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Preschool  Evie Makes Learning Fun! What makes us so special is our willingness to be creative in planning things that will make learning FUN! Click here for examples. Story of Evie's Purple Gang Preschool More about me and the evolution of my Preschool Program. From a small in-home daycare in 1988 to a full-fledged preschool with a fun and personalized curriculum and a special emphasis on reading skills. Click here for the full story. |
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Back to Top  Beginnings of Evie's Purple Gang Preschool From childcare to Preschool to a Successful Reading Program The Early Years of Childcare. In 1988, when I first began doing childcare in Rochester, I took in 6 children around the age of 2. As a licensed childcare provider, I began receiving information in the mail about curriculum for Preschoolers. Around this time, the state was beginning a big push to encourage childcare providers to create an environment of learning. The curriculum companies sent me months worth of material that included a manual, themed lesson plans, songs (made to the tunes of familiar nursery rhymes), complete craft kits, game ideas, storybook lists etc. Essentially, they included everything a person would need to start up a creative preschool program. I learned early on that children engaged in fun learning activities were happier, more cooperative children. Time-outs became less frequent as they did not want to miss out on the fun all around them. When all the children turned 4, one of the parents asked me if I would be willing to take her child to a nearby Preschool program at a school. I agreed as long as she could convince at least four of the six other parents to send their child too. We had a meeting and she convinced all six families to participate. That year I took all the children to Preschool, 3 days a week. On the other 2 days, I continued to use my curriculum to engage the children in Preschool-like activities in my home. Towards the end of the year, several of the parents reported back that I was accomplishing more with their children during their time with me than at the official Preschool. From that point on, I have never taken another child to an outside preschool. My Early Reader Program Shortly after, one of the parents asked if I could work with her child using a beginners reading program she had purchased called "Hooked on Phonics". She worked full time and worried that she would miss out on precious "family time" with her son if she attempted it on her own. She told me that if I used it with her child, I could keep the program when he was finished with Kindergarten. I began using it with her son and another little boy who knew his entire upper and lower case letters. By the time they both finished Kindergarten, they were reading. This was when I discovered how easy it was to teach children how to read! My Preschool Program As my first group of six students went off to Kindergarten, I decided to expand my childcare program from 6 children to 12 and hired full time help in order to create the atmosphere of a larger preschool. I took advantage of workshops the state licensing board promoted to encourage childcare providers to engage the children in a learning environment. I eventually switched to a different curriculum program that is taught in the more logical 1-2-3 and A-B-C order. I found it to be very successful to add a new number and letter each week because this is how we sing the corresponding songs. My philosophy was to keep adding and building on what the children already knew. This is the same curriculum program that I use today. Expanding my Reading Curriculum As the years passed, I saw that all the children who were in my program for several years were either reading or very close to reading by the time they entered Kindergarten. I continued to use my Hooked on Phonics Reading program during the school year, plus I added other books and created games to enhance the program and keep it fun. Eventually I realized that if I could continue to teach the children during the summer, I could help to solidify the skills of the new readers and, in many cases, get those children who were not quite reading over the hump before they started school in the fall. I knew that if they didn't use those reading skills during the summer months, they could potentially lose some of the progress we had made during the year. That was the year I developed my first summer program, called "Evie's Purple Gang Reading Club", with 6 students. By the next summer it grew to 8 students and has been going strong ever since. Read more about my Summer Reading Program here. Becoming Certified as a Reading Specialist Four years ago, I attended a Preschool Phonemic Awareness program, offered by the Reading and Language Arts Centers (RLAC) of Birmingham. This was the beginning of the process to become certified as a reading specialist. Over the course of the next two years, I completed the Phonics First Foundations Level 1 & Level 2 of the Ortland Gillingham Phonics Reading Program. This program is widely used in many schools. It was designed to be a tactile, hands on, multi-resource learning program for those with learning disabilities. However, I have found that using this methodology with children without learning disabilities was also very successful. It made reading much easier to teach, and more fun for the students to learn. After School Tutoring In 2006, two of my summer students began getting behind in school due to some learning disabilities. Their parents approached me to tutor their children during the school year to help them with their reading and math skills. We go over their daily homework assignments and also review and correct assignments that are returned each Friday in their Friday Folders. This developed into the After School Reading and Math Tutoring Program that I do today. Through all these years working with children, nothing gives me greater pleasure than to see a child smile as they learn something new. I thoroughly enjoy the tutoring process and love helping my students build confidence so they can excel both academically and socially. My goal has always been, and always will be, To Make Learning Fun! To that effort, I feel I have been very successful and I hope to continue for years to come. Back to Top Back to Top Back to Childcare |
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