United Way Born Learning Trail at Monroe Crossings Park

One item on tonight's Monroe City Council agenda is an emergency resolution that authorizes the City Manager to "enter into a Memorandum of Understanding" between the City of Monroe and the United Way of Cincinnati. The purpose is to put a Born Learning Trail at Monroe Crossings Park.

According to Michael J. Sanders, Director of the Middletown Area United Way of Greater Cincinnati, the United Way would like to install Born Learning Trails in city parks in both Monroe and Trenton in 2009. A trail was installed at Smith Park in Middletown last year.

A Born Learning Trail consists of ten signs along a paved path or walkway that provide tips for early learning. The signs may encourage children to talk about the shapes and letters they see painted on the path. Other signs will guide adults in ways to talk about nature and their surroundings with the children in their care.

The United Way believes that learning happens everywhere but "parents, grandparents, and caregivers may not always know how to support that learning." The goal of the Born Learning Trail is to encourage this early learning but to also make it fun for both adults and children. According to bornlearning.org, the trails are being built in parks, museums, libraries and corporate campuses country wide.