The Cerritos College Child Development Center hosted a Scholastic Book Fair on the campus on Oct. 29 as a means to raise funds for its development center and provided students an opportunity to browse the selection and purchase books for the children in their families.
“It took me back to elementary school. The Scholastic Book Fairs,” Joshua Ponce, a business management and automotive mechanic major, said. “It gave me nostalgia.”
Ponce attended the event to buy books for his niece and added, “Her favorite animals are the axolotls and I saw this book and I thought it would be perfect for her.”
Children in the development center were also given a chance to spend time at the event to read through the books and purchase their favorite books.
Carry Lapitan, interim director for the child development center, said about the book fair, “They provide us with as many books that we need that our children are interested in and we try to give them a selection that reflects the needs and their cultural diversity.”
“That’s another important aspect of our program. We believe that children should be represented in all of the education and the curriculum that they seek,” Lapitan added.
The book fair offered accessibility on campus for students and faculty who may be parents themselves that find it difficult to find the time to buy books or wanted to get a head start on their holiday shopping as well.
The proceeds of this event would help aid and supplement the child development center once they’ve reached the threshold of $3,500 in sales.
“Fifty percent of those sales will go back to our center to replenish our own libraries and also give some stipends for our professional development,” Lapitan said.
The child development center at Cerritos began as a way to provide child care for students and now serves more by teaching kids using the Reggio Emilia approach, helping children develop confidence and independence.
Lapitan added, “On top of our teachers providing child care services and education, we also have lab students, practicum students, who are aspiring teachers doing their practicum hours there so that they can really see the best practices of child development in person.”
The child development center is open to all children from the ages of two to five.
The Scholastic Book Fair is a week long event for the child development center and will conclude on Oct. 31 at the development center on the south end of the Cerritos Campus.
