Ivybrook in the News: Young Authors Week Earns Broadcast and Online Coverage Across Colorado

Quick Answer: Ivybrook Academy campuses in Colorado Springs and Parker, Colorado, were recently featured across multiple television broadcasts and online news outlets for their annual Young Authors Week celebration. The coverage — spanning ABC affiliate KRDO 13, Good Morning Colorado, and NBC Denver’s 9News — highlighted how Ivybrook preschoolers become published authors during National Reading Month, writing and illustrating their own books and presenting them to classmates and families.

When the Story Is the Story

There’s something that happens when you hand a preschooler a blank page and say, “Tell me your story.”

They don’t hesitate. They don’t ask what the assignment is. They dive in — with dinosaurs, with lions, with characters and worlds that exist only in their imagination but are completely real to them. And when they see those stories turned into a finished, bound book with their name on it, something shifts. They see themselves differently. They see what they’re capable of.

That’s exactly what happened during Ivybrook Academy’s annual Young Authors Week — and this year, Colorado news outlets took notice.

Colorado Springs on KRDO 13 and Good Morning Colorado

Ivybrook Academy’s Colorado Springs campus was featured across multiple segments on KRDO 13, the ABC affiliate serving southern Colorado. The coverage ran on the station’s evening newscast, across several Good Morning Colorado broadcasts, and as a standalone online article — reaching a combined audience of more than 35,000 viewers over the course of the week.

The KRDO story followed Colorado Springs preschoolers as they took part in Young Authors Week as part of Read Across America Day and National Reading Month. KRDO The piece highlighted how the initiative encourages early literacy by having children dictate their own stories, illustrate their pages, and see their ideas come to life in a finished book. KRDO

Five-year-old Sophia Rose Craig was featured proudly showing off her completed work, and Ryan, another young author, shared his dinosaur-themed story on camera. KRDO Teachers at the campus explained that the project helps young students develop reading and writing skills while building confidence in public speaking. KRDO

By the end of the week, each student walked away with a published book of their own making and a sense of pride in their storytelling. KRDO

The Colorado Springs campus is owned and operated by Brittney and Michael Babb, who bring a unique combination of early childhood education experience and business leadership to their community. Their willingness to open their doors to local media — and the way their students naturally rose to the occasion on camera — is a testament to the kind of campus culture that makes earned media like this possible.

Parker on NBC Denver’s 9News

Ivybrook Academy’s Parker campus earned its own spotlight through a feature on 9News, NBC’s Denver affiliate, one of the most-watched stations in the state. The segment featured students Quinn and Cameron sharing the books they wrote to celebrate National Reading Month. 9news

The Parker campus, located in the southeastern Denver suburbs, is owned by Yamile and Brian Greiving. Their campus has become a fixture in the Parker community since opening, and this kind of media coverage extends that visibility well beyond their immediate neighborhood — reaching families across the entire Denver metro area.

Why Young Authors Week Works

Young Authors Week is a signature curriculum moment — one that grows naturally out of Ivybrook’s blended Montessori and Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education.

In Reggio Emilia–inspired classrooms, documentation is central. Teachers observe, record, and reflect children’s learning back to them as it unfolds. Young Authors Week takes that principle and puts it directly into children’s hands: you are the author of your own story, literally. You decide what to write about. You illustrate it yourself. You present it to the people you care about.

The developmental benefits are layered. Children practice narrative language — sequencing events, building characters, describing scenes. They build fine motor skills through illustration. They develop confidence through public presentation. And they experience the complete arc of a creative project: idea, effort, finished product, shared with an audience.

For three- and four-year-olds, that’s a remarkably rich experience. And it’s the kind of thing that looks exactly like what it is when a news camera shows up: children who are genuinely engaged, genuinely proud, and genuinely learning.

What Earned Media Says About a Campus

Coverage like this doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when a campus is doing work that’s genuinely compelling — and when ownership is invested enough in their community to make that work visible.

Both the Colorado Springs and Parker campuses have built the kind of local presence that earns attention. They’re involved. They’re visible. And when they invite the community in, what people see matches what they’ve heard.

That’s a pattern worth paying attention to, because earned media operates differently than advertising. A paid ad says what you want people to hear. A news feature shows what’s actually happening. When what’s actually happening in your classrooms is this engaging, the story tells itself.

Ivybrook Across the Country

Young Authors Week is celebrated at Ivybrook campuses nationwide — each one bringing the same philosophy to life in their own community, with their own students, and their own stories. If you’d like to see what a morning at Ivybrook looks like, we’d love to show you. Schedule a tour at your nearest campus.