Howdy Families & Friends!

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and we are hitting the new year running with many exciting announcements.

On an administrative front, we wanted to share that recently, Texas A&M University began negotiating the purchase of Charlotte Sharp Children’s Center at the direction of The Texas A&M System Board of Regents. This marks an important step toward Texas A&M’s efforts to expand its early childhood education programs and support an important community need. The purchase is expected to be complete by the end of the spring semester. Texas A&M has no plans to implement immediate changes to Charlotte Sharp or Becky Gates children’s centers but rather to keep things running consistently at a high level of quality. We will continue to keep our families informed as we expand the university’s commitment to early childhood education. If you have any questions, please reach out to me.

From a curriculum standpoint, we are excited to bring back Philosophy for Children Texas “P4C” in our 12th  Man and Aggies cClassrooms! P4C Texas will visit classrooms once a week for 30 minutes of “thinking time.” P4C is a teaching approach designed to introduce children to reflective and critical thinking by posing open- ended probing questions aimed to encourage inquiry through playful means. P4C Texas is directed by Dr. Claire Katz. For more information visit P4C Texas – P4C at Texas A&M University (tamu.edu).

Finally, Lunar New Year  is one of the most important celebrations of the year among East and Southeast Asian cultures, including Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean communities, among others. China’s Lunar New Year is known as the Spring Festival or Chūnjié in Mandarin, while Koreans call it Seollal and Vietnamese refer to it as Tết. The New Year celebration is usually celebrated for multiple days—not just one day as in the Gregorian calendar’s New Year. In 2023, Lunar New Year begins on January 22. The Becky Gates Children’s Center will be celebrating by having a Wishing Wall. Families will have the opportunity to write a wish to place on our Wishes Wall in the front entryway.

It’s going to be a wonderful year ahead, and we’re grateful for all our families! Happy New Year!