Parents as Teachers of Lake County is a program within Early Learning Partnership of Northwest Indiana, a nonprofit organization that holds various programs and services at schools across the county. Many of these programs work to get the parents involved in what is going on at their children’s schools. One program that Early Learning Partnership has brought to the East Chicago schools is the Ready to Soar program.
Ready to Soar is a program that screens and prepares preschool students for kindergarten. This helps to ensure that they are academically, physically, and socially ready for all of the changes that come with that transition.
The first step in the process is the screening. Preschoolers at participating East Chicago schools were screened by early childhood education professionals while they were in school during the spring. The screening not only evaluated their academic capabilities, but also things like fine motor skills, gross motor skills, social skills, ability to take direction, and more. The results of these screenings will tell the parents how ready their child is for what will be required of them in kindergarten.
All parents were notified of their child’s results. Recommendations for a series of home visits throughout the summer were made to parents of students who screened as ‘questionable.’ Representatives from Parents as Teachers will visit their homes three times this summer to evaluate the child’s progress and make further recommendations for improvement.
Parents as Teachers is also offering several kindergarten readiness workshops at participating East Chicago schools over the summer. These are free and open to all East Chicago preschoolers and their parents. Each workshop focuses on a different set of skills and allows parents to see the areas in which their child needs additional help.
To learn more about the Ready to Soar program and Parents as Teachers, visit www.FoundationsEC.org.
