The Allen, Logan, and Simpson Community Early Childhood Council seeks to improve school readiness in our area by engaging families, offering professional development opportunities to providers and mini grant opportunities to STAR rated centers. To qualify as being kindergarten ready, a child needs to be ready to enter into school able to engage in and benefit from early learning experiences that best promote the child’s future success. Readiness is measured in five important domains; academic/cognitive, language development, physical development, self-help, and social-emotional. 

To address the school readiness area of concern in Logan County, the Cooperative Extension Service focused on kindergarten readiness opportunities for families of preschool age children in our communities.  The Logan County Extension Agents for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Family and Consumer Sciences, and 4-H Youth Development partnered together to develop and implement these events. The Family Fun at the Farmers’ Market Mini Series was a two session educational series that allowed families multiple opportunities to attend. Each session incorporated multiple avenues for preschool children to engage in those school readiness skills while also learning more about the farmer’s market, fruits and vegetable production, and nutrition. During each session, the children were given value based experiences of recipe sampling using in-season fruits/vegetables utilizing the Plate It Up recipes, an educational discussion about farmer’s market, and an exploration of farmer’s market along with other activities to foster the needed school readiness skills. Each child was also given a goodie bag that included information about the kindergarten readiness skills for parents, recipes, books and other information, gel packs, jump ropes, and bubbles to encourage extra activity. The children were also encouraged to try new fruits and vegetables with a special opportunity to shop for their own fruits and vegetables at the farmers’ market using Farmers’ Market Bucks; a new form of currency dedicated furthering youth nutritional education. The specific kindergarten readiness skills that were incorporated into these events were identifying basic colors, eating a balanced diet, exercise and other activities, curiosity, persistence, following simple rules/routines, and exploring new things.

As a result to attending the first Family Fun at the Farmers’ Market event, 100% of the children did not know what types of things you find at the farmer’s market before attending, 100% of children were able to name at least one item found at the farmer’s market after exploring the farmer’s market and attending the event, and all participants indicated they wanted to come back to the farmer’s market.

The second Family Fun at the Farmers’ Market event yielded great success in that 83% of participants were able to sort vegetables by color and/or shape, 100% of participants were able to identify red, purple, orange, green and yellow, 67% of participants were able to count 30 green beans, 83% of participants eat fruits and/or vegetables each day, 83% of participants follow simple rules/routines, and 83% of participants can share with others. These results are based on 6 of the 9 participants whose ages fell under the parameters of readiness evaluation.

Families who attended the Family Fun at the Farmers’ Market Mini Series Events also exercised their new education of nutritious food and the opportunities available at the farmers’ market by spending 100% of the distributed Farmers’ Market Bucks following the first session and 98% of the distributed Farmers’ Market Bucks following the second session as well as spending extra money on additional items. These activities were great opportunities for the preschool youth of Logan County to learn more about the availability of fresh produce while developing skills that will better equip themselves to become kindergarten ready in the very near future.