This little girl has become the poster child for the Kids Can Fly Imagination Library in Brant. Kids Can Fly’s Executive Director, Sharon Brooks submitted this picture to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library and they’re now using it as a feature banner on their International Website. 

Imagination Library is a program where enrolled children receive a free book in the mail each month until the age of 5. The books are age appropriate and help to instill the love of reading in children.

Here is the link to the Imagination Library Banner http://ca.imaginationlibrary.com/book_committee.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2ZLXsR7w0s&feature=related

For more information check out their website http://www.thesmilingmask.com/

It was serendipitous that Joe Persia would pick up a Rotarian publication with the face of Dolly Parton and the caption “The Book Lady” on the cover. Dolly Parton started the Imagination Library in 1996 as a way to help children learn to read and to improve literacy in her community.  The program had positive results right away and began to grow across the United States, Canada and now all over the world.  Children can be enrolled in the program starting at birth.  Each month they receive a free, age-appropriate book in the mail until their 5th birthday.  Having books in a child’s home works to help children learn to read and also encourages families to spend more time together.

Coincidentally, Joe was studying for his PhD in the area of Reading Education and had become interested specifically in early learning and literacy. “The article about a book gifting program aimed at specifically improving reading readiness and the love of literature was timely indeed.  Upon reading the article I thought it would be a great way for the Rotary Club in which I belong to, to take a unique project and sponsor a program that would pay enormous and tangible benefits right here in our own community.”  

Persia contacted the Imagination Library administrator in Canada, Catriona Sturton, who suggested finding someone to act as a program administrator.  After asking around, the name Sharon Brooks was suggested to Joe Persia. “I was approached by Joe to partner in this innovative project.  The Kids Can Fly Board was immediately keen to get involved as it was a project that totally fit our mandate”, said Brooks. Joe joined the Kids Can Fly Board and immediately contacted Sunrise Rotary for support of the program. Sunrise Rotary agreed to help, and committed to $10,000 a year for three years. Since being introduced in Brantford-Brant, close to 400 children have been enrolled in the Imagination Library. The Kids Can Fly Board continued to look for ways to expand the program locally. As a result, Joe, Sharon, Kids Can Fly Chair Jeanne Smitiuch, and Board member Lisa Collins all went to Tennessee for the Imagination Library Homecomin’ Conference in June of 2011. “We thought we knew a lot about this project before the conference and were blown away by the additional ways Imagination Library can impact a community. The research to date is showing that children are flourishing and parents are getting more involved with reading and interacting with their kids after the books started arriving from Imagination Library”, says Brooks.   

Jeanne Smitiuch is leading the Imagination Library sub-committee for Kids Can Fly. She came back from the conference with a goal to have every child from 0-5 enrolled in the program in Brantford-Brant. “Studies prove that reading to a child improves their school   readiness, increases the parent-child bond and is crucial in language development”, said Smitiuch. Kids Can Fly is now using Imagination Library as a point of contact with new parents so that, in the future, the organization can provide support for parents such as information on brain development, ways to get a child ready for school and to inform them of other community events and early learning programs.  The organization’s mandate is to help all children in the community reach their maximum potential.

Read the rest of the story from The Advocate http://www.brantadvocate.com/the-imagination-library-a-way-to-fight-our-28-drop-out-rate-by-patti-berardi/

From our current Board Chair, Patti Berardi….

Many people often ask me how I feel about Full-Day Every Day Kindergarten. Before I answer, I ask them if they’re really ready to hear what I have to say. The reason that I ask this is because so many people are unaware of the importance of this program to Ontario and many really do not want to hear what I have to say. So many question, “But how can we afford it?” and my answer is that “we can’t afford NOT to have it”.

Before I continue, let me just be clear that my children will never get the benefit of full-day kindergarten but I can tell you the struggles we have faced as a family because they only had the opportunity to attend a kindergarten program every other day.

I do have friends and colleagues that have children in full day learning programs and they smile from ear to ear when they tell me how quickly their children are learning and developing in this program.  There are stories of JK children reading at the level of a child in grade 1 and the year is not even over. I hear stories of children that have come out of their shell and are less shy and enjoying making new friends in their classes. The examples of success are endless.

The most important thing to me is that this program is what’s right for a child, not necessarily what’s right for the parent. Yes, having a child in JK/SK every single day helps to reduce a parent’s cost for daycare but some parents are still paying for before and after school care.  The words “free babysitting” is fighting words to me.  Here is why: our kindergarten teachers and early childhood educators are not babysitters! They are qualified and educated in child development and are teaching our children the skills that they need to be successful in their education. They are professionals.  Calling them a babysitter is inappropriate. It is attacking their profession and demeaning the important role that they play in our children’s lives.

I have no personal gain in seeing full-day kindergarten fully rolled out in Ontario other than the joy of knowing that we’re investing in our children. This pays off down the road. The World Health Organization says that for every $1 invested in a child it pays $17 down the road. We will save on public assistance, crime and drains on our healthcare system. Simply put, we are setting the stage for our future generation to be successful.  Poverty plays a large role in our children not being ready to start school.  Research shows and teachers understand that children from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to succeed academically, and ultimately are at greater risk for failing to graduate from high school.  A number of developed nations view universal early childhood education as an effective social policy to address these issues.  International research from a wide range of countries shows that early intervention contributes significantly to putting children from low income families on the path to development and success in school.  Most European countries provide universal educational programs for children three to five years old and make them available to any child regardless of parental employment status or family income. 

The commitment of many European countries is reflected with their level of spending. Public spending for early learning and child care ranges between 0.2% to 2% gross domestic product (GDP). Canada ranks lowest among 14 countries for which data is provided! Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland spend the most the United States in in 9^th place – ahead of Canada.  (source Martha Friendly, Early Learning and Childcare: How Does Canada Measure Up?”)

Research shows that a full-day kindergarten experience enables children, particularly those from educationally deprived backgrounds to acquire the skills needed to become emergent readers at least to the point at which they are at par with children from more educationally advantaged communities. (source Jose da Costa. “Full Day Kindergarten: Longitudinal effects through to grade three.” International Journal of Learning)

The other important factor in expanding to full day kindergarten is the number of immigrant or refugee children whose first language is neither English or French. These programs offer important opportunities for expanded and intensified learning for these children to make the transition to grade 1. These programs will also address poverty.  Disadvantaged children will need access to support from school nutrition programs, early identification and intervention with the support of board psychologists and the expansion of programs that go beyond the focus on literacy and numeracy.

I am grateful for the McGuinty government’s commitment to Full-Day Learning in Ontario.  Investing in our children now will pay off down the road and I appreciate that the decisions they are making are for tomorrow and not the short-term gains of today.

Giving our children the skills today will set the stage for life-long learning and future success for these children. I believe in a future that has less crime, healthier citizens and less need for public assistance.  This investment today will allow for our children to experience a better life as adults so that they in turn can provide a better life for future generations.

I have experienced what it’s like to have a child only attend kindergarten part-time and the struggle they have faced is that they want to be in kindergarten every day. Once they start kindergarten they’re ready to learn and ready to grow. The alternating days with daycare and kindergarten are confusing to them. Although my kids had a wonderful daycare program to attend, they didn’t want to go back to “little school” because they were indeed ready for big school.  A lot of tears have flowed and every day they would wake up wondering where they were going today.

In Brantford/Brant County 28% of our children do not graduate highschool and 25% of children are not ready for kindergarten when they start. We need this program in Ontario and in all of Canada.  Our kids deserve to have the best start.

Board members Joe Persia and Sarah Roarke will join Sharon and Sean for a roundtable discussion on early learning and development issues. They will also be discussing the Kids Can Fly Imagination Library, Roots of Empathy, an upcoming Walk for Kids and the Midnight Movie Marathon.

Watch them live at 7pm on Rogers TV, cable channel 20 in Brantford!

Call in live with your questions surrounding early learning and development! Sarah and Sharon are both Registered Early Childhood Educators and Joe is a teacher.  Call 519-759-7711, facebook your questions to Kids Can Fly or ask them on Twitter #talklocalbrant

From our Past-Chair Jeanne Smitiuch…

Happy Valentines Day!

When my children were young, a very wise woman told me the best Valentines’ gift to your child is a love letter. For the past 24 years, I have written a love letter to each of my four children. Some years they were hard to write, finding a quiet time of reflection during the toddler years or finding good things to say during the teenage years, but I always found it helped me look at my children in a new light and realize why I loved them so much.

So actually, the love letters were really not for them but for me!

Parents love it. Critics call it free all-day babysitting.

Love it or hate it, the government’s costly new full-day kindergarten program is on the chopping block.

Don Drummond will propose axing the all-day school program for tots in his much anticipated report on ways to control government spending, a senior Queen’s Park source says.

Drummond, a former TD bank economist, has been given the job of finding ways to wrestle the government’s whopping $16 billion deficit and $200 billion accumulated debt under control.

His proposal will be a direct challenge to Premier Dalton McGuinty, who has championed the $1.5 billion all-day learning program for four-year-olds.

Nearly 800 schools already have full-day kindergarten.

It cost $200 million to implement the program when the government started to phase it in in the 2010-2011 school year. It will cost $300 million in this school year.

When fully implemented, it will cost around $1.5 billion once capital improvements are factored in.

Drummond’s report will be released next Wednesday and contains 362 recommendations, 59 of which propose ways to cut health spending.

While Drummond will not recommend a public sector wage freeze, he does taking a long, hard look at plum public sector pensions and suggests ways to get their spiralling costs under control.

Demands on the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and the other public service pension funds are expected to triple in 10-15 years.

With taxpayers on the hook for half the cost, the government is looking for ways to get the costs under control before they bankrupt the province.

While teachers contribute a hefty percentage of their pay to their pensions, other people on the public purse do not.

University professors, for example, contribute as little as 2%-3% of their pay towards their fully-indexed, defined benefit pensions.

Read the rest of the story here http://www.torontosun.com/2012/02/09/full-day-kindergarten-on-chopping-block-drummond-report?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=recommend-button&utm_campaign=Full-day+kindergarten+on+chopping+block%3A+Drummond+report+exclusive

 By Hugo Rodrigues / Expositor Staff

 As Clifford the Big Red Dog got closer to him in his room at the Brantford General Hospital and started signing a book, the shy smile on four-year-old Liam’s face got wider.

Clifford, with pals Super Grover and Bert, toured the pediatrics ward at the hospital Saturday afternoon, the third act of Kids Can Fly’s annual Storybook Breakfast that kicked off at 9 a.m. at the city’s Rossini Lodge. Board member Tracy MacMillan, who brought the characters to the hospital and helped guide them around, explained how the third act has been added on over the past several years in partnership with event sponsors.

At the lodge in the morning, its hall was packed for two sittings of the increasingly popular event.

Kids Can Fly executive director Sharon Brooks said the fifth annual event sold out on the second day tickets were available, with 340 tickets gone the first day. The premise behind the breakfast is to allow families of young children to interact informally with their favourite literary characters as a means of encouraging them to read together.

“Reading is really more than words,” Brooks said, seated on the stage at Rossini in between introducing characters to an eager crowd of families who alternated between breakfast and seeking photos and autographs from the storybook characters. “We hope this encourages families sitting down with their children and reading with them.”

Kids Can Fly works to both amass a collection of popular storybook character costumes in its permanent collection and also works with Canadian and U.S. publishers to rent costumes so that its offerings suit the changing yet constant nature of children’s literature.

Read the rest of the story here http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3461151

 Check out the gallery of pictures from the breakfast held on Saturday, February 4, 2012.

We wanted to post this information regarding the Tassimo Coffee Pot Recall as there may be families in the area that have these coffee pots.  A toddler was hurt in Canada from the steam from a Tassimo machine.  Please check with your manufacturer if you have a Tassimo.

OTTAWA – The manufacturer of Bosch-brand Tassimo brewers announced a massive recall Thursday after receiving dozens of reports of second-degree burns, including one involving a Canadian toddler.

About 900,000 single-cup coffee brewers with plastic discs have been sold in Canada since June 2008, and another 835,000 have been sold south of the border, BSH Home Appliances Corp and Kraft Foods said.

The disc that holds the coffee or tea, sold since last August, can burst and spray the hot liquid, posing a burn hazard. The company is now offering a free replacement disc holder for the brewing mechanism.

The company says it received word of the first incident involving the brewer within months of the product launch in 2008, and received the first report of a problem with the disc last December.

One of the incidents involving the disc affected a two-year-old Canadian girl, who suffered second-degree burns to her face. In the U.S. a 10-year-old girl from Minnesota was hospitalized after receiving second-degree burns to her face and neck in an incident involving the single-cup coffee maker.

Read the rest of the story here http://www.canada.com/Tassimo+coffee+maker+piece+recalled+after+customers+burned/6129392/story.html