Every April, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) hosts Week of the Young Child, a public celebration of early childhood and the people who make it possible. This year it falls April 11–17, and our team has been planning for weeks. Here is what to expect, both inside our classrooms and out in the community.
A Week with a Theme for Every Day
NAEYC organizes the week around five themed days, and we have built our programming to match. Families are welcome at any of the public events listed below.
Music Monday — April 13. We are partnering with the children's musicians at Wee Folk Sound for a free outdoor concert in the BrightRoots courtyard. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. Bring a blanket. There will be juice boxes.
Tasty Tuesday — April 14. Each classroom is hosting its own family snack-making session. Toddlers will mash bananas for muffins. Preschoolers will assemble vegetable kebabs. Pre-K will run a small pop-up "café" for siblings and grownups during pickup. Ingredient lists and allergy notes were sent home last week.
Work Together Wednesday — April 15. Our Pre-K classes will spend the morning building a giant cardboard city in the gym. Families and siblings are welcome to drop in between 10 a.m. and noon to add a building, paint a road, or just witness the controlled chaos.
Artsy Thursday — April 16. We are turning the front lobby into a gallery for the day. Every BrightRoots child has contributed a piece to a collaborative exhibit titled Things That Matter to Us. The pieces are honest, sometimes funny, and consistently moving. Stay after pickup for a few minutes to see.
Family Friday — April 17. The week closes with our annual Pancake Morning from 8 to 10 a.m. Stacks are free. Coffee is hot. All BrightRoots families and alumni are invited.
Why This Week Matters
It is easy to roll past Week of the Young Child as a marketing exercise. We do not see it that way. The week exists because the people doing the daily work of early childhood — educators, family child care providers, parents at home, paraprofessionals in classrooms — are some of the most underpaid and least visible workers in the country. Setting aside a week to publicly name that work, and to celebrate the kids at the center of it, is a small but real act of recognition.
It also gives us a chance to do something we do not do often enough: invite our wider community in. So much of the magic of early childhood happens in classrooms and living rooms that the rest of the world never sees. This week, the door is open.
Showing Up for Educators, Too
NAEYC also designates the Friday of this week as Provider Appreciation Day. We want to use this space to thank every member of the BrightRoots educator team. The work you do — the patience, the careful observation, the singing the same song one more time, the catching of a sob before it becomes a wail — is the work that makes everything else possible.
If you are a family who has been thinking about writing a thank-you note to your child's educator, this is the week. They will read it. They will save it. We have notes from 2018 still pinned above desks.
Beyond Our Walls
We are also lending support to a few partner events around the city. Our Director of Programs is speaking on a panel about play-based learning at the public library on Tuesday evening. A small team of our educators is volunteering at the diaper bank's family resource fair on Saturday. Details and signups for any community-facing events are on our Events page.
Week of the Young Child is short, but the values it celebrates are not. We hope you can join us for a piece of it. And if you cannot, we hope you will spend an extra moment this week noticing the small, quiet work of caring for the very young people in your life. It is more important than most of us are told.
