Week of the Young Child 2024

April 5, 2024

What’s Week of the Young Child?

Sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), Week of the Young Child is a fun-filled week in celebration of early learning, teachers, families, and communities.

A Week of Family Fun

Kickoff Saturday

On Saturday, April 6th, spend some time looking over the next few days of activities and determining if you need to purchase any supplies. From crafting materials to baking supplies, scope out your plan for the week and choose a few key activities to try.

You don’t have to check everything off your list. Even just a conversation with your child about some of these topics and a brief exploration each day will go a long way in spending quality time together.

Music Monday

Music Monday is more than singing and dancing, it’s a way to encourage children to be active while developing their early literacy skills and having fun with friends and family! Start off strong on Monday with singing, dancing, and plenty of fun. For families at home, prioritize music today—like listening to different genres of music together or even creating your own songs.

Listen to music together: Explore some of the wonderful children’s musicians and talk about what songs or sounds your child enjoys the most.
Sample music from across the globe. Show your child different genres of music—classical, jazz, folk, salsa, you name it! Encourage your child to identify some of the different sounds or instruments or even differences in tempo or rhythm.
Play your own instruments: One of the easiest ways to experiment with sound is to make your own music! If you have a recorder, shaker, or other instrument at home, explore different rhythms and sounds together.
Sing with or to your child: If you have a baby, singing to your child is a fantastic way to bond, teach rhythm and rhyme, and expose them to language and sound. If your child is older, you can practice singing together.

Tasty Tuesday

Tasty Tuesday isn’t just about eating your favorite snacks together. It’s also about cooking together and connecting math with literacy skills and science while introducing ways to incorporate healthy habits into children’s lifestyles. Cooking and baking are one of the most natural opportunities to incorporate math and science into a daily activity.

Explore your child’s heritage. What are some culturally-important foods that connect to you or your child’s heritage? Does your family have a favorite dish that has been passed down through generations? Share this with your child, talk about your ancestry, and then make a dish together.
Introduce your child to new ingredients. Take a trip to the grocery store or farmer’s market and show your child new ingredients and foods. Now is a great time to experiment with something new and make something with it together.
Create a recipe book. What are some of your child’s favorite meals or snacks? Put together a recipe book, highlighting their favorite foods, and continue adding to it over time.
Can’t make it to Zing Zumm Children’s Museum for the scheduled event? Try the Ice Cream in a Bag Experiment at home!

Work Together Wednesday

When children build together they experience teamwork and develop their social and early literacy skills. Grab some materials and create! Learning to work in collaboration with peers and adults is an important skill in social-emotional development and long-term success. Empower your child by focusing your Wednesday on open-ended learning and working together.

Here are some of the best ways to maximize your child’s learning:

Follow your child’s lead.
Narrate what they’re doing.
Play and create together.
Support their efforts.
Focus on the process instead of the end-product.
Appreciate and acknowledge their skills.

Artsy Thursday

Children develop creativity, social skills, and fine muscles with open-ended art projects that let them make choices, use their imaginations, and create with their hands. It’s time to get creative and artistic! Encouraging your child to express themselves through art boosts creativity, imagination, and fine motor skills. Plus, it can be an exciting way for them to dream up and build new worlds.

Focus on the process. Just as you focused on for Work Together Wednesday, always prioritize the process—not the product. By centering a project on the final product, children lose key opportunities to explore different creative routes, make mistakes, and use their imagination. There is never a right or a wrong way to make art.
Give your child the tools to explore. To foster a truly exploratory art experience, give your child plenty of materials—from recycled magazines and newspapers, markers, crayons, colored pencils, blank paper, tape, glue, scissors, and even a few natural materials, like leaves or rocks.
Praise your child’s efforts—not the product. Acknowledge what your child did during the artistic process, instead of how something turned out.
Can’t make it to the “Chalk with a Cop” event? Go on an outdoor scavenger hunt in your backyard or neighborhood and create a collage with the unique items you find! Or try Zing Zumm’s Blow Paint activity.

Family Friday

As a parent or caregiver, YOU are your child’s first teacher. In honor of Family Friday, spend some quality time with your child and consider reviewing additional resources to best support your young learner.

At One Place, we offer a number of resources so you can access tools and support in Onslow County:

Safe Kids Onslow: One Place helps families with car seat installation, car seat checkups, safety workshops, and other events to prevent childhood injuries. Learn more here.
Literacy: Spend time outdoors today and visit a Story Walk at the Park or take a book, share a book at a nearby Little Free Library. Find locations close to your house.
Emergency Preparedness: In the event of an emergency or natural disaster, our team compiled a helpful video playlist. You can view it here.
Resources for Families: To help you navigate activities for your child, we’ve developed a list of helpful resources—from screen-free activities to playtime and outdoor events. Give it a read here.
Online Parenting Tools: If you’re on the search for practical parenting advice and tools to help you navigate raising a child, Triple P Parenting Program is a great resource. You can work through the materials at your own pace—anytime, anywhere. This program is free for North Carolina residents. Learn more here.

Check out the activities and events scheduled for Week of the Young Child and follow along on social media!

Over the next week, we’ll be sharing daily events/activities and ideas for you to celebrate Week of the Young Child. Tag us in your activities with the hashtag #WOYC24!