Blog

Welcome to the Way to Grow blog! Here you’ll find parenting tips, early childhood resources, and stories from home visits across the Twin Cities. We believe parents are their child’s first and most important teacher, and our home visiting model is built around that: bringing tools, activities, and encouragement right into the home. Browse for book recommendations, everyday learning ideas, program updates, and family stories from across our community.

Invest in Us

Invest in Us 150 150 Ivy Marsnik
6 Ways to Show Your Community Some Love 1024 685 Ivy Marsnik

6 Ways to Show Your Community Some Love

Whether you love Valentine’s Day, or you’d rather pretend the holiday didn’t exist in the first place, now is a great time to show a little LOVE to your community.  Here are some of our favorite ways to love thy neighbor: We’ll start with perhaps the most obvious: volunteer. Share a skill or life lesson…

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Why Gov. Dayton should continue supporting early learning scholarships 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

Why Gov. Dayton should continue supporting early learning scholarships

Over the last four years, Gov. Mark Dayton has pioneered the use of flexible, empowering and portable scholarships to help low-income children access quality early education, as measured by the Parent Aware Ratings. His early learning scholarships allowed low-income families to take their scholarships to any quality provider, be they based in schools, homes, or…

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Healthy Homes

Healthy Homes 150 150 Ivy Marsnik
2015 Children and Youth Issues Briefing Recap 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

2015 Children and Youth Issues Briefing Recap

This morning, nearly 1,000 influential advocates gathered at the 2015 Children & Youth Issues Briefing in Saint Paul. The event kicked off with an address from Governor Mark Dayton who announced that his upcoming budget proposal (reviewed next Tuesday) will allocate $372 million to “children and education.”  Acknowledging that many Minnesota families have critical unmet…

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Building a Strong Community 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

Building a Strong Community

This month, our Preschool Pals focused on building a strong community.  Each area of the classroom was transformed to represent a place in the community.  The snack area served as a restaurant, the manipulative center was a construction site,  the science center became a hospital, the group area was the city hall, and the writing center was the local post office.  As students visited different pillars…

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2014 In Review 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

2014 In Review

In 2014, we: Had 88% of all Way to Grow preschoolers pass kindergarten readiness assessments for the second year in a row. Opened our second preschool in South Minneapolis (Preschool P.A.L.S) at Urban Ventures, with a focus on educating both preschoolers and parents. Celebrated serving our first cohort of third graders completing our Great by…

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Our Executive Director in Action 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

Our Executive Director in Action

The Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi (RKMC) Foundation for Children has announced the appointment of Carolyn Smallwood to its board of directors. Carolyn Smallwood is entering her 10th year as executive director of Way to Grow, Inc., an early education and elementary organization that serves over 2,000 people each year. Prior to Way to Grow, she…

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Inside a Home Visit 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

Inside a Home Visit

With President Obama’s recent announcement to invest $750 million in preschool and childcare programs across the country, early learning is front and center, bringing home visiting into the national spotlight.  Most of us, however, don’t directly participate in home visiting, leaving questions of what all it entails and why it is so effective.  Today, we invite you to step inside a…

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Making a Difference 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

Making a Difference

Meet Jacqueline.  We hope to make Jacqueline’s holiday brighter by raising $2,500; enough to cover one full year of home visits and comprehensive programming with Way to Grow.  Jacqueline’s parents are from Togo, a small, tropical sub-Saharan country in West Africa. Edoh, Jacqueline’s mother has a goal for her children that many of us share.…

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Join us in the Great Minnesota GIVE Together 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

Join us in the Great Minnesota GIVE Together

The season of giving is upon us!  In honor of our 25 years of success, our goal for this year’s Give to the Max Day is to have 25 supporters donate $25 or more.  Can you help us meet and exceed that goal?  We know you can! “Give to the Max Day has become a Minnesota ritual,” says…

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Preschool Pals Teacher Lights the Way 150 150 Ivy Marsnik

Preschool Pals Teacher Lights the Way

Those of us at Way to Grow have always seen Mr. Eka, our Preschool Pals lead teacher, as an excellent educator; but this week, the word is out!  As this week’s recipient of WCCO’s Excellent Educator Award, it is no secret that Mr. Eka radiates a very special light from within, a gift positively impacting his students’ lives day in…

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