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. Kindergarten readiness means that each child enters school ready to engage in and benefit from early learning experiences that best promote the child’s success. The kindergarten screener measures readiness in five important domains, academic/cognitive, language development, physical development, self-help, and social-emotional. The 2016 Early Childhood Profile for Logan County indicates the following readiness results for preschool aged children in Logan County:

Academic/Cognitive: 34.1%

Language Development: 75.8%

Physical Development: 47.1%

Self-Help: 44.2%

Social-Emotional: 74.8%

To address our school readiness area of concern we focused on kindergarten readiness opportunities for families in our communities. Below are school readiness events hosted in Logan County for families of preschool children.

“Preschool Pumpkin Days” and “Preschool All Stars” – These county wide events were held at the Logan County Extension Office with the Logan County FCS, 4-H and Agriculture agents as well as the Logan County SNAP-Ed Assistant and Family Resource directors partnering together to offer information to parents as well as opportunities for parents to observe the level at which their children were ready for school. Parents and children rotated through sessions on healthy eating, reading a story, and craft activities. Each session focused on one or more of the school readiness skills for Kentucky. Parents completed an evaluation as they rotated the sessions based on their observations of their children. There were 72 adults and 51 children in attendance for Preschool Pumpkin Days and 44 adults and 37 children in attendance for Preschool All Stars. The results of the evaluations are as follows:

My child can (does):

Sort items by color and/or shape – yes 41 no 0

Identify red, purple, orange, green and yellow – yes 40 no 1

Count sets of objects up to 10 – yes 29 no 12

Count to 30 – yes 13 no 28

Eat a balanced diet – yes 36 no 5

Eat five fruits and/or vegetables each day – yes 31 no 8

Follow simple rules/routines – yes 38 no 3

Answer sentences using 5-6 words – yes 36 no 3

Tell others his/her full name – yes 33 no 7

Persists in activities – yes 33 no 7

Tell others his address – yes 6 no 35

Share with others – yes 36 no 3