Greater Fall River Children's Museum benefits from partnership with Boston counterpart

The Children’s Museum of Greater Fall River, now open for five years, has been partnered with the Boston Children’s Museum since the beginning to bring the best training to staff and education to kids.

FALL RIVER — Expanding young ones minds during this hot summer vacation has proven to be easy due to the Children’s Museum of Greater Fall River.

The Children’s Museum of Greater Fall River, now open for five years, has been partnered with the Boston Children’s Museum since the beginning to bring the best training to staff and education to kids.

Partnership with the Boston Children’s Museum has provided many benefits to our city’s own museum, Jo-Anne Sbrega, executive director of The Children’s Museum of Greater Fall River said, noting that she has completed many trainings, as far as Portland, Oregon, which is where the partnership with Boston begun. Since then, Sbrega and her staff have been to Boston for numerous different programs and trainings to bring what they learn back home.

Since Fall River’s museum was named the hub leader for the region, many programs have been put into place to expand what they’re trying to accomplish within the museum: sharing the importance of brain development and how kids learn best in their first five years, according to Sbrega.

Continuing the focus on out-of-school learning, the museum just celebrated its School Readiness through the Summer learning event. In partnership with Fall River public schools and with their connections in Boston, the museum was able to give children new backpacks that were complete with books, bubbles, and learning guides. The guides were used to show parents how important play is, says Sbrega.

The event was also used to kickoff the museum's “1,000 Books to Kindergarten” challenge.

“We’re not asking families to go out and buy a 1,000 books this summer….the kids could read Goodnight Moon every night if they wanted to,” Sbrega explains when emphasizing that the point of this program is for the kids to read as much as possible.

Families are also encouraged to borrow books from the museums own Book House throughout the summer to help complete the summer reading challenge.