Last month we celebrated the Month of the Young Child.  Everywhere, we focused attention on the needs of young children and their families and recognized the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs. Well, almost everywhere. The White House recently released its FY2018 "skinny" budget. The funding cuts in education are big, and, unlike the past few budgets, early learning is not even mentioned. Remember, this is just a proposal, and Congress will use this guidance as they draft their next funding plan for the government. Meanwhile, Congress is finalizing the FY2017 budget this week – it’s over 7 months late. That is a long time for our children to wait. And while many programs supporting young children have been spared the knife, the administration promises to be more forceful next time. From the comments (and tweets) made, we could not be in a more perilous time for our children and ensuring that they get equitable opportunities to high-quality early learning.

Ready At Five is happy to celebrate April as the Month of the Young Child!  Our Executive Director Steven Hicks enjoyed reading a story and handing out gift bags with books to Mrs. Wagner's  Pre-K students from Arlington Elementary School. 

It's the Week of the Young Child and to celebrate Music Monday we invite you to make your own instruments and perform a concert with your child! Check out our ParentTips for more great ideas! We'd also like to offer a limited trial offer of ReadyRosie, which is an early education tool that is currently helping schools and communities across the nation deepen and scale their parent engagement efforts by leveraging the power of video modeling and mobile technology to meet and equip parents where they are. ReadyRosie has hundreds of brief videos in English and Spanish that model everyday interactions in familiar environments with real parents. Go to https://readyrosie.com/register/ and enter the code 19888.

Make sure to register for our School Readiness Symposium "Building Equity in Early Learning" on April 25, 2017 at the BWI Airport Marriott featuring Walter S. Gilliam Ph.D., Director, Yale Child Study Center.  Following the keynote delivered by Dr. Gilliam Shining a Light on Implicit Bias to Improve the Quality of Early Learning for All Children, participants can choose from four different afternoon workshops.  Please click here to register online or click here to download the registration form if needed.