Organizations Team Up to Engage Parents in Their Child's 'Wonder Years'

It makes sense for educators to share what they know about early learning with parents and caregivers. After all, parents and caregivers are the folks who spend the most time with young children and who influence their lives most powerfully.

That kind of thinking led the Children’s Trust Fund (CTF), Wayne Regional Educational Service Area (RESA), and Partnership for Learning to team up three years ago to publish Wonder Years, an award-winning early childhood publication designed to help parents and caregivers make the most of a child’s early years.

“[The partners] got together and realized we all wanted the same thing: a way to reach families with the powerful messages coming from brain research,” says Lena Montgomery, director of Early Childhood Services at Wayne RESA. “We had all this good information about how children’s brains grow and learn, and no way to get it into the hands of parents.”

The team put together a full-color, glossy newsletter, with accompanying sets of child development guides, and began using it within their own programs. Other health, social service, and education agencies soon came on board, ordering copies for their programs. (Individuals can also subscribe.) Since the newsletter’s launch in 2001, Wonder Years publications have reached more than 200,000 Michigan families throughout the state. Readers today include parents and grandparents from all walks of life and locations around Michigan.

“There is a growing awareness among Michigan’s leaders that if you want to help
all children become successful in school, you need to begin early,” says Deborah Strong, executive director of CTF, which distributes Wonder Years statewide through CTF’s abuse prevention councils. “We think this is one of the best investments we can make to strengthen families and equip them to help their children.”

During the first year of publication, the Wonder Years partners teamed up again,
this time with the Michigan Department of Education. They conducted focus groups to measure the publication’s value to readers and to the early childhood educators who use Wonder Years in their programs. Focus group participants indicated that the publication has become a trusted resource for facing parenting problems and finding solutions.

“Every month we get piles of mail from readers, telling us about their own ‘wonder kids’ and thanking us for the positive information,” says Partnership for Learning Director, Bryan Taylor. “We know we’re making a difference.”

Read sample issues of Wonder Years at www.wonderyears.info. For more information or to subscribe, contact one of the Wonder Years publishers: Lena Montgomery, Wayne RESA, (734) 334-1438, montgol@resa.net; Deborah Strong, Children’s Trust Fund, (517) 373-4320, strongd@michigan.gov; Bryan Taylor, Partnership for Learning, (517) 374-4083,
bryan@partnershipforlearning.org.

TOP of the Page