First Presbyterian Church, 101 S. Decatur St., Strasburg, recently announced that it will make changes to its preschool program, Great Beginnings. By adjusting certain aspects of its programs, the church hopes to make classes more accessible for students and instructors.

Great Beginnings offers programs that are divided into three levels: one for 2-year-olds, one for 3-year-olds and one for prekindergarten students. Previously, most of the classes met once a week. For its classes for 2-year-olds, Great Beginnings will offer a class on Mondays and Wednesdays and a class on Tuesdays and Thursdays in addition to the weekly class on Fridays. "We realized that the 2 year olds do much better when they attend classes more than one day a week," said Heather Reynolds, a prekindergarten teacher and administrative director at Great Beginnings.

Reynolds first started teaching at Great Beginnings in 2016 as an instructor in the program for 3-year-olds. She noticed that due to the limited amount of space in the classes, many families in the community were unable to enroll their kids and provide them with a preschool experience. For the upcoming year, the prekindergarten program will double the number of students in both its morning and afternoon classes, increasing the number of students from 12 to 24. "This will allow us to accept a lot more previously enrolled students as well as new students from the community," Reynolds said. "Now we will have the flexibility to meet all of our families' needs."

Another change that will be made at Great Beginnings revolves around classroom assistants. Until now, the program has relied on volunteers, who are primarily parents, to serve as assistants in each class. Classroom assistants will now be paid for their time, and as long as they pass the required background checks, anyone from the community may serve as an assistant.

Great Beginnings also offers a nursery time program that is open to those inside and outside of First Presbyterian Church. The program serves as an hourly day care for children in prekindergarten and younger. By offering nursery time, Great Beginnings hopes to give parents a chance to run errands or take a break in their hectic schedules.

"We put a lot of emphasis on engaging kids with the community," Reynolds said. "We try to take trips often, like visiting the local fire department or checking out a plant nursery." Reynolds added that she has a son in the Lampeter-Strasburg School District, so she tries to prepare her students for what will be expected of them once they reach kindergarten. Each level of classes at Great Beginnings is more structured than the last; Reynolds' main goal is to help students grow both academically and socially by the time they leave prekindergarten.

"I'm really proud of the school that we have and the way our teachers can engage the kids and encourage growth," Reynolds said. "We have such a kid-friendly community at the church, which is part of what drew me to it when I first moved to the area."

For more information, visit http://www.straspres.org/great-beginnings-preschool.