Earth Day is this this coming Friday. A simple activity to do with your little ones is to have them decorate a coffee filter with green and blue markers. Once they have the coffee filter colored, use a spray bottle to lightly dampen the coffee filter. If you do not have a spray bottle, with wet hands, flick water on to the filter. As the colors get wet and blend together, the filter looks more like the earth.
6 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
Child's hands creating a coffee filter planet earth. Picture from aboutmom.com
Due to the weather, we are moving the Bright Future's Easter Egg Hunt up to tomorrow, Tuesday, April 12th. This event will still be at the Bright Future's office from 1-2pm. Please let your parent educator know if you will be able to make it. Sorry for the inconvenience, but hope to see you all there!
6 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
Easter Egg Hunt DATE CHANGE Flyer
Today we are celebrating The Week of the Young Child with Family Friday. Family time is so special and important. Family time promotes social interaction, which involves practicing appropriate and positive interactions with others to support the child’s developing social skills. Check out the Family Fun Bingo Board below. Can you and your family complete the entire board? #WOY22
6 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
Family Fun Bingo Board. Read a story together. Go on a walk together. Make a snack together. Play a game together. Have a picnic together. Take silly pictures together. Have a dance party together. Have a device free day together. Sing songs together.
Today we are celebrating The Week of the Young Child with Artsy Thursday! So many social skills are developed when children are engaged in making choices, using their imaginations, and creating with their hands! Check out the different Easter/Spring craft ideas below for inspiration! @IllinoisAEYC #WOYC22
6 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
Fork Stamped Tulips Craft
Tissue paper egg
Chick hand prints
Paper chain snake
Today we are celebrating The Week of the Young Child with Work Together Wednesday. When children build together they experience teamwork and develop their social and early literacy skills. It just so happens that tonight is our STEAM NIGHT at NGE. This is a perfect way to celebrate Work Together Wednesday! STEAM is (often hands-on) experiences that support building understanding and vocabulary, critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and reflection. Tonight we will be creating opportunities for children to learn about the world through STEAM. Be sure to come by the Bright Futures station along with the many others! Hope we see you tonight!
6 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
North Greene Elementary STEAM NIGHT April 6th 5:30-7PM at NGE. Concessions will be available and there will be door prizes.
Today for The Week of the Young Child we celebrate with 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. Follow the link below to find a spin on veggie pizza- making it into a cut carrot for the perfect spring snack! https://www.superhealthykids.com/veggie-flatbread-pizza-recipe/
6 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
Veggie pizza made to look like carrots for Easter, by using chopped broccoli along the top edge and shredded carrots covering the rest.
This week is the Week of the Young Child. It helps celebrate early childhood programs and services here in Illinois. Today we are celebrating with Music Monday! Music is a wonderful tool to use when playing and interaction with our children. Follow the link below to see what the benefits are when we sing to our babies and young children. https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/10-ways-babies-learn-sing-to-them
6 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
Three babies with musical instruments.
Covid-19 Vaccination Clinics available at Greene County Health Department.
6 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
COVID-19 Vaccination Clinics at Greene County Health Department. Friday, April 1st, Friday, April 8th, and Friday, April 29th. These are available from 9AM to 12PM and 1PM to 3PM. Everyone ages 5 & older is eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccination. Children under 18 years of age must be with a parent or legal guardian at the time of the immunization or send a signed notarized permission note with another adult for the minor child. For more information call: 217-942-6961.
Don't forget to wear your blue today to show your commitment to preventing child abuse! No child deserves abuse. #GreatChildhoods #GoBlueIllinois
6 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
Wear Blue Day flyer
From April 18th-30th you can bring your expired or damaged car seat to a Target store location and redeem a coupon on their Target app or Target.com/circle. This event occurs twice a year.
6 months ago, Emily Forrester
Car Seat Trade-In Flyer for Target.
Here is a cute snack/craft idea to do with your kiddos. Poke one end of the pipe cleaner into a marshmallow. Your child can then thread colored cereal rings such as Fruit Loops onto a pipe cleaner. Then place another marshmallow onto the other end of the pipe cleaner and bend the pipe cleaner into an arch. The marshmallows will allow the rainbow to stand up right.
6 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
Fruit Loop Rainbow Threading - pictures a rainbow made from Fruit Loops threaded on a pipe cleaner. A marshmallow is on each end of the pipe cleaner representing clouds and assisting the rainbow to stand. abcdeelearning.com
Wear BLUE on Friday, April 1st, 2022 and show your commitment to preventing child abuse!! original posting www.preventchildabuseillinois.org
6 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
whit background with blue lettering suggesting to wear blue to show your commitment to child abuse prevention. Image shows pinwheels and kids that are blue showing support of awareness.
Come to NGE on April 6th from 5:30-7:00PM as Bright Futures teams up with the elementary school for STEAM NIGHT! Concessions will be available and there will be door prizes!! Hope we see you there!!
6 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
North Greene Elementary Steam Night April 6th 5:30-7PM at North Greene Elementary. Concessions will be available and we will have door prizes.
We recently posted an animal motion workout for kids and it seemed to be a hit. Here is another one with a spring them. Have your child do the actions of the animals. After going through all of the animals and their action at least once, ask your child which one is their favorite. Ask them why. You can even talk to them about the details of each animal. Talk about where each animal lives, what they eat, if they can fly or not, what color they are, etc .
6 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
Animal Actions. Pictures of animals and descriptions of their action. Have your child hop like a frog, flutter like a butterfly, buzz like a bee, march like an ant, fly like a bird, wiggle like a worm, slide like a snail, crawl like a caterpillar, and waddle like a duck.
Celebrate St. Patricks Day with your child while seeing if you can find 5 different things that are green. If that is too easy, try to find as many things that are green as possible. Not a lot of green items in your home? Go for a walk or even just walk around the yard. Talk about each item that you and your child find. Is it soft? Hard? Does it smell? Is it big? small? What shape is it? Is it light? Heavy? etc.
7 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
Happy St. Patricks Day
Earth Day is Tuesday, Feb. 22nd. Bright Futures has enrolled in Neighborhood Forest. Parents can sign-up to get a free tree for their child ahead of Earth Day. Trees for kids are distributed via Bright Futures to plant with their family during Earth Week (April 22-30). Follow the link below to sign up for your child's tree. https://www.neighborhoodforest.org/parent-registration/?school=27018&cyear=2022
7 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
Neighborhood Forest giving trees to children. We give free trees to kids every Earth Day.
Keep your kids having fun while keeping them active! Try to have them do this "workout". Your kids will love them and you can enjoy the laughter that it brings them!
7 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
7 Minute HIIT Workout for Kids. Set an internal timer for 45 sec of work and 15 sec of rest. It shows pictures of each animal and gives a description of each exercise. Frog jump- hop, hop, hop up and down like a frog. Bear walk- with your hands & feet on the floor, hips high, walk left and right. Gorilla Shuffle- in a low sumo squat, use your hands to balance and shuffle around the room. Starfish Jumps- Jump up and down spreading your arms and legs wide (jumping jacks). Cheetah Run- Run in place as fast as you can, just like the fastest animal in the Sahara. Crab Walk- Sitting down, place your palms on the ground behind you, lift your hips, and crawl on your hands and walk. Elephant Stomps- March in place, stomping your feet as hard as you can.
Don't miss out on our Prenatal/Postnatal group connection tomorrow night where one lucky family will win a car seat! We are teaming up with the Greene County Health Department and Abby Moody. Come learn more about WIC, breast feeding, infant massage, car seat safety, safe sleep, and postpartum. Supper will be provided.
7 months ago, Emily Forrester
Prenatal/Postnatal group connection flyer. Tuesday, March 15th at 5:30PM at the North Greene Elementary School. We will be covering WIC, breast feeding, infant massage, car seat safety, safe sleep, and postpartum. One lucky family will win a car seat.
Today is Social Emotional Learning Day! Social/emotional skills are very important and benefit everyone in multiple ways. These skills can help one regulate emotions, manage stress, improve academically, improve mental health, etc. Parents can promote social/emotional learning in a variety of ways. For example, setting daily routines, asking questions, listening actively, using eye contact, talking about feelings, and even playing with their children. #SELday
7 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
#SELday
Even though your child is young, giving them small chores can have benefits in more than one way. Small chores can teach life skills, foster independence, give them a sense of responsibility, and even help with building routines. When giving your child chores try to help make it fun and keep in mind that perfection is not the goal.
7 months ago, Bright Futures Family Program
Image of care giver and toddler helping each other sweep an outside sidewalk. It reads Toddler Chore Chart.
Chore chart that shows images for getting dressed, brushing teeth, combing hair, picking up clothes, picking up toys, and making bed.
Chores checklist. This lists get dressed, brush hair, brush teeth, make bed, pick up/put away clothes, pick up toys, help switch laundry, help sort clothes, sweep, dust, help vacuum, help load dishwasher (no breakables), put dishes away, help cook (with supervision), help fold clothes, put away shoes, help clean up messes. There are two spaces left open to add your own ideas in, along with a notes section.