The Week of the Young Child is a national event promoting the importance of high-quality early learning sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).  This year the Maine Department of Education and Maine’s local NAEYC affiliate, Maine AEYC, are teaming up to support early childhood educators across the state to join the celebration and promote the vital work they do every day in their early childhood programs and Pre-K through third grade classrooms.

The event takes place the Week of April 1st – 7th with a Kickoff on Saturday and interdisciplinary daily themes for the following week:

Music Monday

Tasty Tuesday

Work Together Wednesday

Artsy Thursday

Family Friday

We hope that you will join us in celebrating the Week of the Young Child! Today more than ever we need to help our communities understand the importance and value of high-quality early care and learning.  To spread the word and highlight the critical role that early childhood educators play, please share photos through social media to show how you celebrate the Week of the Young Child.   Tag the Maine DOE @MaineDepartmentofEducation1 Facebook, @mdoenews on Twitter, and @mainedepted on Twitter. Be sure to use the hashtags: #WOYCMaine and #WOYC23.

There are many ways to promote the event and celebrate the daily themes in your program, school, or classroom. To support your planning, we have put together a collection of resources which can be found on the DOE’s Week of the Young Child web page.  Be sure to explore the many ideas for interdisciplinary activities included there.  You will also find links to NAEYC’s and MAEYC’s websites with information about the daily themes, sponsored events, and a planning guide.  We have also included videos related to each daily theme that share ways to incorporate the theme into your celebration and daily practice.

We can’t wait to see the creative way Maine’s early childcare educators celebrate the themes with the children and families in your program or classroom! To celebrate your efforts, we will be offering the opportunity to earn a free registration to Maine’s Statewide Early Childhood Education Conference which will be held October 27th & 28th at the Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland.  To enter the drawing please send an email that includes photos of your celebration with the name of your program to Nicole Madore at nicole.madore@maine.gov. Please use WOYC followed by the daily theme in the subject line.

Don’t forget to mark your calendar for ECE Day at the State House on Wednesday, April 5, 2023.  This is an opportunity for early childhood educators, families, and supporters to work together to call attention to the need for high-quality early care and education opportunities, and support for the ECE workforce.  Join us to celebrate the successes and call attention to the ongoing needs.  For more information visit the events section of the MAEYC website.

The Maine DOE plans on celebrating the week by highlighting the many career roles in the early childhood field through daily videos.  Each day we will present videos on our YouTube channel that highlight Maine professionals who make a difference in the lives of young children in roles relate to that day’s theme.  If you know an individual who works with young children and/or their families who you feel deserves the spotlight, please reach out to Sue Gallant, Pre-K Expansion Consultant at    Please check out the videos on our YouTube channel during the week of April 3rd through 7th.

If you have questions or would like more information on the Week of the Young Child, please reach out to one of the members of the Early Learning Team listed below.