Born Learning Trail Nearly Finished

A new trail designed to have kids learn while they're enjoying the outdoors is nearly complete.

As Easley Patch earlier reported, the 2013 Leadership Pickens County class decided to create a Born Learning Trail at the J.B. “Red” Owens Complex in Easley.

Born Learning Trails are interactive, playful and educational, designed to support early learning in children.

The trail consists of outdoor learning games and activities that children participate in with their parents or caregivers.

According to Leadership Pickens County class member James Payne, the trail will feature 10 different stations designed for children ages 0-4.

“It's designed to allow parents to interact with their kids in an educational and fun way,” Payne said. “They're getting physical exercise, too. But there's also shapes, numbers, colors.”

Born Learning Trails are part of United Way Worldwide's public engagement campaign to foster early childhood education and create early learning opportunities for young children.  The Trail's learning games help build pre-literacy skills that are critical to school readiness.
Children are constantly learning, right from birth. Their early years are the foundation for growth and development, and what they learn during those years depends on the experiences they have each and every day.
Born Learning Trails are being built across the country at parks, museums, libraries and corporate campuses.  The Easley Born Learning trail will be the first of its kind in Pickens County.
The trail's grand opening and ribbon cutting will be held 10am April 18.

The trail's opening has been time to coincide with the national "Week of the Young Child", an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.  

The purpose of the Week of the Young Child is to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize early childhood programs and services that meet those needs.
The general public is invited to attend the opening.  

Representatives from the Hampton Memorial Library, Pickens County First Steps, Pickens
County YMCA, Safe Kids Upstate, and United Way of Pickens County, will be on hand to answer questions and give out information.  There will be giveaways for both children and adults and guides will be available to walk children through the trail.