At Home Discovery Kits for Low Income VI Families

To encourage family conversations around children’s mental health and well-being, the Virgin Islands Children Museum distributed a 5th At Home Discovery Kit in Fall 2021.

At Home Discovery Kit 5 was designed to help recipients support their children’s physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral well-being with an invitation to “Spring into Measuring Your Mental Health”. The kit was curated for ages 2 to 8 but all children were invited to increase their understanding of units and measurements in a way that allows families to have fun together! A primary goal of the kit was to help kids gain a frame of reference that is always with them by encouraging them to take length measurements of their own body, create planters from items inside the home to grow their own food-bearing plants, and through tracking both the growth of their plant and their mental health.

This At Home Discovery Kit included school supplies and a colorful 12-page activity booklet with options for independent discovery as well as the opportunity to interact with a parent, adult, and/or guardian to support engagement and learning. Games and guides to emergency preparedness were also included to get children involved in planning for a natural disaster. The book encourages open communication about extreme events which can help children express their emotions and be mentally prepared for difficult times.

This is the largest disbursement of VICM Discovery Kits to date with 2,000 kits gifted to kids territory-wide. This kit was made possible through the Virgin Islands Children’s Museum’s partnership with The USVI Department of Health Maternal Child Health Division Project LAUNCH Program, USVI Department of Agriculture, Storm Strong VI and Dr. Adam Parr of the University of the Virgin Islands, the Children and Youth Task Force, and through generous donations from the public via the ongoing GlobalGiving.org fundraising initiative: At Home Discovery Kits for VI Families (47832).

Thank you for helping us help kids Explore, Play, Discover, at home.

Sincerely, 

The VICM Team       

https://www.vichildrensmuseum.org/

Links:

• VICM Website
• VICM At Home Discovery Kit 5 in the Press

• Discovery Kit 5 Global Giving Report October 2021 (PDF)
  
• Activigty book cover (PDF)
  

To promote family engagement and inspire families to continue learning together while at home, the Virgin Islands Children’s Museum has distributed its 4th At Home Discovery Kit! We are pleased to report that your charitable contributions helped us to create Discovery Kits for 400 youth throughout the territory.

Kit recipients gain knowledge about cause-and-effect measurements, physical reactions, geometry, and fostered literacy development while observing VI History Month. With this precipitation science kit, families can explore geometry by creating snowflake math art, play with polymer snow for a fun sensory experience and discover how all forms of precipitation are involved in our planet’s water cycle.

Many families are struggling financially and emotionally during these COVID times. We aim to be a community resource to support low-income households with children and truly hope our discovery kits will uplift their spirits and facilitate hands-on learning in the home.

Four hundred discovery kits were delivered to families throughout the territory via distribution partners such as the Longpath Community Center, Nana Baby Children’s Home, Boys & Girls Clubs of St Thomas/St John, Inc., and Catholic Charities of the Virgin Islands St Thomas/St John/St Croix and by visiting the VI Children’s Museum.

The At Home Discovery Kit program is ongoing and our next distribution is slated for mid-summer 2021 and will highlight agriculture, units and measurements, with a special focus on children’s mental and behavioral health. 

Thank you for helping us help kids Explore, Play, Discover, at home. 

Sincerely, 

The VICM Team       

https://www.vichildrensmuseum.org/

Links:

• NISE Net Partner Highlight
• Discovery Kit 4 - News Media
• Virgin Islands Children's Museum Website

• Global Giving Discovery Kit Report June 2021 (PDF)