Asociacion de Familias Hispanas de los Tarrytowns (“AFHT”) – Kids’ Club has given financial support to the Tarrytown school district’s AFHT Family Literacy Program to help develop vital literacy skills in underserved youth and their parents in our community. This program runs three times a week at John Paulding school, and provides opportunities for parents and children, working together, to become exposed to developmentally appropriate educational activities, as well as enriching social and cultural experiences.
Parents & Tots – In 2018, Kids’ Club began funding support for this early childhood program at the RSHM LIFE Center in Sleepy Hollow. Until the Covid-19 pandemic, Parents & Tots met weekly with the goal of socializing toddlers and providing them with appropriate stimulation to develop basic cognitive, emotional, social and language skills to prepare them for school and lives of continuing education. It also provided English language instruction and child-rearing support to the approximately 18 parents and grandparents who participated in the program. Hopefully, this great program will be up and running again soon!
Smart Babies – In 2013, Kids’ Club collaborated with the Tarrytown school district’s Asociacion de Familias Hispanas de los Tarrytowns (“AFHT”) and RSHM LIFE Center to develop and fund “Smart Babies”. This program brings new mothers and their infants together in a weekly class that emphasizes reading and talking to one’s baby, preparing the infants for preschool and beyond, while also providing a support network for the mothers themselves. Smart Babies is designed to fill a gap in services for this crucial developmental stage. To view a short video of a Smart Babies class in action, please click below.
Smart Toddlers – Smart Toddlers was launched in the fall of 2015 so that children from 18 months to age 3 could continue to build on the critical early learning and literacy skills acquired through the Smart Babies program. Teacher Rocio Castaneda led an eager group of toddlers and parents Thursday mornings in the bright and cheerful library at the John Paulding school, where they would eventually attend kindergarten — the perfect environment to introduce them to the world of learning. Kids’ Club is proud to have funded this important program which filled a gap in programming for these young children, and we look forward to doing so again in the future. In the meanwhile, we invite you to watch the below video featuring highlights from a day at the program.
http://animoto.com/play/2Exuuw1vTLzKJdqva4TgWw
Summer Literacy Program for Rising First, Second and Third Graders – In 2015, Kids’ Club awarded a grant to the Foundation for the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns to pilot a summer literacy program. It was designed to assist local rising first grade students, not yet reading on grade level, maintain or improve their reading and writing skills over the summer, a time when many new readers are in jeopardy of a diminishment of those developing skills. The program, which met for six hours a week for three weeks, was comprised of 15 students and three TUFSD teachers. The lessons took place at John Paulding School, and included, among other things, refreshers on reading strategies, decoding words, writing organization and grammar. After the success of that pilot, Kids’ Club was happy to support an expanded Summer Literacy Program in 2016 that included rising second graders, and in 2018 we provided additional funding support so that rising third graders would also benefit from this summer instruction, now taking place at W.L. Morse Elementary School.
Warner Library, “AWE Early Learning Station,” “Listening to Learn”, “Warner is Wired for Homework” and “Warner is Wired for Learning” Programs – Kids’ Club’s funding of “Listening to Learn” enabled Warner Library to purchase audio books in an MP3/Playaway or CD format, so that children who do not have other access to iPods or listening devices could learn from audio books. Through support of the “Warner is Wired for Homework” and “Warner is Wired for Learning” initiatives, Kids’ Club underwrote the purchase of laptops and iPads for the library’s Children’s Room and Teen Area, enabling children who may not have such devices at home to use them at the library, thereby allowing underserved children to compete on a more level playing field with more affluent classmates. In 2020, Kids’ Club funded Warner’s replacement of Early Learning software, which is geared towards children ages 2-8 and features localized learning activities in the areas of math, geography, social studies, science, art and more.