Week of the Young Child celebrates young children and their caregivers and helps increase the awareness and importance of early childhood.
This community-wide event is a unique opportunity to show our youngest residents, and those who care for them, they are valued and they are not alone.
Want to be a part of Week of the Young Child 2025?
Plans for 2025
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We will have fun activities for the kids, resources for the caregivers and giveaways for the family at the Lewis & Clark Library from 11 am - 2 pm.
Click here to see the details.
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We will be hosting an offering specific for those who have lost their baby, pregnancy, or child.
Click here for the event details.
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Free music class with Music Together.
Click here for the details.
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Harvest of the Month will be doing a food activity.
Details to be announced… check back soon!
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Join us for our annual Reading in the Rotunda event at the Helena Capitol building. There will be local celebrities reading to children, small resource fair for caregivers and activities to keep you all busy.
Click here for details.
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ExplorationWorks Early Explorer Class will be themed for Work Together Wednesday!
See the details here.
ExWorks is also doing discounted entry all week - click here for those details.
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Details to be announced… check back soon!
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Details to be announced… check back soon!
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Click here to see the flyer of events from the Helena School District. The idea is preschoolers get to visit their future school and parents get to meet the principal or teachers.
Click here to find your neighborhood school.
Want to be involved?
There are many ways to support Week of the Young Child, no matter your role in our community!
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I recognize the importance of early childhood in our community and want to share information about the event in our business (i.e. flyers, pamphlets, social media posts, etc.).
Use our Business Sign Up Form here.
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I want to offer my business services or goods at a discount to young children or the adults who care for them. This could be for part of or the entire week.
Use our Business Sign Up Form here.
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I have a business service or goods that I could offer to young children or the adults who care for them, but I need the ECC to lead the organization and facilitation of this during Week of the Young Child.
Use our Business Sign Up Form here.
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I have a business service or goods that I could offer to young children or the adults who care for them and can lead the organization and facilitation, but need financial assistance to make it available during Week of the Young Child.
Use our Business Sign Up Form here.
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I don’t offer relevant business services or goods, but I want to distribute information about Week of the Young Child to my employees and/or offer my employees time to attend any event(s) during the week that support their own wellbeing or provide an opportunity to do something with their children.
Use our Business Sign Up Form here.
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I provide services for children and families and would like to include a pamphlet, flyer, or something small to the Week of the Young Child Bags distributed to 2,000 preschoolers in our community.
Deadline for getting us your materials is March 14th!
Use our Business Sign Up Form here.
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I am not actively raising young children and I don’t have a business or service to offer but I want to support these efforts by giving some of my time to help put together bags or hang up posters or read to children at the Capitol…or something else.
Use our Volunteer Sign Up here.
Feel free to reach out to Maureen with questions.
Looking back at 2024
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The ECC gave away 2,000 bags with a book and resources to preschoolers around town.
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On Saturday, April 6th, 2024 from 10 am to 2 pm at Rocky Mountain Development Council and the Lewis and Clark Library, the ECC hosted many fun activities at the Library, and screened children and connected families with resources at the Rocky Head Start building.
The screenings were done by qualified individuals from Head Start, Early Head Start, Family Outreach, and the School District:
The families who came received a “developmental pack” full of fun things for the caregiver and child to do together.
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Our cardboard cutout dolls were out almost the entire month of April. Doing their job raising awareness around our community about the importance of early childhood with their facts in one hand and the blue pinwheel in the other (this is for Strengthening Families Month).
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On Wednesday, April 10th, 2024 from 9 to 11 am at the Montana State Capitol Building in the Rotunda the ECC hosted more than 100 kids where local celebrities read to the children, kids got to participate in some fun activities and caregivers learned about some of the resources available in our community.
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Kickoff Saturday: Kickoff Event with health and wellness screenings and fun activities for families
Self-Care Sunday: Offering for Loss Parents
Music Monday: Music Class with Music Together
Tasty Tuesday: Harvest of the Month at Lewis & Clark Library
Work Together Wednesday: Themed Early Explorer Classes at Exploration Works
Wednesday: Reading in the Rotunda
Artsy Thursday: Art class with the Holter Museum of Art
Family Friday: Free admission to the Holter Museum of Art with option to do some art projects with your little one
Preschoolers visit their neighborhood elementary schools to meet their future principals, librarians, or teachers.
…and more not even listed!
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Certain businesses generously gave discounts or offered something special to children and/or their caregivers from April 6th - 12th as a way to encourage families to spend time together and enjoy what Helena has to offer.Some of the participating businesses were:
Big Dipper: free sprinkles
ExplorationWorks: discounted entry
Image Dancing: free classes
Loft Helena: free classes for early childhood workers
Sleeping Giant Lanes: free bowling
Flying Giant: free jump time
Our friends from Lewis & Clark Public Health prepping our Pinwheel Pals for their showcase
Pinwheel Pal #23
Pinwheel Pal #122 aka The Denim Queen
Pinwheel Pal #132
ECC Bags with Free Book and Resources
Kickoff Event Highlights 2024
Kickoff Event 2024
Kickoff Event 2024
Kickoff Event 2024
Kickoff Event 2024
Kickoff Event 2024
Self-Care Sunday: Loss Parents honoring their little ones at Painted Pot
Self-Care Sunday: Loss Parents honoring their little ones at Painted Pot
Music Monday with Joslyn Dollar from Music Together
Tasty Tuesday with Kadeisha from Harvest of the Month
Tasty Tuesday with Kadeisha from Harvest of the Month
Tasty Tuesday with Kadeisha from Harvest of the Month
Reading in the Rotunda with Catie
Reading in the Rotunda with Molly
Reading in the Rotunda with Miss Teen Montana reading "Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots?" (Our guess is yes, this princess wears hiking boots!)
Reading in the Rotunda with Miss Teen Montana
Reading in the Rotunda with Miss Teen Montana letting kids try on a real tiara. ❤
Reading in the Rotunda with Miss Teen Montana letting kids try on a real tiara. ❤
Reading in the Rotunda
Reading in the Rotunda with Cat in the Hat
Reading in the Rotunda with Cat in the Hat
Reading in the Rotunda
Reading in the Rotunda: Storytime with Blue Bear
Reading in the Rotunda
Reading in the Rotunda coloring bookmarks
Reading in the Rotunda coloring bookmarks
Reading in the Rotunda: Playing Connect 4
Reading in the Rotunda: Exploring the Capitol Building
Tinkergarten Class at Mount Helena City Park
Tinkergarten Class at Mount Helena City Park
Tinkergarten Class at Mount Helena City Park
Preschooler getting to explore her future school at Central
Free bowling time at Sleeping Giant Lanes
Free jump time at Flying Giant
Free jump time at Flying Giant
Free Sprinkles at Big Dipper
More information
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90% of a child's brain develops by age 5. The experiences a child has early in life impacts how their brain develops, which influences their ability to learn in school and how they will function as an adult.
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Last year was our biggest year yet! Thanks to everyone in our community, we reached over 500 children and caregivers through our free or discounted activities. This year, you can be involved in many ways
Host a Pinwheel Pal for the week to help spread the word about Week of the Young Child and Strengthening Families Month.
Provide a discount to children/families - either for a day or for the week
Offer an activity or class for children/families
Provide printed materials - or a small item - to put in our Week of the Young Child bags we give out to preschool children (2,000 of them)
Help us stuff bags on March 19th
Table at the kickoff event on Saturday, April 5th and provide resources and/or fun activity for children/families.
Our audience is children 0-8 years old but even if you don’t specifically work with that age of children, we can still be creative in how we show our community we support our children and those who raise them. We are open to more ideas than just this list. Reach out and we can chat!
Contact: Maureen at mbjerke@sphealth.org or 406-461-4449 (call or text).
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Visit National Association for the Education of Young Children's (NAEYC) website to learn more about the national Week of the Young Child.
