Family Fun and Parent Education

Family, kids, fun, play dough! Yes that’s right play dough. This year at the 34^th annual Family Fun Day, parents and children alike will come from Albany and its surrounding areas to not only spend some time with one another in a fun and safe environment, but they will also come together to learn and support parenting classes taught by LBCC.

Essentially a fundraiser in disguise, Fun Day is put together by the nearly 30 parenting classes at the community college and together they come up with activities and games to be played during the day. All the games provided are age appropriate for children ages one through six and cost a certain amount of tickets to be played. The nice part about the ticket system however is that each ticket only costs $.25. “For five dollars a kid can have a pretty darn good time,” said Jerri Wolfd, one of the day’s organizers.

The price of the tickets may seem insignificant to be of any importance to a fundraiser, but with over 500 families that are in attendance every year that small amount quickly adds up. Plus with other parts of the fair, specifically concessions and the used book and toy sales which are all a part of the ticket currency system the money raised quickly adds up.

But what is the money raised for you might wonder? Why for the parenting classes of course! All the money raised during the Fun Day is put back into tuition programs for the parent education classes taught at LBCC, giving parents every possible chance to come and learn with their child effective ways of communication while learning together.

Periwinkle Child Development Center, LBCC’s child care and preschool through Kindergarten center, is also getting involved this year as its first year back after five years of not participating. Though PCDC also hosts parent classes, they receive separate funding by financial aid, “We are still involved although we don’t benefit directly, but we benefit by being a part of it,” Said Martha Foster, PCDC’s coordinator for their involvement in the Fun Day.

Regardless of who benefits financially, the ways in which of these classes impact their students can be seen in the games and activities that are created by them. Each of the different games or activities are made appropriate for their intended age group and are made to pass along subtle lessons such as the importance of sharing, while others are made to challenge a child, to promote cognitive development and to help refine motor skills.

After being held at the Benton Center for 28 years the day was moved to LBCC’s Activities Center in the gym. This helped to not only expand the range of people who were aware of the Fun Day, but also to give a larger amount of room that could accommodate the increased crowd. If however you want to avoid a larger crowd and still have plenty of fun with your child for the day, then come later into the event. “The last hour is quieter,” Wolfd said. She also went on to add that if you have a child who is easily over stimulated, this would be the ideal time for you to come as everything is winding down.

So if this sounds like something that would be fun for you and your kids, head down to LBCC and make your way to the gym on January 22 from 10 to two and help raise money for the parent education classes.