Each Springboard to Kindergarten class accepts 14 children and meets from 8:30 AM - 1:00 PM, 5 days per week, with extended day available from 1-3 PM or 1-6 PM. Parents provide a lunch and all transportation. Tuition is based on 175 days of school with the cost evenly divided over the 10 months. If needed, you will have the option to sign up for the school vacation and snow days at an additional fee.

Research and experience tells us that children learn best by doing. Play provides the foundation for academic and school learnig. Children will have oppertunities to engage in many types of play experiences. They dress up in the dramatic play area, they build roads and towns with blocks and they create in the art area. But, you may still wonder, "How will this help my child learn to read and do math?"

When children put blocks in a truck and dump them out, they are learning about size, weight and number concepts (math and science). A child who is pretending that a block is a sandwich is developing the thought process necessary to understand language and reading (symbolic thought).

Learning is a developmental process, a continuum. Neither adults nor children can jump ahead to the application of knowledge without the proper foundation.

Play provides the appropriate climate for pre-skill learning. Because it is inherently interesting, children will engage for many hours. Through play, children meet developmental challenges, as well as develop the attitude that learning is a meaningful activity.

There are many developmental milestones and attitudes toward learning that need to be reached before children are ready to engage in the formal academic program of "school learning". Play must be a significant part of children's lives.

The goal of the Springboard to Kindergarten program are to help children develop and practice their Kindergarten Readiness Skills through play. This program is child centered, favoring hand-on learning through play and maninpulation of objects working with teachers who have a strong background in early childhood education and child development and who can best provide for children what they need to grow physically, emotionally and intellectually. The focus is on developing:

• Verbal Skills: Helping children learn to communticate with adults and peers using words rather than physical aggression to what he/she wants or feels, learning to relate ideas, descriptions and experiences, learning to follow group instructions, learning to participate in informal creative dramatics (play house, puppets, role playing ect.)
• Social Skills: Helping children learn to seek out interactive play, learning to seperate more easily from parents, learning to wait his/her turn, putting simple requests into words and following simple directives, listing to stories without interrupting, understanding that actions have have both causes and effects, being willing to take a risk and try something new, following classroom rules and routines, learning to not disrupt peers during activities, learning to seek attention appropriately.
• Self Care Skills: Helping children eat snack and/or lunch with minimum adult assistance, learning to manage his/her own belongings, putting on his/her own sweater/jacket, managing own bathroom needs, finding materials needed for tasks.
• Academic Skills: Helping children learn to show sustained attention, starting to recognize some common sight words like "stop", staring to identify rhyming words and beginning sounds, starting to remember his/her personal information (address, phone number, parents name), learning to recognize his/her first name and beginning to write own name in lower case letters with a capital letter to begin it, understanding 1 to 1 correspondence with concrete objects (up to his/her age).
• Physical Skills: Having experience with jumping, standing on one foot, galloping, skipping, hopping, climbing ect., having experience with throwing, catching and kicking balls, having experience in block building, painting at an easel, gripping a crayon correctly, cutting with sicssors and other small motor skill development.
• Maturation Skills: Helping children demonstrate a concept of time, seasons and calender, learning to pick up and put things where they belong, sitting still for longer periods of time, starting to generalize skills across tasks and situations, learning to try various strategies to solve problems, learning to make choices at free-choice times and maintaining his/her involvement in an activity.

But....a picture is worth a thousand words! We invite you to come in and visit, speak with the teachers, and get a feel for the warmth of the program. Just give us a call and we will schedule it at your convenience.

---

SPRINGBOARD TO KINDERGARTEN RATES AND FEES 2008-2009

SPRINGBOARD TO KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM FEES:

	Monday – Friday	8:30 AM – 1:00 PM	$668.00 per month
	4 days per week	8:30 AM – 1:00 PM	$550.00 per month

EXTENDED DAY OPTIONS (in addition to the morning session):

	Monday – Friday	1:00 PM – 3:00 PM	$318.00 per month
	4 days per week	1:00 PM – 3:00 PM	$254.00 per month
	3 days per week	1:00 PM – 3:00 PM	$191.00 per month
	Monday – Friday	1:00 PM – 6:00 PM	$495.00 per month
	4 days per week	1:00 PM – 6:00 PM	$398.00 per month
	3 days per week	1:00 PM – 6:00 PM	$298.00 per month

---

If you are interested in more information or want to come in for a tour, please call Sydney Bialo at 978-623-8460! Registration for September 2004 will start in February and will be on a first come, first serve basis.