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Bronx Initiative
Beginning in Fall 2005, CMOM, with funding from Bronx Kids, Verizon, and JP Morgan Chase launched a demonstration project at East Side Settlement House/Children’s Pride, developed a fundraising plan, and began to advise the Bronx Borough Presidents office on the creation of a children’s museum in the Bronx. On November 3, 2005 the Children’s Museum of Manhattan began an 8 week early childhood pilot program at Children’s Pride, 414 Morris Ave. The early childhood program led by CMOM’s specialists was designed to engage the whole family in the process of learning.
The aim of the program was to engage parents and children in a series of interactive storytelling, art, music, math and language –based activities that both build excitement about reading and learning together and ultimately prepare children for school and lifelong learning. Specifically the program would:
As a result of participation, children would begin to develop the tools that they needed to become successful readers. Specifically, children would:
Parents, in turn, would develop the tools they needed to support their children’s growth as readers. They would learn:
Family participants each received CMOM’s Bi lingual Family Learning Together Guide. The guide supports parents with language and art activities and strategies to continue learning together at home.
A long term goal was to have families reading up to two books per day and 14 per week.
To help meet this goal, each week families were given a new book to begin their own libraries and follow up on the work begun during the program.
Weekly attendance varied from 15-25 families, which far exceeded initial expectations of 8-10 families. The pilot program was extended for an additional 18 weeks. Total Families served: 50-65. CMOM’s early childhood specialists Guy Avni and Angela Reed were overwhelmed with the positive response from the parents and children who waited outside for them to come each week. One day a mother came with out her child who was sick, because she wanted to get her “lesson” for the week. Over 90% of the parents who attended said that they were now incorporating reading into their daily schedules with their children as a result of the program. They stated that their children were better able to focus and listen to stories as a result of the program. Over 80% said that they were reading to their children twice a day. 75% of the parents stated that they felt more comfortable reading to their children.
After watching CMOM staff engage families, the staff at Children’s Pride requested a teacher training to be led by CMOM to help teachers further develop classroom management skills.
The staff at Children’s Pride created a CMOM art and language board in the classroom that showcased the curriculum and children’s artwork. Teachers remarked that during the week children would point with pride at their work and talk about their new library of books at home.
CMOM educators stated that the children participating in the program had:
Based on the success of this pilot program and with additional funding, CMOM will be in 3 sites starting September 2006. All 3 programs will run through December 2006. Total number of weeks: 16.
CMOM will also create a borough wide Family Festival in October at Hostos Community College in the Bronx. The event will serve up to 200 families. Programming would mirror the current early childhood model only on a large scale.
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