News Release - Etheridge Unveils Website to Help Children Grow Strong, Smart

Etheridge Unveils Website to Help Children Grow Strong, Smart

RALEIGH - Today U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington) unveiled a new section of his website at www.house.gov/etheridge to connect North Carolina parents with the resources to help their children grow strong and smart. The "Parents as the First Teachers" website is a clearinghouse of resources for parents, featuring five web pages and more than 50 links to resources on early childhood development and parenting, child care, children's health care and educational activities, as well as organizations working on behalf of children and other collections of links on childhood.

"Parents are a child's first - and most important - teachers, but new parents learn quickly that the little bundle of joy they brought home from the hospital doesn't come with instructions," Etheridge said. "I am proud to unveil this exciting new tool that holds great promise to empower parents, to teach children and to connect North Carolina families with revolutionary new developments in the effort to improve education. For many years now, study upon study has demonstrated that the first three years in a child's life are a learning bonanza. For that reason, early childhood presents a critical opportunity to help our children grow strong and smart and prepare them to be ready to learn, ready to read, ready to achieve and ready to succeed."

The website acknowledges the critical importance of parents in children's growth and development and the abundance of scientific research showing that the first three years of life are critical for a child's development. The new web tool holds great promise to empower parents, to teach children and to connect North Carolina families with revolutionary new developments in the effort to improve education.

Joining Etheridge at the unveiling was Linda Carothers, the Parenting Educator for Project Enlightenment, which serves children in Wake County. Carothers talked about the importance of parent involvement in children's early development. Etheridge was also joined by a group of area parents and children, who took the new website out for a test drive.