Who are the smartest people in the
world? Toddlers.
They have to be. They face the
daunting task of programming their own brains to create order out of chaos.
They have to learn cause and
effect, up and down, in and out, hot and cold, light and dark, and thousands of
other abstract concepts.
These are the make-or-break years.
If they don't learn all they need to learn, they'll be playing catch-up for the
rest of their lives.
Sadly, there are precious few resources
for children under five – the age when child development experts say you learn
more than you'll learn the whole rest of your life.
One shining exception is the
Habitot Children's Museum in downtown Berkeley, where little ones can play at
their own pace in a variety of stimulating environments. Among them:
·
Finger painting and sculpture making in the Art
Studio.
·
Learning about gravity, motion and the power of
falling water at the Waterworks.
·
Learning where food comes from at the Back To The
Farm exhibit, featuring a chicken coop, fishing pond, hay bales and child-size
John Deere tractors.
And all this for a modest admission
fee: $8 for kids, $10 for grownups. But Habitot also has free programs for the
families who need them the most – the poorest of the poor.
They include families in homeless
shelters, recently incarcerated mothers trying to regain custody of their kids,
teenage parents who are still children themselves, and special needs kids who
never go outside because they people stare at them and make them feel
uncomfortable.
"More importantly, while the
parent see their kids playing in the museum in a social way with other kids, they
get tears in their eyes because they didn't realize what was possible for their
children," says founder and executive director Gina Moreland.
"One mother with a
13-month-old baby carried it around 24/7 because there was no safe place to put
it down, which meant the baby was missing out on crawling, which in turn is crucial
in developing hand/eye coordination. She was thrilled to be in our
infant/toddler area with clean mats for the baby to crawl on."
Habitot will celebrate its 15th
anniversary on April 20 with a birthday party featuring a giant birthday cake,
children's songs in both Spanish and English, and a dance party. Admission for
the day is free, thanks to a donation from ScholarShare.
There is no way Habitot could
provide all these desperately needed services without our help. Yes, it could
raise admission fees, but that would price it out of the reach of the very
people it is trying to serve.
Government and foundation donations
are both down. That leaves you and me. You can donate online at habitot@lmi.net or mail a check to Habitot
Children's Museum, 1563 Solano Ave., Berkeley 94707.
Get creative! If your service club,
church group, fraternal organization or just plain friends want to invent your
own fundraising project, call Moreland at 510-647-1111 ext 11.
"We even take tiny BART
tickets," she says. "Last year we raised more than $1,000 that way.
There are so many ways to support us, even if you don't have a lot of
money."
It's up to us, folks. So what if
you don't have any small children of your own? These kids are the only future
we have.
Posts
