Child Month celebrated with ‘An eye on the Future’
By Cherisse M. Sutton/Jeffers
Reporter SKNvibes.com
(Basseterre, St. Kitts): St. Kitts and Nevis celebrates the month of June as ‘Child Month’ and this year’s festivities will be held under the theme ‘Celebrating the present with an eye on the future’.
The Early Childhood Unit has organised a host of activities for preschoolers and young children that include church services, Tag Day and Promotional Day.
The tots will be engaged in physical activities at the many Sports days organised; Rural East Sports Day will commence on the 12th of June at St. Mary’s Park in Cayon while the Basseterre zones sports will take place on the 17th at the Newtown Playing Field followed by Nevis’ on the 18th.
The family fun day and food fair will be held on the 20th at Independence Square from 11 a.m. and will feature a wide variety of local foods and drinks for sale as well as bouncing castles and games for the kids. ~~Adz:Right~~
On May 24th children from the nation’s preschools will participate in ‘Dancamasing’ at Carnival Village where they will display their talents in dance, drama and song.
Today (Friday) will feature the Fun Walk in Nevis with one hundred children from three centres on St. Kitts joining in to promote healthy eating. The Fun Walk is being organized by the Health Promotion Unit along with the Early Childhood Unit.
One of the most anticipated events on the schedule is June 27th Grand Parade or T-shirt Day March through the streets of Basseterre. This year’s T-shirt colour is lavender children of all ages along with teachers and parents will sport the themed colourful tops and costumes as they march to music and drums.
The month of activities will culminate on June 30th with an Appreciation Day where parents can give presents to teachers to show their love and appreciation.
According to Vanta Walters, National Coordinator of the Early Childhood Development Unit each activity will be held in both St. Kitts and Nevis, mostly simultaneously.
She went on to say that this is the 24th Child Month celebration and that they will incorporate activities to reflect the nations’ 25th anniversary of Independence.
“The main objective of Child Month is for us to celebrate childhood and to create public awareness, participation and also for us to showcase our children and what they're able to do. We are only given one opportunity to be a child and too often children really don’t get the chance to be a child because they are thrust into adult activities. Therefore, we need to make these times the best times to be a child,” said Walters.
