Tools to succeed in kindergarten

Too many Lake County children are not prepared to enter kindergarten, says a leading social service agency.

To provide that needed boost, the United Way of Lake County launched an early childhood education intervention program Thursday at its annual leadership breakfast in Libertyville.

Nearly 300 representatives from leading county businesses, schools, government and social service agencies that partner with United Way attended to support the effort.

The "Success by 6 Home Visiting Program" targets families of preschool-age children identified as at-risk of poor health and low kindergarten readiness. It will be tested in Waukegan, then expanded to other communities, such as the Round Lake area, Mundelein and Gurnee.

The Lake County Health Department, area preschools and social service agencies will identify families needing the most help. They tend to be poor minorities, and new or first generation immigrants, either unemployed or holding part-time jobs, said Twania Brewster, a United Way of Lake County spokeswoman.

"As this begins to roll out, we are not limiting ourselves to just Round Lake, Waukegan, Gurnee and Mundelein," Brewster said. "We are trying to roll it out to all of Lake County, not just to the middle class communities but to every community."

It is part of an ongoing United Way initiative to ready every child for kindergarten through various methods. They include the new one-on-one intervention with families, kindergarten camps, and distributing materials parents can use as learning tools.

"It's trying to reinforce the idea that a parent is a child's first teacher," said Kristi Long, president and CEO of United Way of Lake County.

Such early childhood efforts have worked in Florida, which instituted universal pre-kindergarten, said David Lawrence, president of The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and keynote speaker at Thursday's breakfast.

"The windows of learning are wide open in those early years," he said. "There's something wrong when a 6-year-old already doesn't get it, feels left out. Most times the gap increases. That's an avoidable tragedy."

United Way of Lake County plans to distribute roughly 50,000 copies each of calendars, workbooks and other materials promoting kindergarten readiness in English and Spanish through preschools, libraries, corporations, social service agencies, and the health department.

"They are fun ideas on how to engage your child every day in ways that don't cost money but are just creative," Long said. "One of the things we have learned, particularly in the Round Lake area and Waukegan, is people who are moving (here) from different countries have not had the exposure to what skills their child needs prior to school."

United Way held six kindergarten camps last summer in Lake County at public libraries, churches, schools, and other partner agencies. About 200 families attended the sessions that primarily train parents how to teach kids at home. The agency plans to offer such camps periodically.