Little Chapel on the Boardwalk Presbyterian Church will welcome up to 20 4-year-old children this fall as it opens its new preschool.
“We are very excited,” said Maritsa Hartlove, the school’s teacher and director. “It’s going to be a pre-K preparatory program.”
Hartlove holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education, and has 30 years of teaching experience. She designed the preschool’s curriculum herself, which she said will teach letters, numbers and phonics, along with Bible stories. Frequent puppet shows will help make learning fun.
“At our church, we have puppeteers. They’ll be coming in once a month to do little puppet shows, maybe more,” Hartlove said.
Physical activity will be encouraged as well. Hartlove explained learning to dance to music develops large motor skills and coordination. The dance songs chosen will tie into the school’s curriculum.
All aspects of the day are coordinated to make learning fun. Even the children’s snacks will complement what they learn in the classroom.
“There’s a different letter, a different number and a different color every week,” Hartlove said. “Our snacks are coordinated with the letter of the week. If we’re doing the letter A, all the snacks will start with A.”
Hartlove said the beach will be ideal for science activities, such as collecting shells and classifying animals.
“We’re right across from the beach, so we’d like to incorporate our environment into our curriculum,” she said.
Hartlove hopes the children’s parents will be involved in the school’s activities.
“On Fridays, we have family-fun Friday, which is optional. We’ll have the parents meet up at 12:30 and we’ll be going on little trips together,” she said. “We want it to be family-oriented. We want to have a strong bond between the teachers, the children and the family and their education.”
Hartlove also wants the children to learn about charitable giving.
“We did a vacation Bible school program and we did an outreach to children in Malawi. We raised $525 in only one week with 65 children,” she said. “In Malawi, many children can’t go to school because they don’t have any money. For $75, a child can go to school for a whole year. We’re going to continue to have the preschool support that mission. I want the children to learn to help others.”
The children will also learn to help local communities.
“We’ll be collecting canned food. …We’re going to be doing a lot of missions with the children,” Hartlove said.
The program takes place Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. until noon. The first day of school is Aug. 24. Hartlove said five-, three-, and two-day-per-week preschool programs are available.
“We’re going to register until we’re filled up,” Hartlove said.
To register, contact Maritsa Hartlove at 910-256-2819 or [email protected]
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