Bethlehem Child Care Center
Our Preschool Program
Our preschool program is for 3, 4, and 5-year-olds and is designed for children to learn the way they learn best – through play. We provide enriching activities and areas for developmentally appropriate play. These areas include dramatic play, art experiences, fine and gross motor activities, science, math, and literacy activities, all aiming to ignite children’s curiosity as they grow, discover, and explore their environment.
Playing outside is an important part of our program. Children play outside 3 times a day, depending on weather. We have a lovely playground with a variety of areas and activities for children to engage in play. You will find long sticks, tree trunks, a huge sandbox, a playhouse, an outdoor kitchen (a.k.a. mud kitchen), balls, trucks, shovels, balance bikes, and such. We love to grow vegetables in the spring and summer, go sliding on the hill in the winter, run through a sprinkler in the summer, and play soccer in almost any season.
We pride ourselves on maintaining low teacher to child ratios, typically 1:7. This allows our teachers to spend more time building relationships with each child to create an excellent learning environment. In two of our classrooms, we will have a maximum of 20 children each day and the third classroom will have a maximum of 14 children.
Link to Tours and Enrollment Information.
Link to Tuition and Fees Page.
We are excited to announce that Bethlehem is moving to multi-age classroom model– so all the three classrooms will have children who are ages 3 – 5. We believe our philosophy of play-based learning supports multi-age groups. If you’d like more information regarding the benefits of multi-age classrooms, I’ve included some details below and websites for more detailed information.
Research shows that multi-age classrooms help children socially and emotionally. The classrooms are more like a family with strong sibling-like bonds. Children of different ages learned the materials they were ready to learn, both accelerated and remedial, regardless of age. We learned that younger children in these classrooms were able to participate in more complex activities and are less intimidated when an older peer initiated the activity. Older children may take on more leadership roles. They are often more confident, more likely to provide help, share, and to practice empathy.
If you would like to read about other preschools using mixed-age grouping and information about the model you may like these sites:
- The Benefits of Mixed-Age Classrooms in Preschool | Paper Pinecone Blog
- What Is a Mixed-Age Classroom and How Does It Benefit Your Child? | Apple Montessori Schools
- Mixed Age Groups Benefits in Early Childhood | Aurora Early Education
Sample Daily Schedule
7:30 – 9:00 – play Outside or in Fellowship Hall
9:00 – 9:15 – Welcome and talk about the day
9:15 – 10:30 – Open Choice time, snack served in this time frame
10:30 – 11:15 – Outside time
11:15 – 11:45 – Small group time
11:45 – 12:00 – Bible Story & close out morning
12:00 – 1:00 – Lunch
1:00/1:15 – 1:45 – nap and those who do not sleep get up
Rest continues until 2:45 for those who fall asleep
3:15 – 4:00 – one group outside and other has Open Choice
4:00 – 4:45 – one group outside and other has Open Choice
5:00 – 5:30 – everyone meets in Fellowship Hall until picked up
BCCC’s TOILET TRAINED POLICY:
Children enrolled in Beginners and Pre-K must be toilet trained before attending. We recognize that it is not uncommon for a child who is fully toilet trained to have a setback/accident when he/she is in a new environment. Staff are aware of this and will provide many opportunities to use the bathroom. Accidents are considered unusual incidents and should happen infrequently.
We have a “three accident” policy. When three accidents occur in one month’s time, we will re-evaluate your child’s placement in our program. Upon enrollment there is a two-week grace period, and we will not begin counting accidents until the two weeks pass.
Toilet trained children can:
- Communicate to the teacher that he/she needs to go to the bathroom.
- Go to the bathroom and perform the necessary functions without assistance from an adult.
- Wear cloth underwear: pull-ups are not allowed.
If your child is enrolled, but not completely toilet trained as described, you may choose one of the following options:
- You may withdraw your child from the preschool and place their name at the top of our waiting list without paying tuition. (The registration fee is nonrefundable, and you are not guaranteed placement.)
- You may continue to pay tuition to hold your child’s spot until toilet training has been completed.