Play. It's Important to Our Kids' Success.

Claude Stephens
Facilitator of Outreach &
Regenerative Design
Bernheim Arboretum & Research Forest

If our aim is to create a generation of creative leaders well versed in social justice, primed for exploring the world and ready to address the mounting challenges of the future…we would get out of the way when children play. But for the most part, that is not what we do. We adults tend to schedule, plan, control, design and engineer most of the real value out of play. Worse, we undervalue play as a pastime.

“Play is the highest form of research.” – Albert Einstein

Ask anyone over fifty about their experience with play growing up and they will likely tell you that their parents showed them the door in the morning and then rang the bell when it was time for supper. Between those moments children were engaged “in the highest form of research.”

Children are drawn to trees. A large downed tree will hold a child’s
attention far longer than any engineered climbing structure.

6 Words. 1 Journey.

Robin Schotter 

Early Childhood Specialist, 4-C

When your goal is to foster a community of learners, that goal is never completed. Metro United Way and Community Coordinated Child Care (4-C) have been partnering to prepare kids for kindergarten through their Excellence Academy for almost five years.

Throughout this journey, there has always been something new to explore, a new way to look at something, and something new contributed from each of the mentors, administrators, directors, teachers and children. We want a program that is responsive to those involved and embraces change. It starts now and never ends.

Engaging in dialogue about how children and adults learn means sharing knowledge back and forth. It means being vulnerable, trying new things, talking about and reflecting on success and failures. It’s a culture that we have to create.

Imagination Will Get You Everywhere

Latara Appleby
Marketing Brand Assistant

Albert Einstein is often quoted as saying, “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.” Well, I’m not sure my mom knew that when she was reading my bedtime stories growing up, but she definitely followed through on it.

Some of my childhood favorites were Rumpelstiltskin, Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood. Never one to corner myself in one genre, I also had a particular fondness for Strega Nona and The Velveteen Rabbit.

Can We Unite and do What’s Best for our Kids, our Communities, and our Country?

By Joe Tolan

Can we find issues of paramount importance for a vital future that we can put partisanship aside for?  Oklahoma has!

Recently the New York Times published a powerful story - “ Oklahoma! Where the Kids Learn Early” -  that clearly demonstrates the results we can achieve in early education when we help ensure that all children enter kindergarten ready to learn.