Preschool

April 2020, the month I should be celebrating my nine-year anniversary with First Presbyterian Preschool. I should be handing out hugs and smiles to our 80 students and their families. Unfortunately, the celebration is different this year-this year, I celebrated my anniversary by working from home.

This time of uncertainty and unprecedented circumstances have caused us to do things a little differently. The Preschool began our Spring Break on March 9, and we haven’t been able to return to school since.

With the absence of our students and our staff, we’ve become a little creative! We now rely on Zoom calls to see our students once a week. Our teachers have created bingo games to allow the students to review their numbers, conducted scavenger hunts around the house, and more. One staff member has conducted simple yoga classes on YouTube that the students can participate with. A staff member’s children got involved by showing off their own classical ballet skills and gardening skills using YouTube videos. Yet another staff member has been keeping caterpillars and allowing the students a window into their progress. Books have been shared using YouTube and Zoom and I even presented a book on Facebook Live for the first time. With over 300 views, I believe we may be on to something! There will be more ‘live’ events in my future.

I believe I can easily speak for the staff in saying that we would much prefer to be at the school, seeing our students face to face on a daily/regular basis, but at least we’re able to see them virtually. We aren’t sure we’ll be able to return this year; we don’t know if we’ll have the chance to say goodbye to our students that will not be returning (VPK students-our ‘Seniors’ of the Preschool or those students that are moving).

This is a crazy time, that makes me truly appreciate the Preschool staff and their individual creativity and devotion to the children in their care. I also can’t wait to return to my routine, to see the faces of our children, the staff, the parents and grandparents.