{"id":4668,"date":"2024-03-05T16:19:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T21:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/parenting\/?p=4668"},"modified":"2024-03-05T17:08:20","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T22:08:20","slug":"maine-families-newsletter-march-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/parenting\/2024\/03\/05\/maine-families-newsletter-march-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Maine Families Newsletter, March 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Welcome, Celena!<\/h3>\n

\"PhotoMaine Families is happy to welcome our newest home visitor, Celena Zacchai, to our mid-coast team. Celena has a background supporting individuals and families toward their goals, most recently as a career coach at Fedcap.<\/p>\n

She is getting up to speed with trainings and shadowing home visits for the time being and is looking forward to visiting with newly enrolled families soon.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Activity Spotlight<\/h3>\n

One of the primary focuses of our program is promoting observations when parents engage with their children. To that end, we bring an activity each time we visit a household, encourage parents to play with their children, and then discuss what they noticed. These activities are developmentally appropriate and often can be done with materials that families have on hand.<\/p>\n

Below is a picture of a family engaging in Bubbles for Baby (age range 3.5-5.5 months). This activity focuses on motor development by practicing visual skills such as tracking, gauging distance, and depth perception. It promotes hand eye coordination when baby bats at the bubbles and cause and effect as well; when touched, the bubbles pop!<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

<\/a>Community Partnerships<\/h3>\n

Recently, our friends at the Coastal Children\u2019s Museum awarded us with a \u201cFantastic Field Trip\u201d certificate, which is an honor we are very proud of! We continue to partner with the Coastal Children\u2019s Museum to offer monthly playgroups for enrolled families at no cost.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Home visitors, GG and Claudia, at the Coastal Children\u2019s Museum with our \u201cFin-tastic Field Trip\u201d certificate from museum staff.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Connecting families to each other and their wider community is not only a pillar of our program but a research proven protective factor for families in the prevention of child abuse and neglect. We are so happy to be able to facilitate wonderful interactions like the ones pictured below.<\/p>\n

Puzzle Play<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\"Photo
Promoting problem solving through wonderful social emotional activity with mom!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Searching in the Sand Sensory Table<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\"Photo
Exploring different textures with hands and eyes during play with mom. Uncovering hidden treasures buried in the sand to help understand cause and effect, while practicing problem solving skills!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thank you for continuing to refer families to our program. Here are two common ways to refer, through the CradleME form on the CradleME: A Referral System for All Birthing Families in Maine website<\/a>, or simply by going to the Parent Program of Mid-Coast Maine, Inc.<\/a> website and clicking on the \u201cLearn More And\/Or Enroll\u201d blue button in the sidebar menu.<\/p>\n

We will be back with more Maine Families news in the Spring!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome, Celena! Maine Families is happy to welcome our newest home visitor, Celena Zacchai, to our mid-coast team. Celena has a background supporting individuals and families toward their goals, most recently as a career coach at Fedcap. She is getting up to speed with trainings and shadowing home visits for the time being and is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":206,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"28","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","spc_primary_category":0},"categories":[266,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-maine-families-news","category-news"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":266,"label":"Maine Families News"},{"value":28,"label":"News"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"mthomas","author_link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/parenting\/author\/mthomas\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":266,"name":"Maine Families News","slug":"maine-families-news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":266,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":12,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":266,"category_count":12,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Maine Families News","category_nicename":"maine-families-news","category_parent":0},{"term_id":28,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":28,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":13,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":28,"category_count":13,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4668"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4694,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4668\/revisions\/4694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/parenting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}