Exciting things are happening at our local Primrose Schools—and we’d love for you to see for yourself. Please browse this section to find stories on the latest activities at schools around the country and your local area. Just click on any photo or caption to see what all the buzz is about.
Preschoolers donate to the Philippines
In September 20,000 preschoolers in the individual Primrose Schools across the country dressed in costumes representing their individual heritages and joined hands in a circle to sing “It’s a Small World” — all as part of Primrose’s Celebrating Cultures event, designed to symbolize the unity of children worldwide. This year, the preschoolers donated $40,000 in school supplies to less fortunate children in the Philippines. The Primrose students raised the funds during their Spring Fling event earlier this year.
This activity was part of the school’s ongoing character development program. The goal of the September unity circle was to create an awareness and tolerance of different customs and beliefs. With so much turmoil in the world these days, it is more important than ever for the future generation of leaders to understand and respect the diverse cultures of others as a way to achieve harmony and peace.
Focus on Character Development
The Celebrating Cultures event was part of Primrose’s Children Around the World curriculum, designed to help youngsters realize that they come from multiple cultures, learn about their own heritage and develop a knowledge and appreciation of the ways of others. The curriculum includes the telling of stories from around the world. Children helped to create costumes and materials that represented their heritage.
Character development, through programs such as this one, is a key component of Primrose’s exclusive Balanced Learning® curriculum, which uniquely blends character development, academics and play. “The Balanced Learning® curriculum assures that children are nurtured socially, emotionally, physically and academically,” observed Primrose president and CEO Jo Kirchner. “This offers parents peace of mind. Peace of mind leads to a happy family balance.”
Primrose is known for character development activities such as its Can-a-thon program, in which children as young as three do chores to raise money to buy food for less fortunate children during the holidays, and Adopt-A-Grandparent, in which preschoolers and senior citizens share each others’ lives. Additional character-building programs take place on an ongoing basis. In addition, the Primrose approach to fundraising is very different from typical school fundraisers. All Primrose events are created to give back to the community.
The first Celebrating Cultures event was launched in September 2002 and coincided with Primrose’s donation of $40,000 to the September 11th Children’s Scholarship Fund. This gift marked the culmination of the company’s 12-month effort to raise funds to aid children impacted by the events of 9/11. The following years continued to focus on theme of acceptance and understanding of different cultures and, in 2004, the event raised over $40,000 in school supplies to send to the children of Afghanistan. This year’s event continues on the theme and supports the efforts of the Filipino people to help fight the increase of terrorism and violence through quality education with hope for a brighter future.For 2005, Primrose donated school supplies to children on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines.