An early start

Tuesday mornings at the Jay County Public Library will be a little louder than usual for the next few months, with children getting ready to take their first step into the education system.
The library, in collaboration with Jay School Corporation, has debuted a new program, the Kindergarten Prep School (KiPS). It is designed to help children prepare academically and socially for kindergarten.
Originally with a limit of 90 children, the library accepted a total of 95 students. The 10-week program started Tuesday, and will be held each week from 9 a.m. to noon through Tuesday, Aug. 16.
The program will include six subjects: reading, writing, math, art, fine motor skills and large motor skills. There are six certified teachers, each teaching a different subject, and about 30 volunteers, who will help preparing meals, assist the teachers and play with the children.
During their first class, the young students orderly filed from one room to another, eager to learn something new. At the fine motor skills class, the children switched places and talked with the teacher and volunteers, who would ask them about colors and shapes. In the math class they helped each other count.
Carolyn Scott, one of the volunteers at the program, is a kindergarten teacher in the Jay School Corporation. She said given the number of children at the library, she was worried with how much it would take to keep the children under control.
“There are more than 90 kids, but this is so well organized,” she said. “Their name tags are color coded, so they know what group of kids they need to be with, so that was very efficient.”
But Scott was excited about more than just how well-behaved the children were. She believes the program will help ready the children for their first few days of school and it help her as well. The program also gives the children something to do over the summer.
“I wish we had this help in the classroom,” she said. “Just looking at them you see they are so happy to be here. “They look like they are having so much fun, and they’re also bringing life to the library.”
Jay County Public Library received a $4,000 grant from The Portland Foundation to start the program this summer.
The idea from the program is nothing new. Youth Services librarian Linda Shreve said the director and her thought of starting the program at Jay County after they learned about it in a conference.
Noble County Public Library in northern Indiana originated the program. It just started its third year with the program on Wednesday.
Kelly Parks, chairwoman of the children’s department there, said feedback on the program has been positive.
“It really has been a very successful program,” she said. “We would like to reach to everybody but unfortunately we can’t. We reach out to as many families as we can.”
Parks said kids have benefited as much or more socially as they have academically.
“In this program they meet new friends, they are going to be with teachers that are going to be their teachers in kindergarten and they get used to riding the school bus,” she said.
The idea for the Noble County Public Library’s KiPS grew from some conversations between Sandy Petrie, director of the Noble County Public Libraries, and Stacey Hughes, then-superintendent of Noble County Schools.
“(Hughes) told me one day she visited the school and at class they were practicing their writing and she was disappointed to see that some of them were never exposed to the alphabet,” Petrie said.
Together, Petrie and Hughes came up with what became the prep program. They recruited volunteers, a school bus and they attempted some fundraising.
With a tough economy in 2009, The Dekko Foundation in Noble County was not able to help in their first year. So they decided to raise funds through local businesses, and the community was responsive, bringing funds and volunteers.
A couple other libraries and school systems in Indiana have approached Noble County, interested in starting their own program. Petrie says she advises that planning begin a year ahead.
Noble County Libraries will receive an Library Innovation Award, which is given by the American Library Association, for the program.
Back at the Jay County Public Library, Dora Houck, who is teaching math at the program, said for their first day at “school” the children weren’t so bad.
“The numbers were a little high but it went well,” she said. “From my station it was great.”
Houck said that sometimes academic habits are not well-developed at home before children begin school, and that is why this program will be of much help to the children.
“This program is fantastic, they get a preview, a little bit of exposure to what it’s like to go to class,” she said. “I think the program is not overwhelming, it keeps them active and engaged, which is very important.”[[In-content Ad]]