Greetings and Happy Fall!

The 4 R Kids ECI area board has posted the FY19 annual report. Here are the highlights in the report.

• 154 families that participated in family support services who increased their knowledge about child development;
• 474 child care providers participated in professional development that helped grow their child care business;
• 138 child received preschool tuition scholarships which prepared them for school;
• 329 children received dental screenings which will assist with healthy development.

 Check out the FY19 annual report for more information. 

Seeking Board Membership

The Iowa 4 R Kids Early Childhood Area Board is seeking applicants who want to help children age 0-5 grow, learn and prepare for Kindergarten. With the state financial resources, our twelve member board awards Early Childhood grants to ensure young children will be healthy and successful. 

Board membership is available to anyone wo work or live in Adair, Dallas, Madison, or Warren County, and do not directly or indirectly receive funds from the Board. For more information download the 4 R Kids Board membership application or contact the ECI Director, Debra Schrader.

The Teal Pumpkin Project

For most children Halloween is an exciting time of year. For families who have children that suffer from food allergies, this time of year can present some scary issues. In an attempt to make Halloween more inclusive, the Food Allergy Community of East Tennessee (FACET) started the Teal Pumpkin Project as a way to raise awareness of food allergies during the food-focused holiday.

The Teal Pumpkin Project aimed to encourage treat-givers to give out trinkets and other non-food goodies like pencils, bracelets, glow sticks, bouncy balls, stickers, or bookmarks to ensure all children could participate in danger-free fun. 

Treat-givers who were participating in the project would paint a pumpkin teal, and then place it on their front porch to let families know that they would be offering treats other than candy and other foods for children with allergies. Families who participate can choose to only provide non-food treats to trick-or-treaters or to give out candy but also have non-food treats available for children that need them. The campaign has been adopted by the Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE) organization and thousands of families across the country have participated by putting teal pumpkins on their front porch and registering their house on FARE's Teal Pumpkin Project map .

For those who would like to participate in the Teal Pumpkin Project, but don't want to make or buy a teal pumpkin, FARE has signs, flyers, stickers, and other free printable items that families can use to signify that they have non-food treats, for more inforamtion go to  www.foodallergy.org.

Is Story Time Better With Print Than E-Books?

Picking what book to read isn't the only choice families now make at story time -- they must also decide between the print or electronic version.   New research finds that caregivers and children talk and interact less with electronic books compared to print books.

Where do pets go?

At a recent community meeting there was rich discussion regarding pets and what families due when they are unable to care for them due to a hospital stay. Hope Animal Rescue may be able to assist families when in need of a short term stay. Hope Animal Rescue of Iowa is a no-kill animal rescue originated in June 2014.    Hope Animal Rescue is 100% volunteer & foster-based and rescues abused, neglected, abandoned, and surrendered animals of all ages into loving foster homes in central Iowa until they can find their forever homes.  Contact Hope Animal Rescue of Iowa, PO Box 31222, Des Moines, IA  50310 or [email protected]) for a drop off location.

Early Childhood Iowa