29 childcare centers are distributed throughout Las Tunas province

She is only 4 years old and she begins to know José Martí. Little Beatriz Maria Rodriguez, these days, also learns what domestic animals are and what is a cub in that kingdom of nature. She already knows songs, poems, does gymnastics in the mornings, and plays a lot. With an energy typical of childhood, she recites some of the Simple Verses of José Martí and "Rosa's little shoes", while everyone is delighted with the occurrences and how much the little one learns at home.

Las Tunas, Cuba - Like her, more than four thousand children from Las Tunas find in the childcare centers a space to grow up fully.

ONE, TWO... STEPS TOWARDS GROWTH

"I go to kindergarten and they teach me some lines that are difficult. I like it because I have fun, I learn the vowels, the geometric figures, the colors, the numbers... and I bring flowers to José Martí, the father of “Ismaelillo,” which is the name of my day childcare center.” This is how Isabela Aguilar expresses it, sometimes with more loquacity, other times with some difficulty even, who is happy because she wears her uniform and is already getting older.

Beatriz and Isabela are growing up, and they are summarizing themselves the effort and the project of a country to protect children and offer them a healthy environment.

Yuneysi Pérez knows well of this effort to promote the best start for all children, and the maximum development of their potential. For several years she has been working at the Ismaelillo Childcare Center; "la seño" (Spanish pronunciation), as the little ones call her, has the responsibility of guiding the group of the third year classroom.

"Already at this stage the children have a higher level of development and it depends on our work that their evolution continues. It is necessary to have a lot of patience and love to undertake this work. Each child is different because families are also different, and that is where our work is fundamental; we must reach each one of them so that at the end of the course they will have overcome the objectives of the year," she explains, and then she underlines the satisfaction experienced when seeing her little ones develop their language, begin to express phrases and then complete sentences or recognize patterns of form and color, just to illustrate some examples.

AT HOME AND IN THE DAY CARE CENTER, THEY LEARN AND GROW

Although our children currently learn the handling of electronic devices at a very early age, in the childcare center a specialist has the responsibility to initiate the infants in this path. Yusmidelys Alarcón Sánchez performs this task and after two decades in this position, she continues to enjoy the satisfaction of offering fifth-year-olds elementary principles of the fascinating world of technology.

"The children are developing skills such as clicking, dragging the mouse, selecting ... these basic skills are linked to others such as recognizing geometric shapes and colors," she says while very close to her Ivia Ramos Galindo is preparing to start one of her lessons in Music and Dance Education.

Ivia explains that from the first stages, in the childcare center, the children are taught to sing, hum songs, or recognize the instruments of a musical theme. This is, without a doubt, one of the aspects that most captivates the family and that distinguishes this system and method of teaching. And it might seem a simple aspect, but it is a very well thought out program, whose objectives are "the development of voice, hearing and body expression."

Don't be surprised at home when the offspring sing, dance, demand the shoes for "the ballet classes"-as Beatriz Maria does these days with her mom- or look for an improvised stand for a special performance! To everyone's surprise, the little ones will show the result of a patient task.

And if we talk about detail and rest in the daily work, we cannot forget to mention Isabel Cristina Hernández Milanés who, in the “Ismaelillo" has a clear and precise objective: that children with language disorders overcome this difficulty.

After the diagnosis in the first years of existence, she explains, and the subsequent study of the evolution of each child, she continues, later, "the orientation to the family and the application of a treatment during 15 minutes in two or three frequencies a week, by means of articulatory gymnastics and exercises to correct or compensate the disorder in the language.”

THE FRUITS OF AFFECTION

After retirement, Martha Báez Toledo returned to work. At the "Ismaelillo", she says, she feels useful and happy. She is always willing to help and the children who have been in the institution for the longest time do not cross the threshold without first saying hello or a gesture of affection.

"I look like a chicken with its chicks," she says jokingly. "They hug me, they kiss me, why? Because I feel love for children," she adds.

This safe and supportive environment for comprehensive development is appreciated by the family. Yaimé Peña García, whose child, although no longer a baby, has just finished the process of adaptation, since he recently received his expected registration, testifies to this.

"I feel that he is well cared for. I like the childcare center and the attention to the parents and children. There is a lot of communication, so I go confidently to work," she says in the midst of the morning hustle and bustle of separating her offspring from her mother's lap.

Yulier Quiroga, a professor in a Senior High School, holds a similar criterion and considers that his son learns to socialize there. He is also reassured to know that he is leaving him in the hands of responsible people who are already part of the family, "because they help us in the education of our children," he emphasizes.

"As a worker I am grateful,” he says, after leaving his offspring in the arms of "the aunt" who calms the natural crying of the children when they arrive at the doors of the institution.

And so, with that certainty and confidence, the parents of Las Tunas arrive, every morning, at the doors of the 29 childcare centers distributed throughout the province. For most of them, of us, time goes by so fast that sometimes we forget that many of our dreams were born right there, in those days of games, songs, dances... of physical and spiritual growth.