StrongStart

At not quite 4 years of age, my grandson's photo has landed in a local newspaper. Noah attends StrongStart, an early learning program for preschool-aged children. He goes with his daycare provider and her young son who's about the same age as Noah. It's not an alternative to daycare because parents or caregivers must accompany the children and are expected to participate in the various activities. The goal of the program is to prepare children for success in kindergarten. Early childhood educators lead the activities which include arts and crafts, music, and story time.

Some of the other parents who now attend with their children had previously been isolated because of their lack of English, but by coming to Strong Start they can develop relationships with other parents and their children are exposed to Canadian culture along with learning the English language. This particular program quickly caught on and at the present time, there are 55 StrongStart programs in British Columbia with new ones starting up all the time. Noah is a very active little boy and particularly loves the music and dance and playing with the other children. He's learning to take turns and to share, manners are reinforced along with healthy eating choices for snack times, and he's actually learning other languages, too. Anyway, that's him in the photo (not very clear because I scanned it from the newspaper) with his arms stretched up and looking at the photographer. I bet he asked to see the picture right away - he loves to have his picture taken! :D If you click on the picture you can see it better.