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Care For Kids Curriculum To Be Taught Throughout Addison County

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Tuesday May 22, 2012

By Marcie Bolton

Health educators throughout Addison County and at the Mary Hogan Elementary School, in conjunction Willow Wheelock of Women Safe have teamed up to lead the effort of teaching a new curriculum for students in kindergarten through second grade.  It is called Care for Kids, and was recently put into place after the Vermont Legislature passed ACT 1, which aims to increase child sexual abuse prevention efforts.  
6According to the Prevent Child Abuse Vermont website pcavt.org, Care for Kids (CFK) is a fun, health-based curriculum for children from 3-7 years old.  This well-thought out curriculum helps adults understand the link between healthy sexuality education and child sexual abuse prevention.  It contains 6 units- Bodies, Babies, Feelings, Touching, Bedtime, and Secrets/Surprises.  Each unit teaches and reinforces 2 to 4 simple, age-appropriate messages through a circle time, a song, a book, and an activity or craft.  The initial training was offered to parents in the community, educators, child care providers and early childhood educators.  Willow Wheelock was in charge of staff and parent training before it was shown to children.  Parents are asked to discuss children’s normal sexual development and ways of fostering healthy sexuality in their child. Answering children’s questions, ways to help children learn to nurture and express empathy toward others, and adult responsibility for keeping children safe are also important components of the parent training.  Information and paperwork will go home with kids after each lesson.  

Jeff Lester, a counselor at Mary Hogan School, who will be teaching kids the curriculum said; “This is important legislation in that it requires schools to address sexual abuse prevention in their health curriculum.  I am glad that the Vermont legislature has made this subject a priority.  The Care for Kids curriculum was developed in Ontario, Canada and promotes open, respectful communication between safe adults and children.  I have been teaching the Care for Kids curriculum for about a month in several classes at Mary Hogan School and have been impressed with the amount of sharing and enthusiasm that students have shown thus far when discussing these topics.”

    Children will be taught that there are adults who will help them if they ask and it will teach children that there is ‘safe touch,' 'unsafe touch,' 'safe secrets,' and 'unsafe secrets.   

    It is a silent epidemic which society typically has a difficult time discussing.

    Starting awareness in kindergarten will bring about verbiage and give children a voice especially when more often than not; sexual abuse victims know their abuser.

    This legislation will help ensure that more children receive practical and age-appropriate instruction which they can incorporate into their daily lives.  This is an important movement in preventing Child abuse and sexual exploitation.  Don’t be afraid to talk about sexual abuse.

•    Teach kids the proper names of private parts, which will help avoid any confusion when a child reports something that happened.
•    Teach what kind of touches are OK and not OK.
•    Tell them it’s all right to say “No” and “Get away.”
•    Teach them that the mouth is also a private area or part.
•    Trust your instincts and be suspicious if someone wants to spend excessive time with your child.

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