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Hello friends, I’m recording this message while vacationing in my hometown. I’ve been visiting familiar places and I found myself remembering what they looked and felt like when I was a child. Places that seem small and ordinary to me now once felt enormous and extraordinary.
The playground and feel behind this school provided endless backdrops for superhero adventures, hopscotch, and jump rope. I’ve walked past houses and landmarks in town that have brought back memories of people, sounds, smells, and feelings I haven’t thought about in years. It makes me think about how differently children experience the world.
What does this look like through the eyes of a child? The work we do every day helps shape those childhood experiences. The places where children feel safe, the people who make them feel welcome, the opportunities they have to explore, and the adults who stop long enough to really see and listen to them. Speaking of the people who make those experiences possible, in just a few days many of us will come together for the 64th Annual Arkansas Early Childhood Association Conference.
As adults, we often see the schedule, the mess, and everything that needs to happen next, but children notice the crunchy leaves under their feet, the really big logging truck driving by, a bug on the sidewalk, and the way their shadow looks 10 feet tall. Sometimes what feels like a very ordinary moment is becoming part of a child’s story. That’s something I’m carrying with me into October.
I hope I’ll see you there. Our conference is one of my favorite opportunities to reconnect, learn from one another, share ideas, and remember that none of us do this work alone. As we gather this year around uniting our purpose, lifting our voices, I hope we’ll also take time to reconnect with the reason behind that purpose; the children.
As you head into October, and hopefully, as you head to conference, I invite you to look at the world from a slightly different perspective. Notice something that you normally walk past. Wonder about something instead of rushing through it.
Remember, some of these moments that seem ordinary to us may become the childhood memories someone carries for a lifetime. I can’t wait to see many of you in just a few days, but as always, I’m cheering you on.
Julie Yarberry
President of AECA
Connect with me at president@arkansasearlychildhood.org
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