CSC Child Development Center celebrates Week of the Young Child

The Chadron State College Child Development Center Laboratory is celebrating the Week of the Young Child April 11 – 17. The week will close with an end of the year celebration Monday.

The Week of the Young Child is an event of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. This year, children of the CSC Child Development Center will walk around campus drawing on the sidewalks with chalk and study Nebraska wildlife by touring Burkhiser’s Cabela’s room.

The staff of the Child Development Center will put together a window display in downtown Chadron with the children’s art and craft work.

The week will end with an open house from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. Monday.

The evening ceremony will include a staff celebration at 5 p.m., a children’s art show and sale at 6 p.m., and a children’s program at 7 p.m.

The children’s art show and sale is a fundraising activity for the Child Development Center. Conor McGhehey, sophomore of Alliance and a teacher’s assistant at CDC, will frame and display children’s art work for parents to buy.

The performances at 7 p.m. will consist of what the children learned at the center and will close with the end of the year certificates and awards ceremony.

Kim Madsen, the director of Child Development Center Laboratory and professor of family and consumer sciences said, “Every day, something exciting is happening at the Center. Children learn their alphabet and numbers, shapes and colors, emotions.”

The National Coalition of Campus Children Centers named Madsen the Director of the Year 2010 at the coalition’s national conference in Orlando April 6 – 9.

As stated in the Child Development Center Laboratory’s brochure, the program is licensed by the State of Nebraska and accredited by the National Association for Education of Young Children and the National Academy of Early Childhood Program.

The laboratory serves as an educational opportunity for students by educating them and hiring the college students for intern, volunteer and institutional staff positions.

For children, the Child Development Center seeks to provide education in a safe and loving environment. It offers children a Certified Nature Explore Outdoor Environment Classroom, which is one of two in Nebraska and one of 18 in the country. It has digging, climbing, building, playhouse, flower garden, and greenhouse areas and connects children with nature.

The Center seeks to help children become physically-, emotionally-, socially- and intellectually-developed individuals.

“Every day is an adventure and a journey towards lifelong learning. Children are our future,” Madsen said.