Monday, September 10, 2007
Commission Meeting
 
6:00 p.m.
50 Douglas Drive
Second Floor
Conference Room
Martinez

Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Program and Evaluation Committee
 
1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
1340 Arnold Dr.
Suite 125
Conference Room
Martinez

Friday, September 14, 2007
Kids’ Karnival
 
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
2191 Kirker Pass Road

We Care Services for Children’s Kids’ Karnival provides an opportunity for local families to enjoy games, face painting, arts and crafts, bounce houses and health and safety information.

Contact (925) 671-0777 ext. 41.

Saturday, September 15, 2007
Antioch First 5 Center Grand Opening
 
10:30 a.m.
512 West 5th Street
Antioch

Celebrate the grand re-opening of the Antioch First 5 Center with an ice-cream social and a showcase of the Center’s programs.

Contact (925) 757-5303.

Monday, September 17, 2007
Executive Committee
 
9:30 a.m.
1340 Arnold Dr.
Suite 125
Conference Room
Martinez

Saturday, September 29, 2007
Children’s Art and Literacy Festival
 
11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
1035 Detroit Avenue
Concord

The Contra Costa Child Care Council’s second Children's Art and Literacy Festival offers hands-on fun and live entertainment, including a Mother Goose appearance.

Contact (925) 676-5442.

Friday, October 5, 2007
Creating Responsive Systems for Children Exposed to Domestic Violence
 
8:00 a.m.
Walnut Creek Marriott Hotel

A professional development conference exploring emerging practices, policies and innovations on children exposed to domestic violence. Topics include fatherhood and male leadership, cultural dynamics, child custody, and new prevention models.

Contact (925) 335-1092 or visit www.contracostazt.org.

Friday, October 6, 2007
May I Play, Too? Workshop
 
8:30 a.m. to noon
Diablo Valley College
Trophy Room

CARE Parent Network is offering a repeat of its very successful workshop “May I Play, Too? Resources for Including Children of All Abilities in Early Education and Child Care Programs.” Space is limited so pre-registration is required.

Contact (925) 313-0999 ext. 107.

Saturday October 13, 2007
Super Saturday Family Fest
 
11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
John F. Kennedy Park
350 South 41st Street
Richmond

First 5 Contra Costa’s West County Regional Group is hosting its sixth annual Super
Saturday, a free event offering information for parents on healthy eating habits and active lifestyles for children, parenting, finding child care, and safety. Activities include arts and crafts, a petting zoo, prizes, children’s entertainment, face painting, pony rides, a jumpee structure, carnival games, relay races, and storytelling.

Contact (925) 335-9991.

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.

9/2/07:
Who You Are As a Parent (rebroadcast)

9/9/07:
Getting a Good Night’s Sleep

9/16/07:
The Crisis of Community Violence

9/23/07:
Protecting Children from Toxins

9/30/07:
Postpartum Depression and the Baby Blues

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.

9/2/07:
Nuestros Niños and Families Return to School Organized and Energized

9/9/07:
Danger!: Alcoholism, Addictions, and Nuestros Niños

9/16/07:
Media: Two-Edged Tools for Nuestros Niños

9/23/07:
Celebration!: Let’s Honor Nuestros Niños’ Hispanic Heritage

9/30/07:
They Are Not Toys!: Teaching Nuestros Niños to Appreciate and Care for Pets

The high school class of 2020 is starting kindergarten this month.  What kind of students will they be?   Hopefully, the foundation for their learning has already been set over the last five years. After all, research shows that children with highly engaged parents and caregivers who read, talk and play with them daily are more likely to start kindergarten with strong emotional and social skills, and ready to take on learning with confidence.

Time and again, we are reminded that there is no substitute for a strong relationship between a young child and her family and caregivers. A new study, led by researchers at the University of Washington, found that for every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants learned six to eight fewer new vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos. These products had the strongest detrimental effect on babies 8 to 16 months old.

This study drew national attention, and started an important dialogue about the role parents play in their child’s early learning. Expensive toys and products aren’t the magic answer to raising curious, bright children.  Rather, quality time and loving interaction with parents and caregivers are the best ways to help babies and toddlers learn and grow.

Parents may not know that the American Academy of Pediatrics advises that children under age two not watch television or video of any kind. Since infants and toddlers may only be awake 10 hours a day, these hours are best spent bonding with caregivers. So instead of turning on the television, parents can nurture a confident, curious child by:

• Reading together every day
• Drawing and working on craft projects together
• Playing outside together
• Exercising as a family by taking walks, riding bikes or learning a new sport together
• Taking trips – visit the local library, park or museum
• Singing songs and dancing together
• Digging around in the garden together
• Telling stories and encouraging children to ask questions about what they liked most

Need more ideas? Click here.

- Sean Casey, Executive Director

• Click here to find programs and services happening at the Antioch, Bay Point, Delta, Monument, and West County First 5 Centers.
  
  
• Children Now released a new report last month called Children in Immigrant Families: A California Data Brief which presents the most current data available on the health, education and family well-being of children in California's immigrant families. Data on Contra Costa’s immigrant families is included.
  
  
• Millions of children’s toys have recently been recalled due to high levels of lead paint and loose, dangerous magnets. Recalled toys can be dropped off at the Board of Supervisors’ districts offices. Click here for a complete list of recalled toys.
  
  
• First 5 in the news! Click here to read about the Monument Community First 5 Center’s “Parents Raising Safe Children” program recently featured in the Contra Costa Times.

The Contra Costa Child Care Council is proud to announce that four local child care centers that participated in its Early Learning Demonstration Project (ELDP) are among the first programs in the country to achieve national accreditation by meeting new, tougher standards from the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Only 17 programs nationwide have achieved this.

“The child care center directors, teachers and families of these programs are to be congratulated for their efforts to earn this high mark of quality in caring for and educating children,” says Kate Ertz-Berger, Executive Director, Contra Costa Child Care Council. “Through the ELDP program, we are ensuring that Contra Costa’s children are nurtured and engaged in optimal learning environments that will have a positive, lasting impact on children and their families.”

Funded with an annual $670,000 grant from First 5 Contra Costa, the Early Learning Demonstration Project helps local child care programs achieve national accreditation standards with one-on-one mentoring, consultation services, financial support, intensive training on effective teaching practices, facilities improvements, and on-site support to promote early learning.

Congratulations to the Contra Costa child care centers that have achieved accreditation:

• Contra Costa College Early Learning Center, San Pablo
• Pixie Playschool, Concord
• Grace Cooperative Preschool, Walnut Creek
• So Big Preschool, Antioch

For a complete list of all nationally accredited centers and family child care homes in Contra Costa or to learn more about ELDP, call (925) 676-5442 or visit www.cocokids.org.

Last month, more than 130 parents participated in bilingual forums conducted by the Healthy and Active Before 5 collaborative, a countywide effort to address the problems of early childhood obesity. Spearheaded by Kaiser, Contra Costa Health Services, Contra Costa Child Care Council, Families CAN, and First 5 Contra Costa, Healthy and Active Before 5 has been engaged in a year-long process to develop a plan that encourages healthy eating and active living for children ages birth through five years.

The parent forums, coordinated by First 5 Contra Costa’s volunteer Regional Groups, were an opportunity for local parents to provide valuable input to the plan. Some of the issues raised by participating parents included:

• More age-appropriate, inexpensive or free programs for children 0-5.
• Increased safety of parks by addressing illicit activities and proper maintenance.
• Increased healthy food in schools and child care.
• More neighborhood stores with healthy offerings and fresh produce.
• More family-friendly shopping environments that limit marketing to children (i.e. candy-free check out aisles).
• Increased affordability of healthier foods.

The Healthy and Active Before 5 collaborative will convene a community summit in January to unveil their action plan.  

The annual Earn It! Keep It! Save It! Contra Costa campaign is gearing up to help low-income working individuals and families claim significant tax credits and receive free help filing tax forms. Volunteers are needed in various positions to help make this campaign a success. Positions include:

• Tax Preparers to help low-income wage earners complete their tax returns. Volunteers receive free training and certification by the Internal Revenue Service and work a minimum of 16 hours.
• Interpreters who speak Bosnian, Cambodian, Cantonese, Farsi, Haitian, Hindi, Laotian, Mandarin, Mien, Spanish, Russian or Vietnamese.
• Greeters/Screeners to welcome and complete Intake forms and ensure that filers have everything necessary to complete their tax returns.
• Transmitters to send electronic tax returns to the IRS. Volunteers should be experienced computer users with an interest in gaining new skills.

For more information please contact Rose Aquino, Employment and Human Services Department at (925) 313-1726.

First 5 Contra Costa has allocated approximately $100,000 to provide free interactive performing and visual art workshops for children ages 3 to 5 years old and their parents.

The City of Walnut Creek’s Fine Arts Preschool is offering classes in Antioch, Concord, and San Ramon. Classes run from September 22nd through November 10th. Space is limited to 16 children per class. Contact Cynthia Schultz to register: (925) 943-5899 ext. 471.

In West County, parents can contact the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts for more information on free classes starting soon: (510) 234-5624 ext. 24.

In honor of National Literacy Month this month, First 5 Contra Costa offers the following tips to help parents and caregivers read with their children.

Read aloud: Read aloud with your child to help stimulate his or her mind, develop verbal skills and build vocabulary.

Encourage early learning: Children begin learning the day they are born. It is never too early to start reading together.

Ask questions: Engage your child by asking questions that relate to the story you are reading together. Ask your child to point to certain colors or objects and have him or her follow along by pointing to words as you read aloud.

Decide to read daily: Studies have shown that children who are read to daily begin to develop both communication and thinking skills at a much younger age. Commit to reading together every day to help your child develop the skills necessary to enter school more prepared.

Click here to view more tips.

	A cohort of Farsi-Speaking family child care providers attends their study group last Saturday.

Zahra Vafaeinia came to the U.S. in 1989 from Iran and has been a family child care provider for the last 11 years. She had always wanted to enroll in college classes in early childhood education, but felt unsure given that English is her second language.

Then she discovered a class at Diablo Valley College that was designed just for her. The class, developed by DVC’s early childhood education advisor Sue Handy, was an entry-level ESL course for early childhood educators. At first the class had just a handful of providers registered. But when Handy told them more students were needed to keep the class open, one of the providers recruited her friends and the following week over 15 family child care providers – the majority Farsi-speaking – showed up. 

“As we work to improve the quality of child care throughout the county, it is very important that we address the needs of providers with limited English skills,” said Handy. “Through the Professional Development Program, we have used strategies such as incentives and peer support to motivate these providers to enroll in college courses, which many are doing for the first time.”

The PDP provided each of these students with scholarships for books and tuition, as well as weekly tutoring and group support. As a result, every student passed the first class. Seizing on this momentum, Handy continued working with faculty at DVC to provide the students with ECE courses designed to meet their needs and ensured that the students continued to work with the same ESL tutor. The students, who attended classes twice a week and a study group twice a week, all passed their next two classes.

“This is the most motivated group of students I’ve ever had.  I think the peer support has been just as influential in motivating them as the financial incentives,” says Handy.  “This truly is a learning community.”

Zahra Vafaeinia agrees. “If I had started college just by myself I think I would have quit by now. But as a group, we encourage and support each other to continue learning.”

Today, 13 of the students have continued their education at DVC and are enrolled in a much more difficult child development course. The PDP continues to provide weekly tutoring and textbooks. Once the students complete this course, they will have enough early childhood education units to upgrade their Child Development Permits to the Associate Teacher Level, which will earn them $500 from the PDP. And like all providers who return to school, the PDP will award them $100 for every college unit earned.

“I have learned so many things about caring for children that I didn’t know before,” said Parwin Sepehrdad, who has been providing family child care in Concord for the last 18 years. “The PDP has helped me to become a better teacher and make improvements to my child care. The parents all see a big difference, and the children are really happy.”