Program joint effort by agencies
By Justin A. Hinkley
Battle Creek Enquirer
BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (AP) — A dozen Burmese tots and their parents sat in a circle recently in the clubhouse at Brookside Apartments, and Ayesha Franklin moved from one child to the next.
“Ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba,” she sang in a melodic key, making eye contact with the child in front of her.
Watching from a corner of the room, Mary Barkley smiled and said, “The beauty of this is, music doesn’t need any translation. And everybody can participate.”
Franklin is an instructor with the Music Center. Barkley is project coordinator for Early Childhood Connections. And the gathering at Brookside was one of three special playgroups designed to connect community resources with families who might not otherwise have the opportunity to enjoy them, the Battle Creek Enquirer reports.
In addition to the Music Center group for Burmese families, two groups meet weekly at Binder Park Zoo for its Knee High Naturalist program, including an afternoon group that focuses on Hispanic families. About half of the families who attend the Music Center group live at Brookside, but Early Childhood Connections offers taxi service to families who can’t reach the playgroups on their own, Barkley said.
The programs combine Early Childhood Connection’s playgroup model — at which family coaches teach parents and kids how to socialize and use playtime for learning — with the educational programs offered by the Music Center and the zoo. Those organizations run their regular programming and Early Childhood Connections offers family coaches to help with translation services and some of the education they usually provide.
The Music Center and zoo programs typically come at a cost, but PNC Bank has given scholarships to the families, Barkley said, and helped cover transportation and other costs. Barkley said she received a $10,000 grant, and the Music Center also received a grant for its program.
“This is just a great collaboration between agencies,” Barkley said.
She said the goal of the program is to expose families to community offerings they might not know about and to bring those resources to families who couldn’t otherwise afford it.
But the goal is also to wrap more of the community into a broad collaboration around educating kids. She said the group is also in talks with Kingman Museum about offering a playgroup there and has partnered with First Presbyterian Church for programming.
“The community needs to embrace their children,” Barkley said. “It can’t just be Early Childhood Connections. All of us need to feel like we have a part in developing the whole child.”
Early Childhood Connections is seen as an investment toward the long-term goal of 100 percent high school graduation rates for the city’s schools, so Barkley said the programs are educational, as well.
At Binder Park Zoo on a recent Tuesday afternoon, some kids were streaming in while those who’d already arrived played with a bucket of faux snow. An indoor snowball fight was afoot, before zoo educator Amanda Bailiff was to bring out the creature of the day.
Miriam Vilchis, 30, said her 5-year-old daughter, Jennitzy Talavera, had picked up a lot from the playgroup.
“At home, she takes a notebook and a pencil and draws any animals she sees here,” Vilchis said. “Sometime she remembers things about where they live and where they eat. It’s great. She’s learning.”
In addition to those biological facts, the kids pick up important social lessons, Bailiff said.
“They’re learning right now,” she said. “They’re learning who they are and what their likes and dislikes are.”
At the Music Center program, Barkley said research has linked music comprehension with math proficiency.
And, “you can see the future musicians when they break out those drums,” she said.
At the zoo, Bailiff said the special playgroups also help the kids feel connected to their community, so they might want to support the zoo when they grow up.
For the families, it’s also just a chance to get out and have fun with their families.
“It’s amazing,” Vilchis said. “She is always so happy and she always wants to come. She says the zookeeper is her best friend.”
