Natural Connections: Children’s Museums and Informal Care Providers

Tanya Andrews; Hand to Hand

Ever stop to think about who uses our museums Monday through Friday from nine to five, otherwise known as the work week? Sure, some are tourists and some are parents enjoying a day away from the office to play with their children. But most are what the childcare community refers to as “At- Home and Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN)” care providers. This is a fancy phrase for stay-at-home parents, nannies and the grandmas, uncles, aunties, neighbors and friends who care for children while parents work.

In Washington State it is estimated that nearly 50 percent of children ages birth through five are in some form of at-home or FFN care. At a time when states throughout the nation are working to improve the quality and consistency of licensed care, oversight agencies have a keen interest in supporting these informal and unlicensed providers, too.

Their challenge: Where do we find these people and how do we share information with them? And, if we are able to connect with them, how can we know if we are making a difference in the way they deliver care? Aside from mass media announcements, broad and passive in nature, there are logistical barriers to reaching stay-at-home parents and other FFN providers in meaningful ways, such as face-to-face contact or other direct invitations to participate in programs. Children’s museums are perfectly poised to bridge this barrier. Our museum audiences are diverse, both ethnically and socio-economically, and are already composed primarily of children ages birth through eight and their primary adult caregivers - the full spectrum of caregivers, from parents to babysitters.

Reaching this population is a key objective of the state of Washington. At the local level, a county-wide early learning consortium is dedicated to making sure that all children ages birth through five and their caregivers, especially those who need and desire services most, are supported in their efforts to make sure children are ready to succeed in both school and life.

In response to meeting the needs of the underserved caregiver audience, the Children’s Museum of Tacoma was contracted to design and launch a program, Play to Learn (PTL), which is the key At-Home and FFN strategy within the county-wide consortium. Piloted in October 2008, PTL offered one session a week in each of four “Targeted Investment Communities,” chosen by the Early Learning Consortium as priority neighborhoods based on economic data.

The free program is designed and facilitated by children’s museum staff with some assistance from partnering organizations. A neighborhood outreach effort, the locations are hosted by other consortium partners including the county library system, Boys & Girls Clubs and Parks Department facilities. Initially, sessions were offered at the museum, but its downtown location was not as appealing to this audience as the neighborhood locations. As a result, more locations are now offered throughout the county and currently no sessions take place at the museum.

In January 2009, Play to Learn added new sites to present seven sessions per week throughout Pierce County. In total, more than 6,000 children and caregivers were served in PTL’s first year, a significantly higher number than anticipated, particularly given the near total void of marketing efforts. Program flyers were distributed at the host venues, to other consortium members and was advertised on the museum’s Web site. Roughly 30 percent of the participants consider themselves to be FFN, which is considered successful at this point. We have been pleasantly overwhelmed by the sheer number of participants, but we now find ourselves putting out the dreaded “We’re sorry, but Play to Learn is full today” sign at least once a week. Still the goal remains to continue to expand the program county-wide, offering all children and caregivers equal access to playful school preparation.

Play to Learn was designed to achieve four simple yet powerful attitude and behavior changes in the adults who attend. With both quantitative and qualitative assessment measures in place, it is hoped that Play to Learn will help adults deepen their understanding of what’s involved in good childcare.

Play to Learn caregivers will:

1. Better understand the importance of play in a child’s social-emotional, cognitive and physical development.

There’s a simple phrase we like to use internally at the museum: “Feed them, love them and let them play.” It helps staff remember to emphasize the fundamental importance of preserving and using the innate gift of play in each child.

2. Understand what being “school ready” means, and learn play-based strategies to cultivate that state within their children.

As we know from current research, social-emotional development and creativity are the keys to success in life. Often parents or caregivers focus on a child’s understanding of ABCs or 123s, when social-emotional skills better lead to successful transition to school. PTL infuses a more holistic understanding of school readiness in these caring adults and offers them hints, strategies, activities and models of play behavior as a natural, joyful means to reach all of the necessary milestones.

3. View play as an enjoyable avenue for meaningful connections with a child.

Beyond the ever popular and important “teachable moments,” participants are coached to understand that time spent playing doesn’t have to have a specific purpose or goal. It can simply provide loving, nurturing connections between a child and a care provider or parent.

4. Feel an increased level of support with their parenting/care providing within their neighborhoods and have an increased knowledge of available community resources.

There is a movement to stay local that in our community translates to an increase in neighborhood activities. We hope to increase the connectivity of young families throughout the community, forging relationships and support circles. Each Play to Learn site successfully drew the bulk of its participants from nearby neighborhoods, but the growing popularity of the program attracted some families and caregivers to sites far from their homes. Information on resources to help with basic needs or with more significant questions about child development are available as well, almost like a concierge service.

Program Format

Play to Learn is a drop-in, ninetyminute program of developmentally appropriate play activities promoting creativity, discovery and problem solving. PTL is facilitated by a collaborative team: one facilitator focuses specifically on play and activities, while a second facilitator focuses on resources and information for the adults, assisting them in understanding meaningful choices in play-based learning activities.

A Play to Learn session begins as participants choose free play at a variety of simple pack-and-go stations (blocks, art making, sensory bins, puppets). While children play, adults are given a simple flyer that outlines the day’s theme, which of the program’s “stepping stones to school” relate to the activities and what the children will explore or develop through their play.

Adults and children are then invited to join circle time, where the day’s theme is shared. Some wiggles are released with active songs and a story is told. As the lead facilitator guides the group, she tells the adults what skills the children are developing or how the activity relates to school readiness.

The group is then invited to participate in the day’s main project, such as bubble prints in which the kids explore colors and textures with the help of their adult. The facilitators mingle and assist the group, always modeling for the adults how to prompt their children’s success while still allowing children to lead their own discovery.

A closing circle time incorporates more cooperative songs and activities and allows facilitators to offer final thoughts on the day’s objectives.

Participants receive a Play to Learn at Home Kit with materials and instructions for continuing the fun and learning at home: a brochure with related books that can be checked out of public libraries, activities that can be staged at home and Web sites with additional resources on both the day’s content and child development. Each bag also includes a prop to help the adult infuse play into the week ahead. During bubble week it was a small bottle of safe solution and a fun wand.

Additionally, participants receive a free pass to visit the museum. These passes offer both an introduction to the museum to those who otherwise might not be familiar with its offerings as well as access to underserved markets. Museum staff have been pleasantly surprised that more than 400 passes have been redeemed.

Impact and Next Steps

How successful have we been at meeting the objectives, and how many participants are in our target audience?

A museum survey of participants revealed:
• Ninety-six percent feel more confident caring for children;
• Ninety-six percent understand more about how play helps in child development;
• Ninety-one percent have learned ways to help prepare their child for school;
• Ninety-one percent are more aware of what being “school ready” means; and
• Ninety-six percent are more aware of community resources.

Funding partners as well as the Early Learning Consortium are extremely pleased with these results. Larger community discussions about the program’s impact and future growth are currently underway.

As I write this article we are launching the second year of Play to Learn. In the first week PTL served 250 people, and twice staff had to put out that sign. Museum staff face that wonderful challenge of managing a highly successful program, arguably a great place to be.

Located in the state’s third largest city, the Children’s Museum of Tacoma is extremely small, not even 8,000 square feet and with a budget of less than $1 million. Play to Learn is the most ambitious undertaking in the museum’s history. It also feels like the most meaningful thing we’ve ever offered our community, enabling us to transcend the barriers of our physical size and bring the power of play to more children and caregivers.

Now that we’ve hit a comfortable groove running the program, we will reconnect with our internal program planning team to discuss and then dream what’s next. In this process we will address big issues. How do we more meaningfully penetrate the Play to Learn neighborhoods and make sure that we are serving more of those who need us most? How do we alter the program’s model or bring in more partners to increase growth and sustainability? Where do we go next?

While we are pleased that roughly 30 percent of PTL participants classify themselves as FFN providers, there is room to grow. We need to figure out who these people are and how best to reach more people like them to make sure they are aware of and feel welcome to attend Play to Learn. We expect that by making genuine and relationship based connections in both current and future Play to Learn neighborhoods that we can increase the depth of service throughout the community.

Play to Learn is a free program and therefore relies on 100 percent contributed funds. This year the budget for Play to Learn is $185,000 and will be funded by the Early Learning Consortium and through corporate and foundation grants, all funds raised by the museum staff. In its current model Play to Learn costs roughly $1,000 per class. This includes staffing (both administrative and facilitators), overhead, transportation and supplies. While start-up funding has been generous (we are fully funded to run the program through the spring of 2010), the continuation of that support is uncertain. To respond to the program’s demand, it must expand, but the museum must honor its own financial capacity by seeking partners or longterm funding commitments. Current funding partners are having a hard time, as am I, seeing it as a sustainable model in its current iteration, but I am confident that we can forge new partnerships to lower the cost per participant.

Meanwhile staff look forward to dreaming about which neighborhoods we will serve next. Will they be in our own county, or will the idea stretch itself to engage partners in a larger capacity to more significantly increase the depth of service to the silent majority raising our nation’s little ones?

Tanya Andrews is the executive director of the Children’s Museum of Tacoma in Washington State. She has worked in the museum field since 1991 and specifically in children’s museums since 1996.

Hand to Hand, a news journal for children’s museum professionals and others interested in children, families and informal learning, is published on a quarterly basis by the Association of Children’s Museums.

Hand to Hand, Fall 2009 Issue

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