Nancy Evelyn, Kiddies Head Start Director (Photo credit: VP)
Kiddies Head Start has taken a significant step towards transforming early childhood education with the launch of its new workbooks.
Developed with the needs of students in mind, these workbooks were carefully crafted and designed to make a lasting impact.
The initiative was born out of a personal journey of frustration and determination, Director Nancy Evelyn said this week.
According to Evelyn, initially, “I found… resources that engaged children and supported their development and made learning joyful, but then the day came when I felt frustrated that the books were no longer in print and they were out of the market.”
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Ultimately, she turned to Amazon “thinking… the world’s largest marketplace would have what children needed”, but even that proved to be futile as they were either “out of print, unavailable, and when they were available, prices had skyrocketed.”
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She realized that “If quality, preschool educational materials kept going out of print, if supply was unreliable, if costs were becoming prohibited, then it was time to create something different; something that would be consistently available, affordably priced and designed specifically with the needs of today’s pre-schoolers in mind.”
What started as a personal frustration became a mission: “Instead of continuing to chase materials that might disappear tomorrow why not create workbooks that will be here to stay? Why not design resources that incorporated the best of what worked in those original materials, while addressing the gaps and challenges we observed?”
Illustrated by Ted Sandiford, these workbooks are a game changer for teachers and students at Kiddies Head Start.
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“I wanted our children to see themselves in their learning materials. I dreamed of workbooks that would reflect our Caribbean heritage with pictures and ideas that were authentically Saint Lucian. I wanted our pre-schoolers to learn through images of stories that look like us, that celebrated our culture and that make them proud of who they are,” she told attendees at the launch on Thursday.
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Moreover, said Evelyn, “While this edition takes a more international approach, I’m excited to share that we’re already planning a second edition that will be distinctly local, featuring our landscapes, people, traditions and Saint Lucian way of life. Our children deserve to see themselves represented [on] every page.”
