The preschool program at Almost Home is intended to prepare children for kindergarten. Children enrolled in this program are four or five years old and will generally, be entering kindergarten the following year. This class is taught by a Certified Teacher who holds
a Bachelor's degree or higher in Early Childhood Education or a related field. In addition, 
our preschool teacher is certified in First Aid, CPR, Childhood Illnesses, and Child Abuse Recognition. The class size is limited to 10 children. One full-time class is offered year round and two half-day Preschool classes are offered on Mondays, Wednesdays,
and Fridays during the academic year only.

Children who are entering Preschool already have a solid familiarity with letters, numbers, colors, and shapes. They can often recite the spelling of their own name. In Preschool, children build on their current knowledge of letters by reviewing recognition skills and building on phonetic concepts. By the end of the preschool year at Almost Home, children can often sound out two and three letter words using their phonetic decoding skills. 
Writing skills progress from tracings to free hand printing of the child's own name as well as the entire alphabet. Number recognition and counting skills are reviewed and advanced. Children can usually count to 100 by ones, fives, and tens by the end of their preschool experience. Children learn to tell time on the hour and half hour and to advance their
self-help skills with buttoning, snapping, zipping, lacing, and tieing. Sensory, cooking, gardening, and science activities continue. Creative Art activities become more
child-directed and works of art are displayed in our Preschool Gallery.  A computer is available in the preschool classroom and loaded with the latest in preschool educational software. Circle time is when we gather to name our helpers, complete our calendar and weather chart, recite our Pledge of Allegiance, enjoy puppet visitors, read theme related stories, sing songs, and introduce foreign languages. The Preschool curriculum at Almost Home is enhanced by a weekly visit from our dance teacher woho conducts our "Creative Movement" class and a music teacher visits once per month. Field Trips, Special Visitors, and Class Celebrations are outlined on our Special Events page!!!