Week of the Young Child Resources

Celebrate the 55th annual Week of the Young Child beginning Saturday, April 11, 2026.

What is the Week of the Young Child?

The Week of the Young Child is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the world’s largest early childhood education association, with nearly 60,000 members and a network of 52 Affiliates, including Missouri AEYC. The purpose of the Week of the Young Child (WOYC) is to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs. WOYC is a time to plan how we as a community will better meet the needs of all young children and their families.

Here is a link to the MOAEYC toolkit of ideas.

We can Work Together on Wednesday to be sure that our legislators know how important early care and education is to Missouri’s families, Missouri’s children, and the Missouri economy. We can thank our elected officials for the much-needed rescue funds and advocate for continued financial support of this important human infrastructure system.

Play Date for Families

Meet at a local park’s playground for an afterschool picnic or a Saturday play date. Bring a bubble machine for even more fun.

Program Parade

Have children make a Week of the Young Child banner. Be sure to include the name of your school. Invite the children to dress in their favorite outfits, make crazy hats or superhero capes, or have them dress as their favorite story book characters. You can make musical instruments and streamer rings. Or, use instruments and props that you have on hand. Very young children can ride in decorated strollers or wagons while preschoolers march, skip, and hop along. Families might be able to gather along the parade route to watch and cheer, or you can record the parade and share the fun video with families

Virtual Circle Time with Families

Invite families to join on Zoom and have the children sing a few of their favorite songs for their loved ones.

Family Appreciation Day

Have the children make a card or picture for the family member who drops off or picks them up. Serve light refreshments for families at drop off or pick up. If children are old enough, have them wait on their special person, showing them to a seat and bringing them their Appreciation Day treat. (Maybe the families can sign a #SaveChildCare postcard while they’re snacking.)

 Use the Proclamation toolkit for help securing your proclamation. Most cities, towns, or counties have a form to request that a proclamation be issued. Check the website or call the local office for information about how to make a request. The toolkit provides you with options for the official language to use, and after you’ve secured your Proclamation, put it on the interactive map on the NAEYC website.

The Week of the Young Child is a great time to educate the community, business leaders, policy makers, congressional delegates, and local officials about the importance of early childhood education. Spread the word about your program, your activities, and about early childhood education in general. Here’s a 2020 Missouri Fact Sheet that provides some data about the cost of care and access to early education. Using some of these resources, you can write a newsletter article for families, send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, or craft your own blog and social media posts to share with your online community.

Here is a sample press release for you to adapt to announce your activities.

Use safe and respectful guidelines when sharing pictures and videos. Be sure that you have a release form for every child who appears in your posts. All parents or guardians in a child’s life should give consent and be fully aware before their child appears in print, television media, or social media posts. Some strategies to help keep children safe include private and non-shareables posts, photos and videos that do not show children’s faces, and posts that do not use children’s names.

By participating in this event and posting video and/or photos, you are representing that you have written permission from each person in the video and/or photos, and for a child, written permission from the child’s parent or legal guardian, to post the video and/or photos and use the likeness of such person therein. By posting the video and/or photos, you grant NAEYC and MOAEYC the right to use the video and/or photo and/or any portion thereof in any manner it so chooses, including, without limitation, posting or sharing the video on NAEYC’s and MOAEYC’s websites, Facebook pages, or Twitter accounts.

Watch for a link to publicize your activities