Celebrate Children Foundation

06/24/2026

🎂🇺🇸 Head Start turns 61 this year, and America is preparing to celebrate its 250th birthday on the Fourth of July.

Anniversaries give us a chance to reflect on what has helped our nation grow and thrive. For more than six decades, Head Start has been part of that story.

By helping children learn, supporting working families, and creating opportunities for future generations, Head Start reflects one of America's foundational ideals — that where you start in life should not determine how far you can go.

As we celebrate our nation's past and look toward its future, we want to hear from you. Share your Head Start story and tell us how this program helped create opportunities for you, your family, or our country: https://hubs.la/Q04lW-F10

06/22/2026

While well intentioned, we are doing too much and overcomplicating something very simple. In fact, we are often getting in the way of how children learn best.

When we try to condense learning into weekly themes, or design a day around a single letter, we miss the reality of how learning actually works. There is no special day or week when a child learns the letter K.

Internalizing symbols like colors, numbers, shapes, and letters is not the result of being drilled with charts, flashcards, or worksheets. It is the byproduct of accumulated experiences that carry relevance and meaning.

A child begins to understand the letter K when they see it on the sign for the park they love to visit, or on the packaging of their favorite snack.

Numbers make sense when they notice the bus they ride home, or when they count how many apples go into the bag at the store.

Shapes and colors take on weight when they are discovered in nature, on buildings, and in the everyday patterns that surround them and elicit authentic interest.

Learning is built in real time, in real spaces, through real encounters and real connections. When we isolate symbols from life and relevant context, they lose their power. When we notice them alongside children in the world they are already navigating, those same symbols come alive and carry meaning that actually sticks.

06/12/2026

There is no such thing as kindergarten readiness.

At least, there shouldn't be.

The very idea of "kindergarten readiness" assumes we need to prepare children for the next thing before they've fully lived the thing they're in right now. Isn't that odd?

If we follow that logic, then we should also have first-grade readiness, second-grade readiness, third-grade readiness, and so on. Children become trapped in a constant pursuit of what's next, always preparing, always catching up, always being pushed ahead.

But what if, for once, we simply met children exactly where they are developmentally?

What if childhood wasn't viewed as a race to the next milestone, but as a stage of life worthy of being fully experienced?

Yet that is exactly what we've created. Children are increasingly expected to prepare for the next stage before they've fully developed in the current one.

Adding insult to injury, much of what we are preparing them for isn't even developmentally appropriate in the first place. We rob children of precious years that should be filled with play, movement, exploration, wonder, relationships, and hands-on experiences - you know, experiences that actually build the brain most optimally (including cognition). Meanwhile, kindergarten expectations continue to creep downward into preschool, preschool expectations creep into toddlerhood, and childhood itself gets squeezed in the process.

By the time children arrive in kindergarten, many are being asked to do things that were once expected years later.

How are we doing this to our children?

We continue raising the bar while simultaneously reducing the very experiences that build the foundation for learning. Less play. Less movement. Less outdoor time. Less exploration. More sitting. More worksheets. More academic pressure.

And somehow we're surprised when children struggle.

The problem isn't that children aren't ready for kindergarten.

The problem is that many adults still don't understand how children actually learn and develop.

And children are paying the price for it.

06/10/2026

06/08/2026

When Amyrkha talks about child care, she's not talking about a service.

She's talking about the teachers who care for children every day. The support that allowed her to become a mother. The stability families need to work, provide for their children and thrive.

"When teachers are paid fairly and supported, they can show up fully for children. When they are working multiple jobs just to get by, that strain shows up in the classroom. I have seen it. I have lived it."

On June 9, families like Amyrkha's will participate in Strolling Thunder™ to share why investments in child care matter.

Because when we support child care workers, we're supporting babies, families and entire communities. Add your voice: https://www.thinkbabies.org/take-action-email-strolling-thunder-2026-its-time/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=strollingthunder

06/07/2026

Why is play so important? We’re highlighting 31 reasons why play is critical for kids everywhere!

We’re 6 days away to International Day of Play - what’s your favorite reason why kids should keep playing?

Sign up to participate in International Day of Play
🔗 https://forms.gle/SypqKtiaWsSeaFvYA

06/05/2026

06/02/2026

The NDBN Diaper Check 2026 study finds that 78% of families who struggle to afford diapers have held jobs in the past year. Diaper insecurity is a working-families issue.

Explore the findings from The NDBN Diaper Check 2026 here: https://nationaldiaperbanknetwork.org/the-ndbn-diaper-check-2026/

06/01/2026