APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – A Fox Valley program is trying to ensure that children start learning from day one.
A dozen school districts and four hospitals are collaborating on the ‘Take 5 to Help Me Thrive’ effort.
It provides many new parents with resource bags as they leave the hospital with their newborn.
Appleton Area School District Birth-Five Outreach Coordinator Pamela Franzke says the bags include: multiple books, a sheet that details how to sign up for a free smartphone application that offers a variety of parenting information, and a letter from the local school district. In the near future, she says a parenting DVD will also be included.
Franzke says the goal is to get parents reading to kids from birth as “parents are a child’s first teacher and help prepare them for school.”
She points to statistics that say 90% of a child’s brain development occurs in the first five years and that kids benefit from being read at least 1,000 books in their first twelve months.
Franzke says the program is funded through a combination of school district money, donations, and grants.
This sort of effort is not new to the Fox Valley.
Since 2008, Franzke says the ‘Books for Babies’ program provided literacy bags to over 13,000 families. She notes ‘Take 5 to Help Me Thrive’ expanded on that initiative by adding more materials to the handout.
Franzke says the goal is to provide 20,000 bags annually at the four participating hospitals: Ascension-St. Elizabeth Hospital and ThedaCare Regional Medical Center’s locations in Appleton, Neenah, and New London.
The twelve school districts taking part are: Appleton, Freedom, Hortonville, Kaukauna, Kimberly, Little Chute, Menasha, Neenah, New London, Seymour, Shiocton, and Wrightstown.
In the program’s title, ‘thrive’ stands for: Talk to your child throughout the day, Healthy habits, Read to your baby every day, Interact, Value time spent together, and Engage with your child.
