Walk through store, park can teach tots
September 29, 2006
KOKOMO, Ind.—It’s Saturday. You need to gas up the car, buy groceries, get the kids’ hair cut, and maybe squeeze in lunch. Can you add “learning” to that list?
You can on Saturday, October 14, when the IU Kokomo Division of Education and the Howard County Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC) sponsor “Walk and Talk Kokomo.” From 10 a.m.–2 p.m., education students, under the direction of faculty members Shirley Aamidor and Amber Reed, will be stationed at more than 30 Kokomo businesses and parks. They will offer parents activity sheets suggesting fun, interactive ideas by which everyday activities can teach young children about numbers, colors, and words. Participants can receive educational materials for children and sign up to receive the Early Childhood Education Center newsletter. The activity is free.
“In the grocery, children as young as 2 can learn the names of fruits and vegetables and the colors of items. Older children can count items in your cart,” said ECEC director Marilyn Skinner. “In a restaurant, you can discuss which foods are hot or cold, which you eat or drink.” These fun interchanges can help children develop literacy and number skills that will help them learn when they enter kindergarten, Skinner said.
“Walk and Talk Kokomo” volunteers will be at the following locations:
ACE Hardware
Alto Express
Big Lots
Cone Palace
Country Choice
Critter Corner
Dollar General
El Arriero
Family Dollar (Morgan and Reed Road)
Fazoli’s
Hoosier Wholesale
Indian Heights Fire Station
K Mart
Kokomo City Parks: Bon Air, Darrough Chapel, Highland, and Jackson Morrow
Kool Breeze Cafe
Kroger (Maplecrest Shopping Center and Northwest Plaza)
Living Water
LoBill Foods
McDonald’s (Lincoln, West Sycamore, and Markland
Petco
Ritter’s Frozen Yogurt
Serendipity
Taylor Township Fire Station (Flint Way)
Village Pantry
Windmill Grill
Wal-Mart
IU Kokomo Chancellor Ruth Person will help distribute materials at Wal-Mart at 11 a.m. and will take part in the reading of a mayoral proclamation, declaring October 14 as “Walk and Talk Kokomo” Day.
For more information, contact the ECEC at 455-9427 or msskinne@iuk.edu.
