NIC Head Start helps pair build academic, social skills for grandkids

When Tom Jones decided to move from Texas to Bonners Ferry to meet up with a woman friend, Kelli, he had romantic intentions in mind. If things worked out, he was thinking about moving to Idaho.

A lawyer by trade, Jones went to a Boy Scout Jamboree at Farragut State Park in 1969 as a kid. The beautiful setting made a lifelong impression, and he thought, “Someday I’m going to live in Idaho.”

Then he got a chance Facebook message from Kelli, whom he had met in his 20s. Jones remembered Kelli, and he immediately set out to help her with some business and legal issues.

“I was like, oh yeah, I remember her. Oh yeah,” Jones said. “I was wrapping up a legal case, and I came up to visit in Bonners Ferry. Pretty quickly, we started dating.” Soon afterwards, Jones proposed to Kelli on New Year’s Eve. She said “Yes!”

Both Kelli and Tom had grown children. But one of Kelli’s daughters, a mother of three young children, was not able to provide a suitable home for her kids. Not long after getting married, Tom and Kelli Jones obtained permanent custody of her daughter’s three children. “They’ve been with us now for four years,” he says.

“It wasn’t what we had planned, but it’s what God had planned for us,” Kelli Jones quipped.

Soon afterwards, they enrolled the two oldest kids, Kaylee and Rayna, in Head Start at the Julian Bucher Center in Bonners Ferry. The center is operated by North Idaho College Head Start. They were able to qualify for the program through their grandchildren’s parents’ financial situation. Typically, families must meet federal low-income guidelines to qualify.

Jones was immediately impressed with the early-childhood education that the girls received at Head Start.

“Kaylee just thrived in Head Start,” he says. “She really started to love learning. She was a naturally curious kid, and she was constantly asking us questions. She had a lust to learn everything. The early spark at Head Start has continued in her enthusiasm for elementary school.”

Jones liked the combination of things the kids learned at Head Start, including art and music activities.

“Head Start was perfect for her,” he says. “I liked the learning experiences they were providing to her, and I liked the teachers. It was a half-day of classroom activities, and then we’d talk about what she learned on a 30-minute drive back to our farm.”

In the midst of raising the three grandchildren full-time, Kelli and Tom settled on a 20-acre farm, known as Bent Tree Farm Idaho. They turned it into a small business where they raise cattle, pigs, chickens and bees. At harvest time, they sell free-range, non-GMO beef, pork and eggs, in addition to honey from the bees.

“We love it here on the farm. It’s a beautiful, lovely place,” he says. “It’s a great place to live.”

That also means the grandkids learn responsibility from doing daily chores on the farm. Kaylee and Rayna help with the farm chores, and they also have responsibility to take care of two of the family’s four dogs. Kaylee takes care of Chloe, a chihuahua, and Rayna cares for Lulu, a corgi.

“Having regular farm chores definitely builds character and helps build their work ethic,” Kelli Jones says.

“On Saturdays, we kick them out of the house and tell them to go play – use your imagination. See you at lunch,” Tom Jones says. “They run all over the farm and have fun.”

As part of having their grandkids in Head Start, Tom Jones got involved as a parent volunteer, first on the policy council with other parents, guiding local Head Start activities at the Julian Bucher Center in Bonners Ferry. And then he was tapped to serve as a parent representative on the Idaho Head Start Association’s Board of Directors for two years.

Following that service, he’s now serving as a parent representative from the Northwest Region (Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Idaho) on the National Head Start Association Board of Directors.

“Tom is a leader with high integrity and ideals,” said Bill Foxcroft, executive director of the Idaho Head Start Association. “I nominated him to the national board because he has been such an asset to me with his deep belief in Head Start, his perspective as a Head Start grandparent, his intelligence and his insights gained from his life experiences. I have been fortunate to have him on my team.”

By virtue of serving on the IHSA board, Jones visits the Idaho Statehouse during the legislative session and talks to lawmakers about the value of early-childhood education.

“It’s important to take the time to talk to legislators about the value of education for these young kids,” Jones says. “I like to put it in economic terms. And I tell them that early-childhood education is the smartest thing you can do for these kids. Head Start gets them interested and excited about learning. Head Start reaches them when they’re young, from age 3 to 5 before they go to Kindergarten.

“If you get them started correctly, that lust for learning will last a lifetime. You get them off of Medicaid, and they become an asset to society,” he says. “That’s what will happen with our daughter, Kaylee. She’s excited about learning; she loves to read. She’s a real go-getter who’s going to succeed in life.”

Despite their busy life running a farm and raising three grandkids, Kelli Jones said she’s not surprised that her husband has volunteered at the local, state and national level for Head Start.

“He’s very passionate about our children’s education, and he’s very grateful for the changes that Head Start has brought for our kids,” Kelli Jones said.

All three of their grandkids have gotten inspired by NIC Head Start, she says.

Rayna, the second grand-daughter, “she just blossomed in Head Start. She really found her own voice and become her own person at Head Start. She made her own friends, so she’s really grown both socially and academically.”

Their grandson, Malichi, 3, is in his first year at NIC Head Start. He’s been a quiet kid, a little slow in developing speech skills, she said. Through his education at Head Start, Malichi’s speech has improved, and “his confidence has increased. He’s doing great,” Kelli Jones says.

Kelli and Tom Jones expect to raise the children to adulthood. “The children have blossomed at Head Start, and we could encourage anybody to try to get their children into this program if given the opportunity,” Kelli Jones says.