|
| 'Prep school' helps kids prepare for kindergarten life By STACY TREVENON Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, March 30, 2005 1:41 PM PST Half Moon Bay Review Before parents send their children off to their first day of kindergarten this fall, Coastside Children's Programs wants to be sure the kids are as ready as they can be. The solution? Prep school for 5-year-olds. Coastside Children's Pro-grams, based in Half Moon Bay, is offering a six-week kindergarten preparation program from July 11 though Aug. 19 and registration is now open. The objective is to prepare children who have not been in a preschool so that they have an easier time when they enter kindergarten on that first big day. The program will take place at the CCP preschool, which is located at the Community United Methodist Church in Half Moon Bay. The preschool is not affiliated with the host church. Registration is now open; the cost of the program is $200 per week per child. Parents can sign up for four weeks minimum at $800, or for the full course at $1,200. "Some families choose to keep their children home before grade school, without any preschool experience. Other parents have brought their children to play groups or extracurricular activities," said CCP Preschool Director Josephine Pritchard. "For those children who have not yet experienced a school-like group environment, CCP's unique pre-K prep program will help them develop socialization skills that will continue to a successful transition to kindergarten," she said. CCP teachers will ease the transition. They will teach foundational skills in language, literacy and mathematics while also providing social skills and group experiences, in different but complementary components. Social/emotional development is part of the class. The children will learn to regulate their own emotions and behavior and not to act on aggressive impulses, and to use language in that process. They will also learn to express their feelings in socially appropriate ways, and to develop healthy and satisfying relationships with other children and with adults. The language and literacy component of the program will begin to teach children to recognize print, distinguish separate words, recognize rhyming words and shapes, and identify opposites. They will also learn to recognize first and last names and letter names, and will begin to demonstrate reading-appropriate behaviors. Young students will look at picture books, hear simple stories, retell the stories and connect them to background experiences. In the cognitive development component, the children will learn to observe and understand their environment and the natural world, to form generalizations based on those observations and to link new words with objects to build vocabulary. In the area of physical development, the children will have frequent and regular play periods, activities that challenge gross and fine motor skills, and learn to develop self-help skills. Classes will be held from 8 a.m. to noon Mondays through Fridays from July 11 through Aug. 19. The children will be able to mingle with children in the existing CCP program on the playground, though they will not be incorporated into the ongoing CCP program. For information or to register, call Pritchard at 726-3273. |