User:Habitot/Habitot Children's Museum

Since 1998, Habitot Children's Museum in Berkeley, California has filled a niche for new parents and caregivers who seek safe, appropriate and enriching experiences for infants to preschool aged children, as well as parenting support, connection and information for themselves. Habitot is a community place for hands-on play that engages the whole family in supporting young children’s creative and emotional growth in the critical first five years when the brain is rapidly developing. Playing with young children not only helps them learn, it is one of the most important ways for parents and children to establish that special bond.

Habitot’s key initiatives include:
 * Advocating for Early Childhood Learning through Play – publicly demonstrating through exhibits and programs that young children learn best through play, and that children become socially skilled and emotionally healthy through play;
 * Supporting Preschool Arts - cultivating children’s natural creativity and imagination from the earliest years through opportunities to create art and by presenting enriching cultural performances from musicians, dancers, storytellers and singers;
 * Fostering Parenting Education - increasing parent/caregiver understanding of early childhood development and successful parenting to enhance parent-child bonding and family well-being so that children thrive;
 * Building Community - serving as a center for community engagement, parent-to-parent connection, and supportive caregiver networks, and by sustaining strategic alliances with social service agencies and preschools to ensure that vulnerable children and families are fully included.

'''THE MISSION OF HABITOT CHILDREN'S MUSEUM IS TO HELP PARENTS AND CAREGIVERS RAISE CURIOUS, CREATIVE AND CONFIDENT CHILDREN. '''