As temperatures start to cool, New Mexico is filling up with fun fall activities for children and families. From weekly story times to seasonal markets and mazes, here’s your calendar for events happening across the state this season.

Date	Event	Location
Every Monday	Toddler Time	Explora, Albuquerque
Every Wednesday	Wee Wednesdays	Children’s Museum, Santa Fe
Every Thursday	Seeds & Sprouts	Children’s Museum, Santa Fe
Saturdays through September	Movies in the Park	Las Cruces
September 10-20	New Mexico State Fair	Albuquerque
September 19	Ruidoso RunFest (Kids fun run)	Ruidoso
September 19-20	White Sands Balloon Invitational	Alamogordo
September 19 through October 31	McCall’s Farm | Pumpkin Patch & Corn Maze	Moriarty
September 23-27	Grant County Fair	Cliff, NM
September 24-27	Otero County Fair and Rodeo	Alamogordo
September 24 through October 23	Mesilla Valley Maze	Las Cruces
September 25-26	Pinto Bean Fiesta	Moriarty
September 25-26	Cavern City Renaissance Festival	Carlsbad
September 25-26	Four Corners Balloon Rally	Farmington
September 25-27	Aspencade Arts Festival	Red River
September 26-27	Corrales Harvest Festival	Corrales
September 26	New Mexico Children’s Book Fair	Albuquerque
Saturdays through October	Farmington Growers’ Market	Farmington
September 26-27 and October 1-31	Galloping Goat Pumpkin Patch	Rio Rancho
Saturdays through September	Downtown Makers’ Market	Farmington
September 10 through October 22	Levitt AMP Truth or Consequences Music Series (free and family-friendly)	Truth or Consequences
September 30 through October 4	Southern New Mexico State & Doña Ana County Fair	Las Cruces
September through November	Big Jim Farms	Albuquerque
October 3	Aztec Highland Games & Celtic Festival	Aztec
October 3	BARK in the Park Hikes at Abo!	Abó
October 3-4	Nichols Ranch Apple Festival	La Luz
October 3-4	Santa Fe Harvest Festival | El Rancho de Las Golondrinas	Santa Fe
October 3-4	Harvest Festival	Albuquerque
October 5-10	Eastern New Mexico State Fair	Roswell
October 6-11	Sierra County Fair	Truth or Consequences
October 9	Dark Skies, Bright Stars!	Abó
October 10	Re-Earthing Futures Family Festival	Taos
October 24–25	Nichols Ranch Pumpkin Patch	La Luz
October 31	Boo-Palooza	Farmington
October 31	Trunk or Treat	Roswell
April through November	Downtown Growers’ Market	Albuquerque

Answers: 1. Parents 2. Childcare 3. Campus 4. Housing 5. Generation

1. Student _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (7): balancing coursework, kids, and household costs
2. On-campus _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (9): care provided right where students take classes
3. Family-friendly _ _ _ _ _ _ (6) spaces: where support meets school
4. Food and _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (8) resources: essential support for the family’s home
5. Two- _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (10)  approach: supporting both parent and child together

Respuestas: Estudiantes, En el campus, Amigables, Vivienda, Multigeneracional 

1. Padres y madres _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (11): equilibrando las clases, los hijos y los gastos del hogar
2. Cuidado infantil _ _  _ _  _ _ _ _ _ _ (10): cuidado disponible justo donde los estudiantes toman sus clases
3. Espacios _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (8) para familias: donde el apoyo se encuentra con la escuela
4. Recursos de alimentación y _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (8): mantener un techo sobre la cabeza
5. Enfoque _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (17): apoyando tanto a los padres como a los hijos

Supporting Student Parents in New Mexico 

Parenting students juggle coursework, child care, and household costs all at once. Campus-based support is often the difference between finishing a degree and dropping out. The New Mexico Student Parent Alliance (NMSPA) supports both the parent and the child because when a parent succeeds in college, the whole family moves forward.

NMSPA began as a pilot at Santa Fe Community College and has now launched statewide, with representation from every higher education institution in New Mexico. NMSPA uses a two-generation approach, connecting parenting students to on-campus child care, family-friendly campus spaces, and food and housing resources.

Located within the Early Childhood Center of Excellence (ECCOE) at Santa Fe Community College, NMSPA is a network of student parents, educators, and advocates committed to promoting the success and well-being of student parents and their families.

Learn more about the New Mexico Student Parent Alliance.

Apoyando a padres y madres estudiantes en Nuevo México

Los estudiantes que también son padres o madres equilibran al mismo tiempo las clases, el cuidado de sus hijos y los gastos del hogar. El apoyo en el campus muchas veces marca la diferencia entre terminar una carrera y abandonarla. La Alianza de Padres y Madres Estudiantes de Nuevo México (NMSPA, por sus siglas en inglés) apoya tanto al padre o a la madre como al hijo, porque cuando un padre o una madre tiene éxito en la universidad, toda la familia avanza.

NMSPA comenzó como un proyecto piloto en Santa Fe Community College y ahora se ha expandido a nivel estatal, con la representación de todas las instituciones de educación superior de Nuevo México. NMSPA utiliza un enfoque multigeneracional, conectando a los estudiantes que son padres o madres con cuidado infantil en el campus, espacios universitarios amigables para las familias, y recursos de alimentación y vivienda.

Ubicada dentro del Centro de Excelencia en la Primera Infancia (ECCOE, por sus siglas en inglés) en Santa Fe Community College, NMSPA es una red de padres y madres estudiantes, educadores y defensores comprometidos con promover el éxito y el bienestar de los estudiantes que son padres y madres, y sus familias.

Obtenga más información sobre la Alianza de Padres y Madres Estudiantes de Nuevo México.

There’s a phrase Dr. Therese Baca-Radler keeps coming back to this year: “Keep going.” It’s the tagline behind Central New Mexico Community College’s (CNM) new marketing campaign, and it also carries her up tough climbs as a competitive mountain biker.

Her own story starts at 19, working at All Seasons Day School in Albuquerque’s International District with no clear sense of where the path would lead. The school invested in her before she’d earned anything: they gave her a hot lunch, a bike, and a reason to ride it to CNM.

Decades and a Ph.D. later, she sees CNM helping students bring their education and hands-on experience together:

“You don’t always put the books and the degrees with the work until later. And sometimes, once those things come together, you get this beautiful thing that’s early childhood education in the state of New Mexico.”

CNM’s Early Childhood Multicultural Education (ECME) program is built around people who are already doing the work, giving them a way to formalize it into a degree or certificate without stepping away from the kids and families relying on them.

Students can earn a Child Development Certificate or an associate degree, with a fully Spanish-language track that lets bilingual educators complete nearly all their coursework in Spanish. Specialized cohorts including a fast-track pre-K pipeline and partnerships with Albuquerque Public Schools and Los Alamos National Laboratory apply that same foundation to the needs of different communities. A three-phase field experience model moves students from an initial job shadow through capstone practicum hours, with their progress tracked in CNM’s “Field Experience Passport.”

Support runs alongside all of it: evening and online classes, Thursday-night Spanish-speaking tutoring, and CNM’s Wellness Center, which offers free counseling, a food pantry, and basic-needs support.

Dr. Baca-Radler describes the field less as a career ladder than as a network of mentors, classmates, and colleagues who hold each other accountable and don’t let anyone fall behind. Her advice to anyone considering the field or thinking about going back to school: “Do it. We are a community, and there are people who are going to help you all along the way. Keep going.”

Word Scramble Answers:

1. LNEROL_____________
2. LSDANECTIER _____________
3. GNIAINTR_____________
4. SEWAG_____________
5. ISDP _____________

1. ENROLL
2. CREDENTIALS
3. TRAINING
4. WAGES
5. Professional Development Information System (PDIS)

The Professional Development Information System (PDIS) is a free online platform that lets early childhood professionals track their education, credentials, required training, and wages in one place.

Who needs to enroll? Everyone working in Child Care, NM PreK, Home Visiting, and FIT programs, including directors, administrators, and staff members.

Create your profile here to link your background check and begin tracking your professional goals.

For support, email [email protected] or visit the FAQ page for more details.

Great teaching is never static. Educators pay attention to what is working, make adjustments, and try new approaches to better support learning. The same is true of professional development.

This year, the Mentor Network is adding one-on-one meetings to provide mentors with more direct support. Mentors will meet individually with their cohort leads each month from September through November and again from February through April.

The meetings will give mentors space to ask questions, talk through challenges, and discuss how things are going with their mentees.

“We want mentors to feel comfortable opening up about what is happening, what they need, and how we can better support them,” said Yadira Lorenzoni, senior program manager. “The leads can then bring the common themes they hear into the professional learning community (PLC) meetings so everyone can learn from them.”

For example, if mentors are struggling with difficult conversations or similar classroom situations, cohort leads can bring resources and discussion questions to the larger group without sharing anyone’s personal experiences.

The one-on-one conversations will also help cohort leads plan PLC meetings around what mentors are experiencing in real time. The change is designed to strengthen relationships and make the support mentors receive more useful.

Interested in joining? Learn more about the Mentor Network here.

Krystel Sanchez has worn two hats: she’s APRENDE Program Director and Early Childhood Networks Regional Connector, working directly with educators who move between the two programs. Santa Fe Community College’s APRENDE Early Childhood Teacher Apprenticeship Program and the Early Childhood Networks Mentor Network are working together to support early childhood educators across the state, and Sanchez describes career growth less like a ladder and more like a staircase, one educators can climb, pause on, or step back down without losing their footing.

APRENDE supports the state’s incumbent early childhood workforce, pairing apprentices and pre-apprentices with seasoned “journey worker” mentors. According to Sanchez, the mentors are there to “explain the why behind behaviors” and support newer educators “through anything they get stuck with.” In APRENDE’s model, the journey workers are the mentors, and in the past, the program has run largely on its own. The Mentor Network has added another layer of support, giving mentors training “in understanding adult learning theory” and helping them “articulate what they have internalized as best practices.”

The partnership follows a progression: pre-apprentices earn a Child Development Certificate, then move into a registered apprenticeship toward an associate degree and lead teacher roles, and eventually into the Mentor Network itself, often while pursuing licensure or a bachelor’s degree. But the path isn’t always a straight line. There are, Sanchez says, “all kinds of on and off ramps,” and educators may take a detour into a different role entirely before returning to the stairs.

Sanchez sees that back-and-forth as a strength, not a detour from the plan. “Whether someone is drawn to an infant-toddler classroom, home-based care, or a director’s role, ‘there’s a place for them,’ she says. For her, it’s about more than collecting credentials. “It’s important to come back to the why we’re here — for children and families,” she says. “Being able to grow your own skills, grow your network, all has a net positive for children and families in New Mexico.”

Summer’s in full swing! There’s plenty of summer fun happening for young children across the state. From marigold crafts to toddler storytimes to movies under the stars, we’ve rounded up events happening throughout July and August.

Date	Event	Location
Through July 17	Alebrijes and Nahuales sculptures	Albuquerque
Through July 19	Make Ofrenda Marigolds at Grandma’s Casita	Explora, Albuquerque
Through July 25	ABQ Library Summer Reading Program	Albuquerque
Through July 30	Garden Music	Albuquerque
Through July 30	Wildlife Science Kids Program	Albuquerque
Every Monday	Toddler Time	Explora, Albuquerque
Every Wednesday	Wee Wednesdays	Children’s Museum, Santa Fe
Five Saturdays from July through September	Movies in the Park	Las Cruces
Every Thursday, through August 6	“S” is for Science	E3 Children’s Museum, Farmington
Every Thursday, through August 6	Downtown Makers’ Market	Farmington

For Lynala Nakai, an early childhood instructional coach with Central Region Educational Cooperative (CREC) and Mentor Network Lead in Farmington, New Mexico, mentorship is about showing up for people.

After four years as a mentor, Lynala stepped into the Lead role this year, bringing her experience as an instructional coach to support educators in monthly group meetings. From the start, her goal was to create room for mentees to lead themselves. “We weren’t going to be the ones doing the majority of the talking,” she says. “We wanted them to present, build confidence, and get to know one another.”

That philosophy carries into her one-on-one work, too. When a mentee was going through a difficult time mid-semester, Lynala kept showing up, sending resources, following up, and kept checking in. “You’re almost done. You’re doing the best you can. Keep going,” she told her. The mentee finished the semester.

For Lynala, the best part of the Network is the relationships it builds and the reminder to keep learning.”Just be open minded,” she says. “We’re so caught up in our own teaching strategies, but we don’t always think about how other teachers are modifying their lessons and what we can learn from them.”

Join the Mentor Network.