Learn more about celebrating Week of the Young Child!

Meet Julie, a valued partner of the WYECPLC and an expert in children’s literature.

This June, I had the opportunity to attend the NAEYC’s Professional Learning Institute in Cleveland, Ohio.

The signs of the season are all around us! It has officially been spring in Wyoming since March.

The influence of technology and media in our daily lives is not going away anytime soon. Hand a two-year old a cell phone or a tablet and chances are, they are going to know how to use it, maybe even better than you. In 2013, it was reported that children younger than two spent an average of one ( 1) hour a day on screen media. Children between the ages of 2 and 8 spent two (2) hours a day on average consuming screen media. It has been suggested that in the last nine( 9) years those average numbers have increased significantly, especially following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic

From the moment a child is brought into the world, social interactions influence their development. Learning social cues, communication, verbal and nonverbal skills, play, sharing, and attachment all are formed in different ways by socializing with others.

A sunrise welcomes the day and invites us to start again. Each day is a chance for a new beginning. When everything comes together, it can be breathtaking. The new Wyoming Early Learning Standards are also the chance for a new start.

How many times in the classroom are you fighting the current of your students’ learning interests? Forcing yourself forward into the goals and expectations you have set only to feel like you’ve made no progress? What would happen if we collaborated with children and their interests instead? Dancing forward with our goals and sideways with theirs. What would our classroom look like?

The Week of the Young Child® is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the world's largest early childhood education association, with nearly 60,000 members and a network of 52 Affiliates

Young children have mental health needs, which means there is a need to support the people who care for those children. Early childhood professionals, educators, and staff are often the ones who are the first to notice mental health struggles for families and their children. There is a need to support the mental health of these children, which means there needs to be support for the professionals and the parents who work within the early childhood services provided in Wyoming.

Early childhood educators and caregivers know the importance of strong, trusting relationships for children’s learning and development. What are some of the ways you are intentional about nurturing relationships with children and families? Read about how the partnership between a teacher and a family supported the transition to school for one Wyoming preschool student.

As educators arrived, settled in, and waited for the session to begin, they were encouraged to flip through pages of a journal to familiarize themselves with the questions we would reflect on and discuss that day.

Educators around the state are feeling fatigued and burnt out. With the additional stress of navigating the circumstances of a pandemic on top of their regular daily responsibilities, educators are finding themselves discouraged. Facilitator Heather Kibler reminds us how important vision is in our work as early educators and how we can use our vision to reignite our spark.

The holidays are full of opportunities to connect more deeply with the families and children we serve. Each family brings their own unique rhythms to this time of year. In this post, one family shares the many ways they celebrate with their diverse and rich traditions and provides educators a window to see how families can be a part of holiday celebrations.

The WYECPLC was created to help elevate the early childhood profession in Wyoming. Now, with the help of federal grant funds, we move forward with that mission in partnership with NAEYC and serval other state agencies to create sustained improvement for educators, children, and families. Read on to find out exactly how it's being done and how you can get involved.

If you Google the word “Hollyhopsie,” the search engine will tell you,” It looks like there aren’t many great matches for your search.” Aren’t the words created in the imagination of a child spectacular? Julie Eastes spent an afternoon enjoying backyard adventures with a very special family member.

Kelce Eckhardt is the WYECPLC West Central Regional Facilitator, but first and foremost, she is a mom. Grabbing, sorting, building, and pretending, Kelce shares her reflections as she watches her son grow and learn through play.

“Children still need a childhood with dirt, mud, puddles, trees, sticks, and tadpoles.” Brooke Hampton Spring has finally arrived, and our communities are coming together to enjoy outdoor spaces. Julie Eastes reflects on a recent encounter with a family playfully enjoying a weekend of bike riding in one of Wyoming’s state parks.

Tom “Teacher Tom” Hobson is a preschool teacher, blogger, speaker, artist, author of Teacher Tom’s First Book. Currently, he works to help make high-quality, play-based preschool education a possibility for children everywhere. He shares wisdom from historical heroes in early childhood and observations from a kindergarten classroom as he advocates for a deeper understanding of the importance of play. Teacher Tom wrote this blog post for educators and families in Wyoming. He will be a keynote speaker at the Wyoming Week of the Young Child Virtual Conference on April 16-17.