Learning about and sharing your stories with people across the state is a privilege and an important part of our mission to make sure your voices are heard. I am grateful to be entrusted with your stories and I’d love to hear from more of you.
Today, a parent shares what it means to her for her children to attend school. This story has been shared with The Early Learning Division and will be shared with elected officials to help keep us in the forefront of their minds.
Sami Allen
Executive Assistant
My children going to school, in general, means to me is that it is one less thing as a parent to worry about. There are a lot of societal pressures placed on parents: work, generate income, cook, clean, exercise, chauffeur our kids to extracurricular activities, take care of our own mental health, shower regularly… lol I hope you get what I am saying.
It is so relieving to know that part of the burden of raising children into functioning adults is lifted by sending my kids to school. I have 5 kids, 3 of which are school aged (I consider preschool to be school aged). There just is not enough time in the day to get everything done that needs to done.
There is no time to teach my children their ABCs, shapes, colors, animals sounds, or my Village kiddo’s recent exploration of the arctic. I absolutely love that while I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get everything done, that even my littlest children’s brain are being engaged, they are socializing, a culture of learning is being fostered. When we got my 2 year old set up in EHS, I wish I could have shown everyone the excitement on his face that he was going to “start school” just like his 3 older siblings.
When I had my oldest, I was told that statistics of what percentage of kids who went to preschool went on to graduate high school and college versus kids that didn’t. It was just a number, so it was not engaging and so I don’t remember. But, when I think of my children going to preschool, I think more of how it is laying the foundation for a lifetime of learning. They will be learning their whole lives, and, having access to a resource like HS and EHS, is so beneficial to know that foundation is going to be solid.
Also, I wanted to add that over the last 12 years as a mother, my children have all attended various different types of daycares/preschools. I have found many things that worked that were enticing to parents. But a major thing that separates Head Start from other preschool models that I have found is the level of family involvement. What I mean by that is, with other preschools/daycares the teachers get to know the families superficially as compared to HS and EHS.
HS and EHS have a variety of resources and community connections to really help parents that are absent in every other daycare/preschool model my children have been in. I have felt like I can be more open and honest about my family’s situation and not just be respected but actually helped. There are so many different contacts within HS that I can reach out too. I do not know their position titles off the top of my head but I have been able to reach out to Bethany, Angela, Sara (my daughter’s teacher), Cassie (our EHS home visitor), and Karla for various questions and needing resources. Also, the various community connections such as Parent Cafe I have found to be not just useful but also enjoyable. I look forward to attending PC and Parent Cafe nights and that says a lot for a busy single mother like myself. We are treated as a whole family and not just as parents to preschool aged kids.
Parent Jennifer V
2021-2022