Play and Learn

Denise Louie is offering two Play and Learn groups for 2009-2010. We’ve partnered with the Seattle Public Library to offer a Spanish and English bilingual group at the Columbia Library on Thursday mornings.

Our groups this year are funded by United Way and are made possible through a partnership with our respective meeting sites as well as Childcare Resources (CCR). Childcare Resources oversees Play and Learn groups throughout King County. Play and Learn is a trademarked concept that includes specific and defined, best-practice learning methods that we implement on a weekly basis in our groups. All our staff are trained and certified, as required by CCR, to offer these important child-driven groups. Parents or caregivers attend with their children, ages birth-five.

The target audience for CCR is not only parents but friends or family of young children who are acting as their caregivers. Attendance of caregivers is a specific demographic target that we report to CCR and we are seeing large numbers of caregivers in attendance, particularly at our Latino group.

Play and Learn Attendance and Demographics:

• DLEC 2009-2010 Play and Learn groups have had over 80 new participants and 10 families returning from last year or other Play and Learn Groups around Seattle. Groups are drop-in and attendance does vary.

The following are some attendance statistics and demographic trends:

• Averages 12-14 families (generally 25-30 participants total)
• Spanish-speaking caregivers comprise 1/3 of our average attendance totals.
• ½ of our current attendees speak Spanish primarily in the home, ¼ speak Spanish and English, and ¼ speak English or another language. The majority of our attendees live or work locally. We have fathers who attend regularly with their children
• Multiple referrals to DLEC’s early childhood programs as well as community referrals for birth-3 childcare and ESL classes have been made.
• Informal caregivers (a target audience for CCR) attend this group consistently with the children they care for. This is the primary source of structured education for these children.

You can find the Latino Play and Learn Group every Thursday at the Columbia Public Library (4721 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118-1696) from 11-12:30pm.

• Averages 3-5 families with some significant increases in attendance beginning in February (recently averaging 7 families). ID FD 1 is also attending the ID Play and Learn Group on a regular basis (not counted in attendance totals).
• ¾ of our current attendees speak a dialect of Chinese and live locally in ID, ¼ speak English at home and live outside the community. We have fathers and relative caregivers who attend regularly with their children.
• We had nearly 40 community attendees for our special, Chinese New Year Play and Learn group.

You can find the International District Play and Learn Group every Thursday at the International District Community Center (701 8th Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98104) from 11-12:30pm.