Welcome Back!

Welcome back to the 2018/2019 school year!

The first week of ECFE classes, 3-year-old preschool and 4-year-old preK is in the books. We had so much fun meeting all of the families and kids who will be participating in our fabulous program this year. There are a lot of exciting things happening this year in our South Washington County Schools Early Learning program. Keep reading to learn more. 

3-year-old preschool and 4-year-old preK

Our preschool teachers are working hard to continue the alignment work that began last year. Teachers are continuing to learn more about our new assessment tool, TS Gold. We are also excited that last spring and over the summer our teachers and coordinators created a brand new Progress Report that will be shared with parents during parent-teacher conferences. This new Progress Report is linked to our TS Gold assessment tool by clearly showing specific developmental skills that kids in our 3-year-old and 4-year-old preschoolers are working on developing. 

We are continuing our focus on supporting the social emotional development of all our students. Research shows that a child's social and behavioral competency predicts their future academic success to a greater extent than their cognitive skills. Helping our students feel safe and connected at school is key to preparing them for the next big step, Kindergarten. 

Parents of our preschoolers will also have the opportunity to participate in our Preschool Text to Connect program. We started this program last year and are excited to be able to continue offering it this school year. Parents who sign up for this program will receive weekly texts that provide facts about social emotional development and easy to implement activities and tools to support that development. Watch for more information on how to sign up coming soon. 

ECFE

This year, our ECFE program is continuing to offer all of your age specific classes as well as some exciting new options. 

We are continuing to offer an online parent education class, No Drama Discipline. If you are interested in taking a deeper look at what discipline is, how our brains impact our behavior and practical ideas for effective discipline, this is the class for you. Our hybrid online class starts on Thursday, Oct. 4th with families meeting together to get to know one another. The next four weeks are exclusively online. We meet in person again for the final week to wrap up the topic. Registration is available here.

We also have new drop-in playtimes throughout the week. 

Central Park

Wednesdays for 24-36 months, 12:00-1:00 pm, Cost $3/child or $10/family

Thursdays for birth to 5 years, 3:00-4:30 pm, Cost $4/child or $10/family

Fridays for birth to 5 years, 11:30-1:00 pm, Cost $4/child or $10/family

DPC

Tuesdays for birth to 5 years, 12:30-2:30 pm, Cost $5/child or $10/family

Thursdays for birth to 5 years, 12:30-2:30 pm, Cost $5/child or $10/family

Valley Crossing

New Parent Connection - Tuesdays for 6-12 months, 4:30-5:45 pm (FREE)

Wednesdays for birth to 5 years, 9:15-11:15 am, Cost $5/child or $10/family

We are looking forward to a wonderful school year with all the families participating in our program.