PRESCHOOL
ABREN
offers a fully-qualified preschool program to 4 and
5 year old students, which hooks them into loving books
and learning at a young age. Using a wide-range of
materials and books available in the library, preschool
children follow a highly interactive and age appropriate
program. In the morning, Casa Margarita is full of
preschool students singing, reading along with their
favorite stories, experimenting with crayons, playing
games, building structures with blocks and learning
how to be part of a school community.
ABREN’s
current preschool grew out of a pilot program that
attracted great popular support from the community
during its initial years. In 2004 families urged ABREN
to pursue official recognition from the Ministry of
Education so that the program could expand into a fully
qualified preschool. Creating this program required
a great deal of effort, collaboration and creativity
on the part of the community, the librarians and the
ABREN board. When our first class of kindergarteners
graduated in November 2005, it was a proud moment for
everybody involved, including the parent group that
had spent a lot of time that year in the superintendent’s
office lobbying for official recognition of our program.
ABREN’s
preschool is a community program. Similar to some parent-participation
programs in the US, our preschool is tuition-free,
but requires parental support and volunteer hours.
Parents prepare nutritious snacks at home for morning
recess, attend monthly parenting meetings, assist with
the maintenance of the center and organize mini-fundraisers
to pay for utilities and special projects.
The
community is extremely happy with and proud of their
preschool program. ABREN’s community preschool
is now the most popular preschool in Pueblo Nuevo,
and the Ministry of Education uses it as a model program
for new teachers to observe. Nolvia Huete comments, “The
school teachers have told me that students who come
to our preschool program learn new concepts faster
and are better prepared to enter elementary school.”
|
