We were happy to support Children’s Institute (CII), a nonprofit organization that provides early education, behavioral health, and family strengthening services to children and families impacted by poverty and trauma in Los Angeles.

After visiting the Western Head Start Center for the first time and speaking with their teachers, our team was inspired to help transform their outdoor spaces. The goal was to turn drab walls and plain pavement into vibrant and interactive artwork that encourages play and learning.

With a staff of 500+ professionals at Age of Learning who are passionate about early education, it was not hard to find a large group eager to work on this project. We called on our 80 artists and designers to submit mural concepts for CII’s largest wall to bring color and joy to the space. The winning concept, chosen from the six diverse concepts submitted, is a celebration of the vibrant neighborhood surrounding the center and allows students to see themselves represented in the scene.

Martine Singer, CII’s President & CEO, said an environment that inspires creativity and learning is important to children in early education programs.

“The team at Age of Learning did an amazing job painting the mural and interactive games,” Singer said. “We are so grateful to the team of volunteers for creating such a beautiful space for our kids to learn and play.”

More than 50 of our staff members from all departments, plus family members, arrived at the Head Start site and spent the full day bringing the mural concept to life. In addition, we also painted interactive games, such as hopscotch, put up new signage, and donated games for the playground. To see each step of the process including some “before” and “after” photos click on over to our album here.

“This was such an amazing experience! Not only was this an opportunity to give back to the kids in the community, but it gave me a new appreciation for our company’s efforts to contribute in notable and worthwhile ways,” said Jennifer Enoex, an Age of Learning staff member. “Words can’t describe how fulfilling this was for me, and I’m happy to have taken part in this project with fellow coworkers.”

Our team truly enjoyed contributing our time to this cause, bonding with our colleagues, and feeling connected to the community. We will continue to partner with CII and other nonprofit organizations serving children throughout Los Angeles.

The post Age of Learning Volunteers Help Head Start Center Shine  first appeared on Age of Learning.

Children from low-income families begin to fall behind their peers in vocabulary development before they’re even two years old. By the time they reach fourth grade, 80 percent of these children are not proficient readers (Source: Campaign for Grade-Level Reading). This learning deficit has long-term effects on children’s academic future, including their likelihood of graduating from high school.

To help address this challenge, Age of Learning has developed a set of Education Access Initiatives to make our educational programs available for free to children whose families may not be able to afford a subscription. Our Education Access Initiatives have helped educate more than 6 million children and counting across all 50 states, at no cost to families, teachers, or libraries. And the cumulative value of our in-kind contributions exceeds $100 million to date.

ABCmouse for Teachers

In 2011, shortly after we launched ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy, we developed a fully-featured version for teachers to use in their classrooms at no cost. Since then, ABCmouse for Teachers has grown every year and served several million students in preschools, Head Start centers, and elementary schools across the country. More than 140,000 teachers, including approximately 1 in 4 kindergarten teachers, used ABCmouse in their classrooms during the last school year.

ABCmouse for Libraries

Recognizing the critical role of libraries in serving at-risk children, we created ABCmouse for Libraries in 2014 to make ABCmouse available for free in public libraries. Librarians have embraced this program, which families can now access in more than 7,800 public libraries—close to 50% of all library branches in the U.S.—including more than 70% of the 200 largest library systems. Over the past year, children have completed more than one million ABCmouse learning sessions in public libraries.

ABCmouse for Community Centers

In 2015, we launched ABCmouse for Community Centers to provide free ABCmouse access in afterschool programs, computer centers in public housing facilities, and other community centers that want to offer educationally enriching experiences for children with limited resources. We have partnered with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and ConnectHomeUSA to serve families living in public housing in more than 70 communities. Today, ABCmouse is available in hundreds of community centers and public housing authorities across 43 states.

Says Age of Learning CEO Doug Dohring, “we couldn’t be more excited about continuing to scale this work going forward!”

The post Expanding Opportunity Through Our Education Access Initiatives first appeared on Age of Learning.

Read the case study…

The post ABCmouse.com Case Study: Using Early Learning Technology to Prepare Head Start Families for Kindergarten first appeared on Age of Learning.

Age of Learning was recently a proud sponsor at the 2015 National Head Start Association conference in Washington, D.C., which celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the Head Start program. Dr. Rebecca Palacios, Senior Curriculum Advisor at Age of Learning, was invited to address the more than 5,000 people attending the conference. Speaking prior to Cornell Brooks, President and CEO of the NAACP, and “father of Head Start” Edward Zigler, Dr. Palacios delivered personal and inspirational words that resonated with the large audience of Head Start Directors, teachers, and other supporters.

To share her story with a broader audience, we’re posting her conference address here:

I am so honored and pleased to be here with you today. For me, it is an important milestone and the next step in a teaching adventure that I would like to share with you.

I was born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, where I still live. For those who haven’t been there, Corpus Christi is a beautiful city by the Corpus Christi Bay. My family has been there for five generations.

Fifty years ago this spring, our local school district was one of thousands across the country preparing to open Head Start classrooms for the first time.

I was 10 years old and looking forward to finishing fifth grade. My hair was a little longer then. And I was precocious.

When I was three, I had announced that I wanted to become a teacher. That big school down the street where my sister attended was always like a magnet for me. My abuelita and I would walk down there and pick my sister up from school, and I could only stare with awe at all the wonderful, exciting things that I could see at my eye level.

So you can only imagine how excited I was when, about seven years after that, my mother told me about the need for volunteers to work with the young children at my own elementary school. I wanted to learn all about the ways that the teachers would work with the children and the activities that they would prepare for them.

I found myself doing the “Hokey Pokey,” matching pieces of lost puzzles, helping open milk cartons, and asking questions of the students after I had read to them.

My teaching adventure began that summer. And starting with that experience, I developed a deep appreciation and respect for Head Start—for every child that Head Start has served, and there are so many success stories. Not only the successes of the children, but also the success stories for teachers, families, the country, and, yes, volunteers.

My love for teaching and learning has increased since that time. I tried to put everything I learned into an early childhood lesson, and when the children would simultaneously burst into applause at the end of the lesson, well, to tell you the truth, it kept me going back every day to teach.

I am grateful that I have been able to lead children to find their gifts, to use teaching and learning experiences to carry through their lifetimes. That, for me, was the greatest reward. My teaching career was an opportunity to meet my lifetime goal.

But another opportunity was afforded to me—one that I never expected. Six years ago, a friend and colleague from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards introduced me to Age of Learning, the company building what would become ABCmouse.com.

I learned about their mission—to blend education best practices, innovative technology, and insightful creativity to bring learning to life for children everywhere. They were developing the most comprehensive online curriculum ever created for early learners, using the power of the Internet to make high-quality education resources available at low cost to every child.

I’m an idealist. And in ABCmouse.com I saw an ideal. I saw the promise of what America’s best early childhood education program could be. A program that could help prepare the youngest learners for success early on, and also throughout their lives. Here was a way to teach and reach children, not just in my school community, but around the world.

I joined Age of Learning as a member of the Curriculum Board and a Senior Advisor, and over the last six years, I’ve seen the company’s promise become reality. ABCmouse.com is now the leading and most comprehensive online early learning resource available.

A few quick points I’d like to share:

• First, ABCmouse.com is completely free for Head Start programs. We make it free—with no strings attached—as part of our commitment to helping every child learn, regardless of their family’s financial circumstances. Any Head Start teacher or administrator can create a free account at www.ABCmouse.com/HeadStart.
• Second, ABCmouse.com’s interactive learning approach is not only for young children; it is also a connection between the Head Start teacher and the family. All 5,000-plus activities on our website are available for teachers to share with parents individually to meet students’ specific educational needs. There is even a Spanish tool that will help Spanish-speaking parents understand the topics their children are learning.
• Finally, since last year’s National Head Start Association conference, a number of research studies on ABCmouse.com have been completed. These studies—some of which are summarized on our website at www.ageoflearning.com—demonstrate that using ABCmouse.com accelerates children’s learning of basic literacy and numeracy, improving kindergarten readiness and building a strong foundation for academic success.

My teaching adventure started 50 years ago in a Head Start classroom, and it continues to this day.

I hope ABCmouse.com can help you in your teaching adventure and that, 50 years from now, your students will share with YOU and others their own adventures.

The post Age of Learning Celebrates 50 Years of Head Start first appeared on Age of Learning.

As a participant in Invest in US, Age of Learning is making a commitment to provide free access to the complete, award-winning ABCmouse.com curriculum in every U.S. preschool, Head Start, pre-k, and kindergarten classroom over the next two years.

“Age of Learning is proud to support this vitally important White House initiative to expand access to high-quality and effective early childhood education resources,” said founder and CEO Doug Dohring. “This initiative aligns with our goal to advance educational equity and help all children learn.”

The Invest in US campaign challenges public and private sector leaders across the U.S. to build a better nation by investing in and providing high-quality early childhood programs from birth to age five, including expanding access to digital learning resources.

Early childhood education experts, researchers, and teachers agree that the foundation for educational success begins to be developed long before children enter formal K-12 schooling. Creating and making available effective early childhood education resources can pay huge dividends both for individual families and for the nation as a whole.

“It’s thrilling to see early childhood education truly becoming a priority for our nation,” said Dr. Rebecca Palacios, who is attending the Summit as Senior Curriculum Advisor at Age of Learning. “This is an exciting and hopeful time for the early education community and for our most precious national resource: our children.”

For more information about Age of Learning’s Education Access Initiatives, including ABCmouse.com for Schools and ABCmouse.com for Libraries, visit our Education Access Initiatives page.

The post Age of Learning Joins Invest in US Campaign at White House Summit to Expand Access to High-Quality Early Education first appeared on Age of Learning.