By nature, children want to play in their free time, rather than learn.
At Mark Durbin Park in Kissimmee’s Lakeside neighborhood, they can now do both.
Last weekend, over two dozen community volunteers came together to install Osceola County’s first Born Learning Trail on one of the park’s sidewalks. The project is a partnership between the Early Learning Coalition of Osceola County and the city of Kissimmee.
The trail features painted sidewalk blocks with letters, numbers and other phonetic learning tools. At each block, there’s a sign with learning tools and tips that children and adults can read together to broaden the learning opportunity for that block. Each sign is in both English and Spanish.
Heart of Florida United Way, another partner in the project, will monitor the condition of the trail, and volunteers will freshen its paint and appearance when needed.
It’s designed for the park’s youngest visitors to five years old — a critical time in a child’s development. Tuesday morning, a handful of children that age helped open the trail with a ceremonial “Running through the ribbon” cutting.
Amanda Kelkenberg, CEO of the Early Learning Coalition, said the trail, works to provide parents, caregivers, and communities with quality engagement opportunities for young children, and hopes it’s the first, and not the only, Born Learning Trail in Osceola County.
“It gives children the freedom to have fun while learning,” she said.
Kissimmee Mayor Olga Gonzalez, a Lakeside resident, called it “an honor for me,” to bring the new learning idea to the neighborhood of 2,300 families.
“It’s a new, interactive way of learning, a new way of shaping our community,” she said. “We’re working together to make a difference. We need to be examples for learning.”
