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“One… two… three…” you say as you count your baby’s toys for them. Even though your baby can’t solve equations, let alone speak, they are building early math and language skills with each number they hear.
And you don’t need to stop at numbers — there are many early math concepts that you can introduce to your young child, simply through language, play and reading books.
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Here are some fun activity ideas to help introduce early math concepts to your child:
Through simple language and play, young children will start to learn essential early math and STEM skills. And remember, especially for babies and toddlers, just hearing these words early and often helps plant the seed for your future mathematician.
The earlier that we can start to help our children understand their emotions, the better the outcome in raising kind, empathetic children. Brain scientists, educators, economists and public health experts all agree that building a good foundation for healthy relationships begins at birth. The earlier that your child can adapt and develop key social-emotional skills—like attentiveness, persistence and impulse control—the sooner they can begin engaging in healthy social interactions with peers.
Young children aren’t necessarily born with the skills to engage in healthy relationships; they are born with the potential to develop them. With young children, it’s important that parents teach empathy by being the example. Show empathy daily to your children, family, and others in your community during your day. When empathy is shown by the parent, talk that through with your child by being attentive to their feelings. Use language like “I know that was hard for you, you seemed sad but you’re safe and loved.” This language will help children to be aware of their own emotions and feelings, in turn helping them be empathic to others.
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You as a parent play an important role along with your child’s teachers in laying a strong foundation for social-emotional skills that will help your child to form healthy relationships. It is important for the adults in your child’s life to model positive behaviors and set clear rules.
Here are 2 activities that you can do at home with your little one to help teach them about empathy:
The Kindness Tree is a symbolic way to record kind and helpful actions. Family members place leaves or notes on the tree to represent kind and helpful acts. Parents can notice these acts by saying, “You __(describe the action)__ so __(describe how it impacted others)__. That was helpful/kind!” For example, “Shubert helped Sophie get dressed so we would be on time for our library playdate. That was helpful!”
The Kindness Tree can also grow with families who have children of mixed ages. Initially, young children simply put a leaf on the tree to represent kind and helpful acts. As children grow and learn to write, the ritual evolves to include writing the kind acts down on leaves or sticky notes. Start your own Kindness Tree with this template.
Families with older children can simply use a Kindness Notebook to record kind acts and read them aloud daily or weekly.
The We Care Center provides a way for family members to express caring and empathy for others. Fill your We Care Center with supplies like minor first aid items (Band-Aids, wet wipes, hand sanitizer, scented lotion), card-making supplies (preprinted cards, paper, crayons, sentence starters), and a tiny stuffed animal for cuddling.
When a friend or family member is ill, hurt, or having a hard time, your family can go to the We Care Basket to find a way to show that person they care. At first, parents might need to suggest how and when to use the We Care Center, but your children will quickly understand the intent. In this way, the We Care Center encourages the development of empathy by providing a means for children to offer caring and thoughtfulness to others every day.
As we reflect on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the National Day of Racial Healing, we asked our early learning experts for advice on how talk to your little ones about racial healing, equity and justice.
As a parent, it can sometimes be difficult to talk to your children about serious issues like racism, but it is so very important. Sparking conversation with your little ones on this topic can help them to address bias and to be mindful as they navigate this big and sometimes scary world we live in.
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One of the best ways to help your child learn is through reading. By choosing books that affirm the identities and backgrounds of all children you and your child can have an open dialogue about recognizing and celebrating differences. Here are book recommendations from our early learning experts to read aloud with your little one to learn about racial healing:
Separation anxiety and the behaviors that manifest from it are specific to each child. Educators must honor the differences in each child and the culture of the school or center where they work when partnering with parents to help a child cope with separation anxiety. While the strategy will vary for each child, the goal remains the same: helping them feel safe and secure in the new environment so that they can learn.
The thoughts and opinions expressed in this article are informed by what Start Early experts and Educare Chicago teachers have found to be successful ways of mitigating separation anxiety in the classroom. While there are many opinions on this broad topic, one recurrent theme is the importance of establishing a routine.
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Helping children to create routines within their daily life is one of the best ways to teach confidence, self-discipline and cooperation—skills that later lead to the development of strong coping mechanisms. Such skills enable children to more easily navigate unexpected changes and adjust to unfamiliar environments.
Why is it so important to ensure that children have quality care and educational experiences in the earliest years of life? A nurturing and supportive environment during a child’s first years lays the foundation for future success in school and life. To truly appreciate why this time of life is so crucial, it helps to understand a little bit about brain science and early brain development.
During the first several years of a child’s life, the brain forms over one million neural connections every second.
Babies’ brains are quite literally wired to learn. This rapid absorption of information creates new neural connections and builds the architecture of a baby’s brain. For comparison, adult brains have thicker, but fewer, synaptic connections.
This makes adults more efficient at doing what they’ve done before (e.g., speaking, writing and reading) but less effective at learning new things, such as a foreign language.
Original source: Adapted from Corel, JL. The postnatal development of the human cerebral cortex. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1975. Link source: Urban Child Institute
The above figure illustrates the rapid rate at which synapses are formed in the first few years of life. One can see that adults have thicker, but fewer synaptic connections.
Everything in a child’s environment — experiences, relationships with parents and caregivers and environmental factors — influences brain development and growth.
It is no surprise, then, that early experiences have a profound impact on a child’s future ability to succeed in school, work and life.
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Secure and nurturing early childhood experiences form strong neural connections, which enable children to acquire language and communication skills, learn how to interact with people and their surroundings, and develop the ability to regulate their emotions.
Sadly, too many children — especially those living in under-resourced communities — face chronic stress and adversity which hinder their ability to learn and increase their chances of falling behind developmentally and academically for years to come. Fortunately, there’s a wide body of research that demonstrates that interventions, particularly in the first years of life, make a difference.
Studies on high-quality, comprehensive early childhood programs, such as the Carolina Abecedarian Project, the Perry Preschool Project, the Chicago Child-Parent Centers, as well as Educare schools, demonstrate that early childhood interventions promote positive results in emotional development, school readiness, academic achievement and family life.
As part of our effort to become the country’s most trusted resource for early childhood knowledge Start Early conducts research with the overarching goal of generating new knowledge and contributing to the field’s understanding of how to improve the quality of programs and systems, promote positive outcomes, and transform practices and policies at scale.
Amanda Stein, director of research & evaluation
The research conducted at Start Early is anchored by science. Building upon decades of studies on brain development and early childhood education, we conduct high-quality research and help translate this research into practice — with the goal of improving outcomes for children and families early in life.
One example of how our research comes to life is demonstrated by the work of Educare schools. Start Early opened the first Educare school in 2000 on Chicago’s South Side using a research-based curriculum and serving low-income infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families. Now part of a nationwide network of 25 schools, known as the Educare Learning Network, these schools are prime examples of the positive outcomes stemming from high-quality early education programs.
After just one year at an Educare school, children show improved language skills, fewer problem behaviors, and more positive interactions with parents. Children who enrolled in Educare schools earlier, and stayed until they entered kindergarten, also displayed stronger vocabulary skills — just one of many positive indicators of effective early intervention. Years of rigorous evaluations of Educare programs indicate these outcomes.
Yet, Educare is just one example of how existing science and our own rigorous research join to create and promote high-quality early learning experiences. Ultimately, our research aims to reinforce the existing evidence supporting the importance of early education, while also informing and advancing improvements in the field as a whole.
Comic Relief US
(CRUS) is committed to breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty. Through the power of entertainment, CRUS drives awareness and amplifies the voices of children and families living in under-resourced communities.
You might know them best from Red Nose Day, their annual fundraising campaign that brings people together to laugh and have fun, while raising money and awareness to ensure all children are safe, healthy, educated and empowered in the U.S. and abroad. Through Red Nose Day, Comic Relief US engages the public and nonprofit and corporate partners to raise funds and invests them back in nonprofit organizations, many of which are community-led with programs focused on tackling the root causes and consequences of poverty and social injustice.
The Educare Learning Network has been a proud partner of CRUS and Red Nose Day since 2018. Since 2000, when Start Early developed the first Educare school in Chicago, the Educare Learning Network has grown into a national network of 25 birth-through-age-five schools in 15 states, Washington DC and the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. We are a network of learning hubs that innovate, evaluate and share best practices to transform the lives of young children in disinvested communities and positively impact the broader early childhood field.
Start Early, the Educare Learning Network and CRUS partner to improve the lives of children and families by investing in Educare schools to create training opportunities and enriching early learning programming that benefits Educare staff, children and families. For the past five years, funds awarded to Start Early have supported professional development, consultation and other learning opportunities for 2,000+ staff members across the Educare Network. Red Nose Day funds have also allowed the 25 Educare schools to develop new and innovative programs in the areas of science, tech, engineering, the arts and math (STEAM); social-emotional learning; family engagement; and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) and have impacted 5,000+ children and their families.
The staff now look at STEAM in a different light. What was once before avoided is now implemented without prompting. Messy play, experiments, recipes, engineering and more are now implemented with ease.
Educare school leader on Red Nose Day-funded programming
Start Early and the Educare Learning Network feel fortunate for the many opportunities we have as a grantee partner of CRUS to enhance our programming and connect with new audiences. Being part of Red Nose Day has offered Educare opportunities for national media exposure, helping us share the importance of early learning. A great example of this was in May 2022, when an Educare Chicago Mentor Teacher was featured in a segment on the Kelly Clarkson show. This was an opportunity for TV viewers around the country to be introduced to the Educare name and mission, helping the public understand the value of our work and high-quality early childhood education programs. Additionally, the Educare Network’s promotion of Red Nose Day in 2022 was particularly successful as we shared nearly 100 social media posts and other communications during the campaign and reached an audience upwards of 35,000 across multiple platforms and channels.
We continue to be grateful for our partnership, and deeply appreciative of the important role the Educare Learning Network plays at multiple levels of the early childhood education sector, and the much-needed support the Educare Learning Network provides to children, early childhood education providers, and caregivers.
Comic Relief US
Since its launch in the U.S. in 2015, Comic Relief US (CRUS) has fundraised over $380 million, with over $324 million raised through its signature Red Nose Day campaign to end child poverty.
Comic Relief US invests in nonprofit organizations, many of which are community-led, with programs focused on tackling the root causes and consequences of poverty and social injustice. CRUS supports initiatives that advance the health, safety, education and empowerment of children and caregivers in communities impacted by intergenerational poverty.
Funds raised through Red Nose Day in the U.S. support programs across all 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico and around the world, ensuring all children are safe, healthy, educated and empowered.
As a parent, you want to ensure that your child is being compassionate and empathetic towards the people around them. However, according to research, children in preschool and kindergarten are still developing the cognitive skills to understand empathy.
In order for children to grasp the concept of “empathy”, they must first be able to recognize their own emotions. Understanding what we are feeling and why will give children the tools they need to talk about deeper concepts of feeling and emotion as they grow.
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For over 40 years, Start Early has worked directly with families and children from before birth to entry into kindergarten. We provide doula and home visiting services and quality center-based care that ensures children are ready to reach their full potential in school and in life.
Five years ago, Start Early was honored to be one of 18 organizations that received a major investment from Ballmer Group, each focused on addressing economic mobility. Ballmer Group recently renewed its commitment to Start Early for another 5 years.
Our vision is that every community has a comprehensive, equitable prenatal-to-five system that delivers excellent programs through a stable, well-supported and compensated workforce. The flexible, multi-year funding grant from Ballmer Group has allowed Start Early to build new partnerships, advance core program priorities, and bring new capabilities to our work. For example, Start Early’s merger with the Early Learning Lab brought human-centered design approaches to build more equitable solutions, programs and policies informed by community voices.
Early childhood educators serve young children in their most critical developmental years and lay the foundation for lifelong learning and wellbeing. They provide stable and nurturing relationships that promote brain development and build the social, emotional, and academic skills of our youngest learners who will become our future workers, innovators, and leaders. Yet they are often underappreciated and under-compensated. Unfortunately, low wages, combined with limited access to professional development and growth opportunities, created a workforce crisis, only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s important that educators get the training and support they need to grow their knowledge and skills and collaborate and share best practices with colleagues. Support from Ballmer Group allowed Start Early to expand professional development opportunities to prepare the workforce to meet the ever-changing needs of young children and families. Today, we support nearly 300,000 early childhood professionals and impact 1.5 million young children annually.
Our work is focused on creating virtual and face-to-face training and resources on topics of vital importance to our childcare and workforce, including family economic mobility, equity, recruitment, and family engagement. In 2020, Start Early was awarded one of four highly influential Office of Head Start National Centers — the National Center for Parent, Family and Community Engagement.
At Start Early, we are focused on driving forward a unified prenatal-to-five system. We have long believed that universal programs, with a common definition of quality, a shared measurement for assessing progress and the ability to scale innovation and best practices can have transformative and sustained impact on millions of children.
We’ve continued to grow our systems-building work and now partner with advocates and public sector leaders in 17 states, promoting more equitable practices and policies that benefit 6.5 million children. We recently supported states and communities in maximizing American Rescue Plan Act funds to advance their early childhood programs and services.
We are grateful for Ballmer Group’s continued support of Start Early’s mission. As champions of early learning, we are committed to helping families with young children thrive. We will continue to deepen our support for early childhood professionals. And we will stay relentlessly focused on driving forward an early learning system that’s seen as an integral part of our nation’s commitment to children, families and future generations.
Ballmer Group is committed to improving economic mobility for children and families in the United States. They fund leaders and organizations that have demonstrated the ability to reshape opportunity and reduce systemic inequities. To learn more, visit: www.BallmerGroup.org.
There’s been a national discussion about increasing our aptitude in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)/science technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM). America is underperforming other industrial nations, and these areas are increasingly playing a critical role in career success.
Much of the conversation focuses on improvements in the middle and high school years. But we can begin building STEM/STEAM skills much earlier than that—as soon as a child starts speaking.
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Some young children are innately interested in: learning how things work, building things and taking things apart. But all children can be enticed into STEM/STEAM learning through whatever they’re already interested in. Both STEM and STEAM support play, wonder and curiosity; but STEAM includes an art component that allows children to create and design with intention. STEM and STEAM encourage children to solve problems by using inquiry and investigation.
Since young children tend to ask lots of questions, you can introduce STEM/STEAM basics by following these simple “CHIA” steps:
Before beginning any activity with your toddler, ask them what they think is going to happen. Then ask why they think that. They’ve just created a hypothesis and given their logic for that hypothesis—the foundation of all scientific exploration. By then creating experiments with your toddler and talking about what you observe, you’re setting them up to plan, brainstorm, build, and solve problems exactly like scientists and engineers do.
Remember that it’s okay for both you and your child to answer “I don’t know” to any question. It’s asking the question that’s important because that is where all science begins.
While at home, parents can introduce building structures with their children. The materials for this activity consist of wide popsicle sticks, clear plastic drinking cups and small cube blocks. Parents can encourage their child to build a structure while engaging in conversation about how many cups will it take to build the structure. What will happen if you use fewer cups and more popsicle sticks? How high can you build? The children can learn about balance, height, measurement and a host of wonderful things. This at-home activity needs little to no planning, but a readiness to think outside of the box.
Don’t underestimate the incredible thinking skills that young children have. With just a playful shift in word choice, we can allow for a dramatic shift in getting our babies ready for a STEM/STEAM education!
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