This post is brought to you by Save the Children. All opinions are our own.
Early childhood education is so incredibly important to the future development of our kids, yet so many children don’t have access to it. I remember when Jacob was little, I struggled to keep him in preschool. He started when my finances were better and I was still with his dad. When we separated and money got tight, I wanted to keep Jake in preschool because he really loved it, learned so much and it was one thing that hadn’t changed when everything else was changing.
I wiped out every dime we’d put away over the first few years for Jake’s college education to pay for his preschool. I don’t regret it because the foundation I gave him in those early years set the groundwork for success throughout his entire life. Did you know that kids who receive good math and reading support in their early years are three times more prepared for school than kids who don’t?
Unfortunately, according to Save the Children, 30% of the world’s children never get to reach their developmental potential. In low-income countries, fewer than 1 in 5 kids have access to early childhood education. Those children are more likely to grow up to be arrested for violent crimes, become teen parents, drop out of school and never attend college.
How to Support Early Childhood Education in Your Community
Even if you’re struggling, like I was, to put your own child through preschool, there are ways you can help support early childhood education in your community. A few things you can do that don’t cost you any money include:
- Donating books to your local preschools: Jacob had (still has) a massive library of children’s books. When he outgrew them, I’d take them down to his preschool so his teachers could share them with other parents. Since his preschool doubled as a daycare center, there were kids younger than him that could use them.
- Donating board games, puzzles and other gently used educational toys: My friend works for a local low-income early education center, where many of the children don’t have access to educational toys once they leave the center. Jacob has board games and puzzles that he’s played once or twice and are still in great shape. I asked if she can use them, and she said she likes to send things like that home with kids, especially around the holidays.
- Have a yard sale: For all those items that aren’t really appropriate to give to a preschool, have a yard sale and donate the funds to your favorite early education center for low-income families. You can also get your community together and host a big yard sale, then pool your money to buy new educational equipment.
- Give your time: If you have a skill, talk to your local preschool and see how you can share it with the kids. Are you a master at soccer? See if you can come in for a day and teach the kids the basics! You may need to submit background checks, but once you do that, it’s usually good for a year. Having a current background check on file comes in handy if you want to volunteer anywhere with children.
Invest in Childhood with Save the Children
If you do have a little extra money to spare, Save the Children is an amazing way to give back to kids in need. Save the Children understands the importance of a strong early childhood education foundation. Their back-to-school campaign, Invest in Childhood, focuses on the importance of early learning and the deficit faced by kids in need. You can help them help those kids through Child Sponsorship.
For just about $1 a day, sponsor a child in need right here in the United States. By helping the Invest in Childhood campaign, you’ll be investing in all of our futures. Think about it: our children will grow up to become the next caretakers of the world.
They are the future inventors and scientists, doctors and nurses. They’ll be our leaders and make our laws. With the right tools, they could finally find the cure for cancer or end world hunger. They’re certainly tenacious enough! If anyone can do it, it’s our kids. But they need our help and guidance.
Child Sponsorship is also a phenomenal way to teach your own children about the value of giving back in a way that is more meaningful to them. Helping a child around their own age really lets them connect with the impact they’re making. As a Sponsor, you actually get to send messages, birthday cards and more to your sponsored child. Let your kids help write these messages and you can even create new friendships.
Every child is born with a blank slate and the potential to do great things. Together with Save the Children, we can chip away at that staggering 30% of children who aren’t able to reach their potential simply because they don’t have access to the right tools.
How do you help foster a strong foundation in early childhood education? Tell us in the comments!
These easy ways to support early childhood education in our community are spot-on! It’s heartening to see how small efforts can make a big difference. From donating books to volunteering time, it’s a reminder that we all play a role in shaping a brighter future for our little ones. Let’s keep these positive initiatives going!
Helping our children have the best edjucation is very important. There definitely isn’t enough funding for schools and doing every thing you can is so important for the success of our youth.
This is a such of important post. You’re right that today’s kids have the potential to be our future doctors, scientists etc if they’ll get the right education. They all deserve a chance to be the best they can. I’m so thankful that education (incl university) is 100% free in Sweden.
I love giving back time to my community and especially to my children’s schools. i love to volunteer for field trips and events where they simply need a few extra hands. My Kids friends all know me as ‘their mom’ because I make sure I am always around. I think showing support with your time is one of the easiest ways to give back.
These are all great and very easy ways to support your local Early Childhood Education in Your Community. My little one at grows toys so fast so we will get some together to donate. It is also a wonderful way to teach her about giving back and being generous.
We are always donating books, games, and other things to local places in need. I have donated so many clothes over the years as well as household items. I always look at it as being blessed and sharing the love. I like the idea of helping others when they need it because none of us know what the future holds and we may very well be the ones in need someday. Karma is real.
I believe that early childhood education is key. I like that some states offer options for parents as young as three.
These are great tips! Save the Children sounds like a wonderful charity. I’m planning to donate some old (still in great condition) books to our local preschools and we also have a yard sale planned for later this month. It’s important to give back.
great tips! we always donate books and school supplies to local school or community. Supporting education is very important. Everyone deserves a good education, especially for kids
We always donate books, school supplies to local schools or community. It’s a great way to support education for our next generation. Everyone deserves a good education. Always help others and be generous
These are great tips for helping local schools! I love to try to pay it forward to our schools. Even though I don’t have kids in the district it’s so important to help out with the children of the communities education.
These are all great tips and a reminder how simple it is to help children. Before school starts every year we go through all of the kids books and donate the ones that my son has out grown. It is a great way to give back and to also teach my son about helping others.
yard sales will also help with your home clutter
What great ideas that I hadn’t even thought of. I’m going to donate my son’s old books to a local school.
We usually donate all our books to the library but I will definitely consider giving the kids’ books to local preschools instead. Great ideas!
These are great tips. I think it’s important to support education as a community. Quality education is a group effort.
I try to donate school supplies and art supplies each year. It really does help these programs out.
Passing on all these ideas is wonderful. Our children’s education is so important and too many parents just don’t give a dam. Thanks for sharing.
donating books is a great tip
I love these. I work in early education and I love when people share tips like these.
These are some fantastic tips!!! I always try and volunteer when I can. The school can really use afew more hands during events!
These are great ideas! It’s so much fun to read with young kids – they enjoy the time just as much as you do.
You are right, it is so fun to read with kids. My daughter is learning to read, and spending just 15 minutes with her reading at bedtime is such a special time. I am hoping it is something she will remember like I remember doing with my mom!
These are some really great ideas for giving back! I love the idea of donating books and will be doing that myself!
These are some amazing ideas for supporting early childhood education in your community. It feels so go to support a great cause and surely this is an amazing cause. Books and puzzles for the little ones are awesome items to donate. Thanks for sharing.
I agree that we should investing on Early Childhood Development is very important. I’m glad there is a founation that takes care of that.
This post is a great reminder for people how easy it is to give! I always give old books and toys to schools!
I recently made a big move and just could not haul every book my child had, so we made a donation pile together and brought them to her school on her last day. They were so thrilled!
These are great tips to give children a healthy start in life. I try to spend quality time talking and playing with the children I know as not all of them have family with extra time for them.
I have cleared out so much of my scrapbook paper and stickers and send to different centers.
These are amazing ways to support early childhood education. It is so important to help kids get a good start early in life.
I have donated books, but only to the local library. I didn’t think of the schools at all. Such great ideas! Thank you!
These are some great ways to support education. Schools and students need all the help they can get!
I have been thinking of having a yard sale to eliminate so clutter but just can’t find a time. Thanks for sharing these ideas.
Helping children at risk is one of the best things we can do! They are so small and often have no one but us! Thanks for the tips on helping out.
Such great tips(: Often the smallest things we don’t think about, like donating used toys and books- I’ve found that I’ve had tons of extra ones that I would have just thrown out which are now loved by little children(:
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