MISSOULA - It’s something so new that many parents of young children in Missoula might not realize it is available.
This school year, Missoula County Public Schools (MCPS) has expanded its Early Kindergarten program so more kids than ever can take advantage of quality early education. It is free, open to four-year-olds -- and it can give them the start they need to succeed in school.
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"We really need kids to be exposed to what it’s like to be in a real learning environment. And daycare is great. My kiddo went to daycare, and he learned so much. But this is more,” explained Lowell Elementary School Early Kindergarten teacher Nicole Hosman. “This is education-based and play at the same time. So, we’re going to give them the skills they need to be successful in school once they get to the regular ed classroom.
And that is more important than ever as there is a lot of pressure on kindergartners to read. But, some just aren’t as developmentally ready for that.
“And what we found is that about 50% of our county's four-year-olds are not prepared for kindergarten. And at some of our schools, as much as 80% of the kiddos coming in [are] not showing signs of readiness for Kindergarten,” MCPS Director of Academic and Community Services Barbara Frank told MTN News. “The brain is open and ready to learn when kids are little, and you really do miss windows of opportunities if kids do not get high-quality early childhood care before age five."
MCPS has had Early Kindergarten at the Jefferson Early Learning Center, but now it is also available at Lowell, Russell, and Franklin schools thanks to a grant from the University of Montana and the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation.
Not all families can afford private preschool. This offers more youngsters a chance to be classroom-ready when it counts. We had a chance to see them interact with peers to see what skills they’ve already acquired.
“It will definitely help them because they’ll have different experiences and they’re interacting with their peers. They're learning storytelling and letter naming just through play so when it comes time to read, they have all that background knowledge and it’s play-based,” Hosman said. “So, when it's time to sit and read they’ve had plenty of time to play and figure things out on their own before they have to sit and learn like an elementary kid does."
"There’s so much research that it’s not about knowing letters and sounds, it’s teaching your brain to rhyme and that flexibility of learning language and talking and discovering and building your vocabulary. All of those are essential to learn to read,” Frank said. “And so, if you didn’t have that experience as a preschooler and you come to kindergarten, you’re expected to learn letters and sounds your brain is jumping over a whole phase of development that you missed.
“We know there is a tremendous need in our community and so we’re just trying to be a part of the solution. We really want to work with our private providers and our public partners to try and provide as many seats as we can for these four-year-olds,” Frank noted. “The research is clear, early intervention is key for success in the long run.”
“In Missoula, affordable housing is an issue. And we want to a solution for young working families and providing free preschool, high quality provided by certified teachers in our elementary schools, that takes a load off parent’s minds and it also allows them to work and not worry about paying for child care and so we want to be part of that solution to keep and attract young families to the Missoula community,” Frank continued.
There are still spots available. Information on how to register for Early Kindergarten can be found at https://www.mcpsmt.org/Page/9045.
