Hudsonville Christian Preschool is a place where God's children can prepare to participate successfully in a peer group setting. The focus is not academic or competitive. Rather, children are given a variety of opportunities to develop the social growth and awareness of routine and social / educational conventions that predict success in a classroom learning environment.
Mastery of skills is not as important at this stage of life as developing or broadening a sense of wonder, appreciation for learning about God's world, and awareness of what it takes to form positive and cooperative relationships with others.
The activity in the Preschool room may look like children's play, and it is. Play is the avenue to learning and has been carefully structured so that in a nurturing Christian setting, children can grow and develop spiritually, socially, physically, emotionally, and intellectually in a loving, relaxed, affirming atmosphere.
The values that underlie our curriculum are
Preschool? Pre-K??
Our Preschool is for children who have reached their 4th birthday by September. Our Kindergarten requirement is that children reach their 5th birthday by September. Pre-K at Hudsonville Christian is for those children who can benefit from an extra year of growth and development prior to kindergarten, for a variety of reasons. We can help you decide which is the best placement for your child. Each child is a unique individual who deserves unique and individual placement considerations. Often we start with the calendar. If she is a "young 5", then Pre-K may be the better choice. We also offer a free screening service which gives us another snapshot of his readiness. Because you know your child the best, your intuition about placement is the most important once you understand about all the options that are available. We are here to assist you with this!
What are the schedule options?
Preschool is a half day experience at Hudsonville Christian. We offer either a 2-half day / week or 3-half day / week package.
The choices are:
What can you expect to see your child doing in our Preschool?
The Preschool program at Hudsonville Christian School has been designed to challenge and develop individual, God-given gifts at a developmentally appropriate level for four year olds.
Our Preschool focuses on development & nurture of the whole child in these areas:
Much of children's learning occurs through play where the child explores, experiments, discovers, and shares. "Play" is structured and monitored by the teacher so children are set up to be able to "do school." Children choose activities which involve manipulating, problem solving, reinforcing knowledge, and showing responsibilities for materials.
Our Preschool fosters parental involvement and communication. To ensure that a partnership occurs, parents are
encouraged to respond to ongoing activities within weekly routines, occasional special events, field trips, and parties.
Let us introduce our Preschool staff!
Our Preschool teachers have been chosen on the basis of personal commitment to Jesus Christ, professional preparation for, experience in, and philosophy of early childhood education. Both are certified by the state of Michigan. We are pleased to introduce Mrs. Julie Cole (left) and her paraprofessional aide, Mrs. Marylou Kuipers. Mrs. Cole teaches the Monday / Wednesday and Friday classes.
Mrs. Shelli Boomsma teaches our Tuesday / Thursday classes. She is assisted by her paraprofessional aide, Mrs.
Elaine VanSchouwen.
What about academics and curriculum?
Hudsonville Christian School is committed to high academic standards. Research indicates that the most successful early childhood education programs introduce academic work without pressure for mastery. The emphasis in our Preschool program will be on readiness skills, dispositions, and self esteem as learners and image bearers of our Creator. Some of the material presented may seem the same as in Pre-K and even kindergarten. The method of presentation will vary according to developmental level, but the real difference is in the mastery expectations. In HCS Preschool, children are EXPOSED to letter and number skills (e. g.) In HCS Pre-K, children are INTRODUCED to letter and number skills (e. g.) And in Kindergarten, our students are expected to MASTER these skills.
In our Preschool, the curriculum goals have been "designed down" from our Pre-K, as the goals of our Pre-K have
been "designed down" from Kindergarten. A list of these goals for all three levels is available upon request.
SPEECH
Speech/Language services are available to all students age 3 - 8th grade at Hudsonville Christian Schools.
Services are provided by a certified Speech-Language Pathologist through the Hudsonville Public Schools. Students may qualify for
speech/language services due to articulation errors (e.g. using /w/ for /r/), voice problems (e.g. hoarseness), disfluent speech (stuttering),
or difficulty with language (e.g. concepts, grammar, vocabulary.) Students who attend speech language services are tested and must qualify
for services according to established guidelines. Work in speech focuses on individual goals written for each student and typically takes
place individually or in a small group a couple of times a week.
E-mail Hudsonville Christian School for more information
about our Preschool or Pre-K programs, or for the school in general.