HealthStart developed a curriculum for preschoolers and their families because lessons young children learn often stay with them for life. These early life lessons can affect a child’s behavioral, social and self-regulatory capacities, cognitive functioning, and physical health.
HealthStart's HEY! introduces preschoolers to the concepts of health and wellness. HEY! teaches them about eating the rights foods and getting proper exercise, but it is so much more. HEY! takes them on a journey through their bodies to learn how they work and how the world around them contributes to their health. Research on early childhood education and intervention suggests parental involvement is crucial to early learning. HealthStart keeps parents involved by providing companion materials for parents with each educational unit. These materials will help ensure parents know what their children are learning and how they can help lay the foundation for their children to have better and healthier lives. While parental engagement is crucial, studies have also found that children can be change agents, bringing new health behaviors to families. HealthStart has already seen this happen! Children in our HEY! classes learn the importance of drinking water. One mother told her daughter's teacher "I want to thank you! My 4 year old daughter came home asking for water, which was pretty unusual because she usually wants juice or soda. When I asked her about it, she told me she'd learned that her brain was 70 percent water and she needed water to think better! As a result the whole family is drinking more water." Ultimately, HealthStart wants children to learn about being healthy the same way they learn about their ABCs -- routinely and naturally.
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