News you can use
News you can use
Lorraine Verploegen tells parents they are their child's first teachers.
"A lot of parents get nervous about that and say 'well I am not a teacher,'" Verploegen said, but added that every time a parent talks to their child they are teaching them something.
A retired special education teacher, Verploegen started the work that led to the formation of Plant a Seed ... READ!, in the mid-1990s, as a way to build language and other skills in children before they enter kindergarten.
"What I was noticing as a special education teacher and a reading specialist was that the reason why many of the children were having difficulty in reading, is that they didn't have language," Verploegen said. "The language was below the level where they needed to be."
She said that the nonprofit Plant a Seed is proactive because it gets involved before a problem takes root.
The first years of a child's life are crucial to their long-term development. Verploegen said, by age 5 a child's brain has developed to 85 percent of its full growth.
When she retired from teaching in 2007, Verploegen took what had been a project and made it her central focus. In 2013, Plant a Seed ... READ! went from a group of advocates to a nonprofit. Now she has a board of directors made of 13 people ranging from school district employees to current and former local librarians and parents, with money raised throughout the community and through grants.
Volunteers also build bookcases for children who enroll in the program and help with fundraisers and other events.
"Our main role is to get the information out to the public about how important reading aloud is, how it is a community endeavor, that through community help we can raise funds to purchase these books because it is free to the parents," Verploegen said.
Imagination Library
One program Plant a Seed uses to reach those objectives is the Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, a nonprofit started by entertainer Dolly Parton.
"She (Parton) knew that with the brain developing so much during the first five years and research showed us for years to years and years that the most powerful thing you can do for a child is read to them in the formative years," Verploegen said.
Imagination Library connects families with books. An enrolled child receives one age-appropriate book a month in the mail up until their fifth birthday. Children in that age group from any socioeconomic background are eligible.
During the month of their fifth birthday, the enrolled child receives the final book: "Look out Kindergarten Here I Come," by Nancy Carlson.
Imagination Library has 1,600 affiliates and provides books each month 1,000,000 children, says the Imagination Library website.
Books are changed out each year, so if more than one child in a household is enrolled there is very little duplication, Verploegen said.
The program comes at no cost to participating families. Instead, organizations such as Plant a Seed raise money through efforts like their adopt a reader program for children in Blaine and Hill counties.
Imagination Library is available to children in Blaine and Hill counties, as well as the newly added Phillips County through Plant a Seed ... READ!, which works to help raise the $25 per child needed for a child to be in the program through the Adopt a Reader program.
Verploegen said contributions can be made in memory of someone or in honor of someone. Donors can request to have their donation go toward covering a specific child or leave it up to Plant a Seed ... READ! to spend on children on the waiting list or whose yearly fee is due.
In Hill and Blaine counties 392 children are now signed up for the Imagination Library, and Plant a Seed is in the process of enrolling children in Phillips County. Children can sign up for the program any time before age 5.
Since 2010, when Plant a Seed began participating in Imagination Library, 174 have graduated from the program.
Verploegen said that after writing a couple grants Blaine County became involved in Plant a Seed's efforts. Last year, Verploegen wrote a grant for $3,000 from the Montana Community Foundation. Some of the money is used to sign up families of newborns from Blaine County for Imagination Library through volunteers at Northern Montana Hospital.
Plant a Seed has signed up 160 children for Imagination Library who are in Rocky Boy Head Start and Early Head Start program, who have put money aside in their budget.
She said 1,300 children in Hill County are eligible for the program but in need of sponsors to pay the $25 fee for a year's worth of books. There is also an additional 400 on a waiting list in Blaine County.
"Our goal for 2017 is to get 500 children enrolled in Hill County and in Blaine County 200," Verploegen said.
To help reach that goal, she said Plant a Seed is hoping to hold an event at the Holiday Village Mall in May where they will sign children up on the waiting list for the Imagination Library.
This is open to everyone.
The event will also include an educational activity where kids can learn about the importance of bees. She said children can be scared of bees but she wants them to know that bees are beneficial to the environment, especially as it relates to flowers.
Verploegen said she is hoping outgoing Hill County Sanitarian Clay Vincent will be at the event to showcase hives he owns to the children.
Wildflower seeds donated by Wildhorse Seeds will likely be distributed to children. Verploegen said that people interested should check out the group's Facebook page and website for more details on the event.
Ready For Kindergarten
Aside from Imagination Library, Plant a Seed takes part in other efforts meant to get children and their parents prepared for kindergarten. Verploegen said she is writing a grant for a program called Ready For Kindergarten.
The program provides parents of children birth to age 5 with materials and skills needed to help with language, literacy, math, reasoning and motor skills.
Verploegen said on average 40 percent of students who enter into kindergarten are 1-3 years behind in readiness skills. It's a situation Verploegen described as "appalling."
Parents in Ready For Kindergarten take part in three hour-and-a-half long workshops tailored for different ages, throughout the year. The fall workshops are in language literacy, winter pre-math and reasoning, and spring social and emotional skills.
There are 28 targeted areas. As parents advance through the program in one-year increments those targeted areas gain depth.
Verploegen said the workshops and resources are intended to make parents comfortable with purposeful play, hands on activities meant to sharpen readiness skills of children and their foundation for readiness for kindergarten.
"Children learn through hands-on at this age, through their senses, so you are going to do a lot of sensory type stuff: listening, finger plays, songs, a lot of gross motor and fine-motor activities," she said.
Plant a Seed's Literacy Corner program works to provide resources to child care providers and preschools with literacy kits. The kits include books and games designed to further brain development through purposeful play.
Instructors would take lessons later this spring and parents would be able to take the workshops in October.
Literacy Breakfast
Plant a Seed ... READ! held its Third Annual Breakfast for Literacy Feb. 12. The breakfast is used as a means of fundraising and promoting literacy.
In addition to fruit, scrambled eggs and pancakes, children can take part in several activities that relate to a specific book. Verploegen said one of this year's activities was a muffin walk, in honor of the Laura Numeroff book "If You Give a Moose a Muffin."
Plant a Seed also holds a silent auction at the breakfast.
She said organizations such as the Havre High School Key Club, the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce and local businesses that contribute auction items all help with the breakfast in some way.
Verploegen said, this year Plant a Seed raised about $2,000 from both the cost of the meal and through the silent auction.
Capital campaign
For the second year, Plant a Seed ... READ! will conduct its Spring Planting capital campaign to raise funds for Plant a Seed to maintain the program and its objectives at the local level.
Businesses and individuals are invited to make donations to keep Plant a Seed going locally. Verploegen said, this year Plant a Seed will hold a raffle to raise money for its efforts. Items up for raffle will include an NFL helmet signed by 18 legendary quarterbacks, a dollhouse bookcase, a barn bookcase and a metal garden sculpture of a sunflower donated by area artist Willard Vaughn.
Verploegen said raffle tickets will go on sale in April. There is more information on the Plant a Seed ... READ! website at http://www..org.
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