licensed child care programs to implement Raising A Reader (RAR). RAR is an award-winning take home book bag program that promotes daily lap-sit reading between parents and young children.

Selected grantees will receive program materials for every child in their center classroom or family child care program, a teacher kit to implement the program, and training. Providers are not eligible if they participated in the Ready, Set, Read Literacy Fair held last month or if they already are implementing RAR. A total of $30,000 will be allocated.

Priority will be given to center-based and family child care providers who serve infants and toddlers, sites already participating in First 5 sponsored quality improvement programs (the Child Care Council’s Early Learning Demonstration Project), and sites located in attendance areas of low-performing elementary schools, including Antioch, Bay Point, Concord, Pittsburg, Richmond, and San Pablo.

Applications are due May 13, 2005. To receive an application, click here.

Last year, Contra Costa Health Services’ Family, Maternal & Child Health (FMCH) Programs hosted the second Children’s Oral Health Summit to develop a new three-year Strategic Plan (2004-2007). The purpose of the Strategic Plan is to ensure that every child, 0-18 years of age in Contra Costa County, has and uses a dental home (at least two times a year) and has access to prevention and treatment services that are affordable, accessible and culturally sensitive.

The Dental Health Action Group (DHAG), a community oral health advisory committee, oversees the implementation of the Strategic Plan. We sponsored the Summit and continue to fund ongoing planning efforts to help the group meet its goals, which include recruiting more providers to accept Medi-Cal, uninsured or low-income clients, increasing access to oral health services for underserved populations, including children with special needs, and obtaining funding to maintain and expand oral health programs.

Impressive progress has been made accomplishing these goals. Workshops are being developed for parents of children with special needs, the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile van has expanded the number of sites it visits during non-school hours, and funds were raised to support the LeBow Children’s Dental Health Foundation. The Foundation provides mini-grants to children who need dental treatment and either have no dental insurance or limited coverage.

For more information about the Children’s Oral Health Program, please contact Lynn Pilant at (925) 313-6163.

In California, the leading cause of injury-related deaths for children under the age of five is drowning. Many children who survive drowning accidents suffer permanent brain damage. Drowning accidents often occur during the warm weather months of May through October. The Drowning Prevention Foundation offers these tips:

• Never leave a child alone near water.
• Keep a constant eye on young children playing in or near any body of water, pool, bathtub, or lake. Never turn your back, even for a moment. Children can drown in as little as one inch of water.
• Fence your pool on all four sides with a barrier that is at least five feet high. Move chairs and other potential climbing aids away from the fence.
• Any gate leading to the pool area should be self-closing and self-latching, with the latch placed on the poolside out of reach.
• Install panic alarms on all house doors and windows leading to the pool area.
• All non-swimmers should wear approved personal flotation devices when they are near water.
• Make sure you and all of your child’s caretakers can swim and know CPR.

Nothing can ensure a child’s safety more than a parent’s careful eye and constant attention. For more information about drowning prevention, contact the Drowning Prevention Foundation (925) 820 SAVE or visit www.drowningprevention.info.