Resource for helping adults stumulate children's learning

World Vision has very useful resources for helping adults to stimulate the learning of children in their own community.

TOOLKIT for ECCD: Early Childhood Care and Development
Very simple materials introduce a wide range of parenting topics for discussion in a community setting. ECCD materials build on local knowledge and practices already in communities. This opens the door for other initiatives like health, nutrition, community development . . .. The kit includes:

1. Step by step instructions to make Children's Toys for different age groups with simple, inexpensive materials;
2. User's guide;
3. Facilitator's guide with lesson plans for 72 parent meetings;
4. Videos to illustrate and train; the 7 minute video ‘Parenting Boys and Girls’ gives an introduction to the whole concept of ECCD and to the Toolkit; (the video, with appropriate language added, could be used to advocate for this in a community)
5. Flashcards to be used in the 72 parent meetings. 

You can easily expand and adapt these tools for local use depending on your context. View, download, and try them!

BASIC EDUCATION IMPROVEMENT:
On this website, under Education, there are also useful helps for those helping older children succeed in school. Topics covered include After School Homework Clubs and in one-on-one interactions.
Community options to improve learning provides (basic education improvement) plans that can empower communities and other key stakeholders to plan, partner, monitor, advocate, and act together to help children improve in reading, math and life skills. There are ideas for parents who read and parents who don’t read; ideas for children who read and children who don’t read yet.

Let us know your experiences with any of these programs--or suggestions for other ones you have used!


Educational Observation, July 2017, M. Fast

Parents and Children Learn Together

Did your mom read to you? Did she show you how to work puzzles? Did she give you crayons and coloring books? Did she play games with you?
Let's back up a step--did she have puzzles to show, crayons to give, or books to read? These moms don't. But they can teach their children all those literacy-related things through a Parent-Child Club. 
 

What is the Parent-Child Club?
Fun activities that help children learn. Young children participate together with an older person from their family. This person could be a mother, grandma, an aunt, a sister or a father, uncle, brother or grandfather.

Why use the child’s first language as much as possible? 
Children learn best in their own language, partly because they feel more at ease when their own language is spoken. Also, it improves a person’s sense of self-worth when their language is considered important enough to be used in activities like this.



These photos are from the first field trial. We would like to do at least two more this coming year. Interested in helping? Or leading one yourself? Let us know! 
Activities: available at Davar Parent-Child Club.