ECFE offered a fun and learning summer program for the first time this year. Families came with children to learn about our state and enjoy a once a week outing together. Children were excited to check out the sensory box, (one week it had live minnows in it.) and have fun in Minnesota. Camping, lakes and “going up north” were some of the themes. After play in the camp site, children could make s’mores and wax resist pictures of the lake and fish. On the week of lakes, kids actually got to taste a lake (blue jello with a streak of green food coloring, a gummy worm to garnish.) which was fun and funny. Our pretzel log cabins were more creative than we expected. Our youngest students got to explore the swimming pool with lightweight balls and take their babies for long walks in the stroller. Ms. Moe brought the Minnesota theme to life in circle time with songs about Minnesota animals, including frogs, skunks, and going for a (stormy) boat ride. After a conversation with the coordinator of the Stearns County Special Education Cooperative (Jill Haack) ECFE staff made a commitment to include outside time each day of class. Jill said that she is seeing more and more children who are short on ball skills (the ability to use both sides of the body for ball play supports reading and writing later in the fine motor area) and whose hands are weak because of too much screen time, either with TV or with the computer. I am sure that our children napped well after a school day. Parents were not left out of the fun and learning in summer school. Lana Vossen came to share strategies for photographing children and Vanessa Schlueter showed and shared how to archive kid’s work. Both resources challenged us to enjoy our children in the here and now even in our busy lives. Thank You, Vanessa and Lana. We are already planning for next June’s summer ECFE program. Stay in touch for your family fun and learning. Maggie Lundorff ECFE director
