An event designed to enhance early educational opportunities in Starke County will be taking place on Tuesday.
The second annual Starke County Preschool Fair will be offering youth and their parents chances to explore the various pre-K outlets in Starke County, as well as a few of the enrichment activities for children.
Starke County Community Foundation Development Director Sarah Origer says that when you invest in the youngest citizens, you get the biggest bang for your buck.
“We all just came together and decided we wanted to do as much as we could to offer enrichment opportunities for young children and to talk about the importance of the early years,” says Origer.
Those early years are considered by medical professionals to be a key time for learning and behavioral development. Receiving early childhood education also prepares area youth for lessons at the Kindergarten level.
According to officials with IU Health Starke Hospital, early education may also be closely correlated with reductions in community drug use.
Origer says skills such as learning how to hold a pencil and cutting with scissors are big steps that are often overlooked.
“The confirmation then is when we talk to our Kindergarten teachers,” says Origer. The teachers have a classroom where lots of kids are caught up, they’re up to speed, they don’t spend the first three weeks or a month trying to get all the kids on the same page and they can really just take off and go.”
The event will take place on Tuesday, April 28 from 4:30 until 6 p.m. at the Nancy J. Dembowski Community Center.
