Local educators work to promote early childhood learning

Over the last week, parents have been treated to a number of activities for pre-school aged kids.  Shany Beaman, from Bear River Head Start, and Cheryl Kimber, Education Specialist with KISU-TV  PBS in Southeast Idaho, have been coordinating on at least one event a month to promote the available services for children in the county.

Shany held an activity day at the Grace Library last week, in which parents and children were treated to a lesson on pumpkins, and a number of other activities.  Bear River Head Start serves a number of children and families all around the region, as does the PBS outreach program.  As a result of occupying a similar circuit and area, the two educators decided to set up events that would allow them to combine their resources and attention and help as many people as possible with a variety of activities.

Head start is a pre-school program that allows kids to get, well, a head start on their primary education.  The program focuses on child development, parenting and attachment, nutrition and health, literacy, employability, and educational goals.  Shany specifically works as a Home-Based Family Educator with Head Start, which focuses on “parents being a child’s first teacher.”  She provides weekly visits to the home to provide parents and children with Head Start services while also providing social opportunities.  The programs through Bear River Head Start are available in Cache, Box Elder, and Rich County in Utah, and Franklin, Caribou, Oneida, Bear Lake, and South Bannock counties in Idaho.

“Basically, I work with expectant mothers and anyone who has a child ages 0-3, which we call Early Head Start.  I focus on really want ever the parents want.  They are the ones who know their child best—they’re the primary educator, I’m just there for support,” Beaman says.

“I bring in ideas.  I teach about child development.  So, if I notice something with their child that they have questions about, I can send them resources and connect them with service like Idaho Infants and Toddlers, or Speech services or whatever it might be.  I help them find the resources. I teach them a lot about the typical development of children.  We do screeners at the beginning of onboarding the child.  If we see anything that is a little low on the screening, then we talk with the parents about what we can do and who we can go to for extra help.”

According to Beaman, parents get to set goals, and that’s what she helps them to accomplish.  “So, if they want their children to be talking more, I bring in toys oriented toward talking, and books.  We sing a lot of songs, but it’s really parent led.  I get to have fun and just show up and bring them toys and activities, and they get to pick what they’d like to do and what works with their family.”

Beaman is on the move most days, with a service area that incorporates a large geographic area.  While she lives in Caribou County, she visits families all over the place, and that’s the benefit of using a home-based family educator.  “We set appointments, and I work around a parent’s schedule.  I drive to them.  While it’s been nice weather, I’ve been meeting a lot of parents at the park where we can work on things like safety, or motor skills.”  

Head Start is grant funded and overseen by a federal board, who works with the providers to make sure everything is going well.  Once a month or so, the students and families in a given area will have events that bring multiple families together for work on social skills and communication.  

“We have a lot of free play and free art.  It’s a lot of fun!”

Shany met Cheryl at a Head Start event, and the two realized that teaming up would make sense.  “Activities are great, and so are teams,” Cheryl says.

“I do outreach to libraries, home school groups, Head Start groups.  My job is to bring resources and activities to communities in our area,” Kimber says. 

The two hosted a STEM day at the Soda Springs library on Monday.  In addition to a course on coding, the main focus of the afternoon was a lesson that combined math skills with art and crafting.  A group of pre-school aged kids practiced their counting skills by taking a number and telling everyone in the group what they had to do that number of times.  Jumping was a popular choice, as was spinning, much to Kimber’s regret.  “Let’s choose something besides spinning,” Cheryl suggested, after performing another seven spins.

After that activity, the students began to draw and assemble a series of pages with drawing on them according to number values.  They then composed the pages into a book to take home.

Also taken home were learning kits from PBS with a large variety of materials and activities to continue working on at home.  

Cheryl explained that she and Shany were in the process of setting a screening date and time for a new PBS series, which should be held at the Idahn-ha indoor theater in Soda Springs if the event is able to go forward.  The screening will feature the debut of a new cartoon series coming to PBS, which Cheryl was very excited about, but will wait until the screening to go into detail about.

More information about Head Start can be found by calling Bear River Head Start at 435-755-0081.  The Idaho PBS office can be reached at 208-373-7220.