Imagine being pregnant with your sixth child and learning that your husband has a very serious illness. He is admitted to the hospital. What will you do if he passes away? He is the sole bread-earner for the family and you do not have proper documentation to stay in the country, even though all your…Continued
All of our Stepping Stone moms have begun online classes and work at their own pace. Each Friday, they meet together in the adult education room just one building away from where their children attend Stepping Stone’s LEAF preschool. Currently, Neida, one of the Stepping Stone office interns meets with them there to help them…Continued
This fall, A Stepping Stone Foundation had a bit of a hiccup for three mothers whose families had enrolled in our LEAF (Literacy Elevates Arizona Families) program located at the Bret Tarver Isaac Preschool teaching site in Phoenix. This program, as many readers will remember, is a five-point family literacy program which consists of preschool,…Continued
Is preschool really important? Read this article from Rasmussen University: Is Preschool Important? Spoiler alert! YES ITS REALLY IMPORTANT!
Check out this story about the importance of early childhood education written by Claudio Sanchez and posted on NPR : Pre-K: Decades Worth Of Studies, One Strong Message Pictured here is one of our many parents working with their child in A Stepping Stone Foundation LEAF program on literacy activities–in an age-appropriate way! A Stepping…Continued
Please find below a link to yet another study validating what a great investment high quality early childhood is—especially when the parents are involved! The programs studied/talked about in the links below begin their first contact with families when the child is still an infant and stress the quality of child-caregiver interaction. I’ll be looking…Continued
I would like to welcome all our new and returning families to A Stepping Stone Foundation’s 26th program year for preschool with family literacy! This year we once again have preschool classrooms with all the family literacy obligations that go with it (home visiting, adult education, parenting classes and child-and-parent-time-together) in collaboration with Alhambra Elementary…Continued
An interesting retrospective study done by Chris Herbst in 2013, was recently reported by Hechingereport.org (via NIEER), about the nearly Universal Childcare instituted in the US from 1940-1946 (known as the Lanham Act) to allow more women to enter the workforce during WWII. The study examined, among other things, long-term, long-lasting effects of early childhood care for the…Continued
There are many hot topics regarding early childhood. Most recently, I read: “A high quality early education experience depends on a high-quality workforce of early educators. How we value and support those early educators as a nation – through access to higher education, professional development and commensurate compensation – has direct implications on their ability…Continued
State of State Pre-K May 15, 2015 The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don’t know what to do. -John W. Holt, Jr. The National Institute of Early Education Research (NIEER) recently released the “State of Preschool 2014,” which actually does not…Continued