The Early Learning Coalition of Osceola County’s newest Early LearnHub opened Monday at Hart Memorial Library in Kissimmee. The area encompasses much of the upstairs of the library, and includes a literacy area for infants and toddlers, and a separate room filled with STEAM toys and activities for children.
“I think one of the most important things to remember is our future engineers, our future scientists, our future mathematicians are not just in our high schools. They’re in our preschools,” said Amanda Kelkenberg, CEO of the Early Learning Coalition. “The earlier that we start to think about that career pathway, the more successful our children will be, and the more successful our county will be, long-term.”
Thanks to a $600,000 grant from the Florida Department of Education, the Coalition has installed 11 of these LearnHubs in Osceola County since April in locations such as a laundromat, WIC office, emergency room, Osceola History Museum, and more.
“The goal is really to bring access to learning experiences for children who don’t have access normally,” said Joel Rivera with Impact Mavin, who, along with Lakeshore Learning and the library, did the project management for the LearnHub. “We have a history museum that children can get access to for free, but sometimes even just getting there becomes an issue. So we want to bring these learning environments in places like One Clean Laundry in St. Cloud.”
Rivera said that while parents do their laundry, their children have a chance to read books from the learning space.
“What’s been phenomenal there is that we saw children reading books to their parents who didn’t understand the English language. They’re reading, teaching their own parents.”
Osceola Commissioner Cheryl Grieb touted the importance of education in Osceola County. After mentioning Osceola Prosper, which provides two free years of college at Valencia or Osceola Technical College to all of Osceola County’s graduating seniors, she said, “It really starts right behind me with the little ones. We want our children to be able to grow up here, have great jobs here, and be able to raise their families here in Osceola County. It starts right here, where they don’t even know that they’re learning about science, they don’t even know they’re learning about math. This is how you engage them early on, because really, those little minds are formed in this age, and that’s going to be their future.”
