Celebrate the Week of the Young Child

This is the week to celebrate young children! From April 10-16, the Week of the Young Child (WOYC) is a nationwide, annual celebration that celebrates early learning, young children, their teachers and families.

Established by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the world’s largest early childhood education association, the goal of the Week of the Young Child is to focus awareness on early childhood education and the importance of children’s earliest years in shaping their learning and development.

To celebrate, Day Early Learning has provided a list of activities that families can do to keep the fun and learning happening at home all week long. Everyone can participate — just grab a box of Cheerios and have fun! Parents also have the option of taking photos and sharing them with Day Early Learning by tagging @DayEarlyLearning.

• Music Monday: Create a noise maker. Use household items like cups with lids or Tupperware, fill them with different amounts of Cheerios and use them as tambourines. Play the dance and freeze game by assigning someone to be a DJ. The DJ shakes the tambourine to any beat, and when they stop, everyone has to freeze and hold their position. If a player does not freeze immediately, they must do 10 jumping jacks (or something of your choosing). Check out our Day Early Learning Spotify Playlist for song inspiration: https://tinyurl.com/DELMusic
• Tasty Tuesday: Make a snack like No-Bake Peanut Butter Cheerio Bars (recipe found here: https://tinyurl.com/cheeriobars). Cooking together is a great way to teach children math and measuring skills.
• Work Together Wednesday: Grab a large cup and have one person toss Cheerios while the other catches them using the cup. See how many you can catch in 1 minute and then switch places!
• Artsy Thursday: Make Cheerio art! Glue cheerios to paper, and color them with markers. For older children, make animal shapes. For younger children, draw shapes and help them glue cheerios to create the shapes. You can also draw your child’s name and ask them to trace it with Cheerios. Another option is to make a Cheerio necklace. Find ribbon or string and have your child enhance their fine motor skills while they thread cereal onto the string. When they’re finished, they’ll get to wear their new jewelry.
• Family Friday: Make your own checkers board or tic-tac-toe board on a sheet of paper and play together. Color one set of Cheerios with a marker to make the playing pieces.

For more information about Week of the Young Child, visit dayearlylearning.org/blog/woyc21