My twins turn five on Monday and are enrolled in one of the three Pre K Scholars classes that I’ll teach from January to June—their excitement is simply unexplainable! They love it all: the characters, the classwork, their binders, their supplies and their “homework.” (I hope they like their teacher just as much, but I haven’t asked!)

The girls wanted to do their “homework” right after class. Upon completion, Camille asked, “Is that it?”

I told her yes, but said she could do another page if she wanted; after thinking about it for several seconds and with a very pensive look she replied, “I guess I don’t need to do an extra page, but that was just SO FUN!” And every person who has entered our home from since last Wednesday has received a hand-held trip to see “the binder,” accompanied by a very detailed and enthusiastic tour through it’s contents (homework and all)!

That said, I see that the girls’ imaginations are still trying to grasp reality. From the moment the first class ended until they went to bed that night, the questions flowed: “Is Scholarville close to Newport Beach?” “Can we go there soon?” “When?” “How do we get there—by car or plane?” “How far away is it?”

I also heard, “I LOVE Scholarville!” And, “I want to see ALL of the characters!”

Although I love the enthusiam, there are so many questions—how should they be answered?

Just to be in the nation’s capital, where great policies are made and such history is represented, is awe-inspiring. But add to that a convention center filled with over 22,000 people—all gathering with one common interest: the education of young children. Policy makers, preschool directors, child psychologists, occupational therapists, computer techs, musicians, curriculum designers, authors, children’s literature advocates, distributors and teachers all convening to review key topics in early education and to visit the exhibit hall displaying a multitude of products relavant to the education of young children (there was eye candy everywhere you looked!).

I met people from near and far: China, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, India and many representatives from each of our prospective states. All appeared to be greatly drawn to the Scholarville map—I heard many reactions that described it as “creative,” “unique,” “artistic,” “original,” “multi- cultural,” and “clever.” I even had a man from India take a photograph of it noting that it provided “so many concepts displayed in one small map.”

The feedback was incredible and I can’t help be motivated upon my return. I was flattered to hear that the kit is considered unprecedented and that home daycares are in need of educational materials—they provide quite an expansive market, actually.

In walking the rows and rows of great booths, I was on a mission to establish how Pre K Scholars differs from all of the others offerings. I’ve had a sense of this all along, but my searches confirmed what sets us apart.

Pre K Scholars provides:

1. More than phonics.
2. Completely integrated—fine motor, writing, reading, letter value, letter recognition, number value, number recognition, number writing, basic math, basic science, social studies, colors, shapes, simple science and much more all embedded in one program.
3. A progressive discipline—each week skills are built upon the skills from the previous week. Letters are introduced with a bigger picture in mind.
4. Artistry in the materials that is original and created by well-respected artists.
5. A primary focus on preparing children for the kindergarten of today.
6. Home-based business opportunities—for those wishing to teach classes out of their home, we offer afterschool enrichment for preschools to let them increase their revenue stream while meeting the needs of parents and students. Likewise, we provide a well balanced program for parents wishing to work with their child one-on-one.

What a treat to be able to express our differentiating qualities to those who stopped by our booth!

While I was manning the booth my father visited the Newseum, a museum pertaining to all aspects of news and television. Feeling inspired to be a reporter himself he filmed a short clip, which I’ve included below.

I wanted to replicate communities of today that are filled with rich cultural diversity, and I wanted to express a feeling of the beauty in this. I also wanted to display an active community full of charm and compassion, illustrating different activities and interests in motion.

Students and teachers will find Carmen the Cook cooking carrot soup, Nanako the nice neighbor who lives next door, Karate Kicking Kim, Otto the oceanographer and Bob the Baker baking brown bread—these are just a few of the characters. We seem to be drawn to Professor P.K.; he’s in his cap and gown, offering a thumb’s up sign (he is our guide to pronouncing sounds perfectly). In the castle just outside of town, you will find Queen Questa, motioning everyone with a “Shh!” signal; she quiets the town so questions can be answered and sounds can be heard!

All of Scholarville’s characters are illustrated by a very talented original artist/educator from Portland, Oregon named Carson Abbert. The original map of Scholarville was done with lined drawings and water color paint. My expressed criteria of importance was that it was inviting and showed cultural diversity as well as making the alphabet active. He had a two year old daughter at the time so I encouraged him to envision it hanging up in his daughter’s room, imagining it from a child’s eye view.

Carson’s result is quite clever, and the tool is proving to be quite motivating! It’s loved by children and most importantly, there is something within the town for everyone to relate to. Scholarville truly is a celebration of diversity!

Trust me—there are days when I have to bite my lip. I have been known to explain to a few pre-school teachers, “I promise my children are well-nutured, I just choose to let them express their individuality.” This was an especially apropos statement when my youngest decided to wear her bright purple tutu, a rhinestone t-shirt that was limp with excessive wear, her black patent leather holiday shoes and countless glittered hair clips—for a total of about 17 consecutive days last spring. Yes, to school!

As a mother of four girls, I am continually amazed at what motivates individual interest. What draws them to different things? Why does one daughter like to wear fancy dresses while another likes to wear t-shirts and leggings? Why does one like to wear headbands and the other prefer nothing in her hair? Why does one like sports and one like singing and dancing?

My list of questions can go on and on—but I think the answer remains the same in all situations: Because they are different. Shouldn’t their differences be celebrated?

In my next post I’ll explore this a bit further with characters from Scholarville. Stay tuned.

The Pre K Scholars curriculum is based around two guiding education principles:

1. All students are capable of learning any concept or skill if it is appropriately presented.
2. Children learn by doing; so learning should be interactive, inventive and experiential.

This holds true with the introduction of vowels within our program. What do Addy the Acrobat, Eddie the Eraser, Iggy the Ice Cream Man, Otto the Oceanographer and Umberto the Umpire all have in common? They are all in a group called “Vowels” and they are considered the busiest members of Scholarville. This is because, 1) they all have two sounds and 2) are found most frequently in words (created by friendships within Scholarville).

To further reinforce the two sounds (long and short) of these special letters, the students are able to experience the differentiating sounds during the Guessing Game. In preparation for the Guessing Game, when a vowel is being featured, a ribbon is secured down the middle of the pocket chart to create two sides: one for beginning long vowel sounds and one for beginning short vowel sounds. After the student guesses the picture/word from the clues provided, he/she needs to decide whether the beginning sound is long or short and place the card accordingly.

The students love the extra challenge this provides and guess what? They are able to comprehend the concept of vowels!

Further reading:

• More about the Pre K Scholars program
• PKS Family Kit

Still, being amidst a room of everything pertaining to early education—children’s literature, manipulatives, educational toys, curriculums, furniture—it’s hard not to feel both excited and inspired. For us, this is especially true, as we are passionate about product development within the area of pre-kindergarten. We felt like kids in a candy store!

More than anything, we gained more clarity on who we are as a company and who we serve. So, who are we?

Envision a preschool structure with a bridge connecting to a kindergarten. Can you see it? Pre K Scholars is that bridge! If you are a parent, our curriculum may be taught at home.  If you are a preschool teacher, either developmental or academic, our curriculum can be used as enrichment. If you are a retired teacher or someone who works well with children, you can provide this bridge while creating your own home-based business. Pre K Scholars is leveraging an important resource: we are creating a flexible teaching experience to utilize an often-wasted resource within our communities—retired teachers.

We pride ourselves in providing the perfect amount of academic structure at an influential time. Our program is modifiable and adaptable, in that you can scale it back or accelerate it to meet the needs of the individual learners. We utilize the “home connection” with the Home Activities Binder, and the programs are comprehensive within a 22 week period—all newly introduced skills are built upon and reinforced by previously learned skills.

Most programs at this level focus only on phonics, but phonics is only one component the Pre K Scholars program. Instead, our materials are integrated across the curriculum, and we accommodate all types of learners: visual, audio and kinesthetic. Most importantly, we are user friendly and FUN!!

See for yourself—read more about the program, the Family Kit or the Home-Based Business.

I have a very talented friend who started her own “graphic design” business within the stationary world. I had pitched my concept to her about an Alphabet Community of Characters that would all be individuals with their own sound identity, but they would also form friendships with other members of the community and by “working together,” new sounds and/or words would be made. She was swamped with her newly developed business and she thought long and hard about who would be the perfect fit for the job of giving a visual identity to these 26 characters and the town in which they would live. Hence, my introduction to the talented Carson Abbert.

Carson is an Art Teacher in Portland, Oregon, so we were never able to meet face to face (this amazes me even more). We spoke several times on the phone and seemed to have a shared vision for the characters..they were to be multicultural, they were to show action, they were to be motivating, they were to be enticing and friendly and they were to translate well into the letter and the sound motion. Being an educator himself, he could appreciate their purpose and he set out to bring the characters to life. If you see the map of Scholarville, you will see that he successfully met all of our initial criteria and then some.

The children LOVE Scholarville and they, surprisingly, all have different favorites. I am so pleased to see how the characters, who only had a name, a motion and a nationality a year ago, have become so vivacious and instrumental in Reading Readiness. Carson and I have yet to meet face to face, but the connection we made has been a huge blessing in my life!

Magic can be created from the right connections, don’t you agree? Do we not always try to find the right connections for our children from the moment they are born – the right doctors, the best toys, the best peer groups, the right mom group, the right school, the proper extra curricular activities and the list goes on….

What happens if we just trust in letting it be?

Interested in starting your own home-based pre-K program? Our home-based business kit has everything you need, including the lesson in the post you just read. If you’re already using Pre K Scholars, share your success stories here.