Little Lynx Land

Stephen Lewis Secondary School will soon be home to an exciting new learning initiative for children 30 months to five years of age. Now moving quickly towards its official opening in March, the Little Lynx Playschool will offer youngsters opportunities for physical, emotional, intellectual and social development in a small group environment.

The program will welcome twenty children in its inaugural session, ten in each of two sections: Mondays and Thursdays, 9:30-11:30 a.m., and Tuesdays and Fridays, 9:30-11:30 a.m. The doors will open after March Break and close in the first week of June.

Each section will be led by a playschool co-ordinator and an early childhood educator, and staffed by students enrolled in the school’s family studies program. Each of the little ones will be paired with a teenage “big buddy” for lots of one-to-one attention, an arrangement that’s sure to benefit both partners. Early in the new year, prospective big buddies will be hard at work brushing up on their support and mentorship skills.   

Little Lynx is a totally win-win-win project, say playschool co-ordinators Elana Skop and Lindsay Follings: very much in keeping with the school’s commitment to community involvement, a positive introduction for preschoolers to a formal educational setting, and great practical experience for students taking courses in family living, child development and positive parenting.

The playschool concept and a space to accommodate it were built into the original plans when Stephen Lewis opened three years ago – an invaluable place for young children and secondary school students to learn and grow together.

Given the go-ahead this year, family studies teacher Skop and department head Follings have spent long hours putting together a warm and welcoming facility: spacious and well-equipped, colourful and visually stimulating.

It boasts an excellent reading centre, easels and work surfaces for arts and crafts, building blocks and construction toys, puzzles and games, a rice table for sensory-motor activities, a literacy and numeracy-friendly décor, and an irresistibly charming rug for circle time. The program will feature weekly themes (transportation, the farm, shapes, the four seasons, my family, etc.), and daily activities are designed to appeal to the children’s interests, pique their curiosity and stretch their abilities.

A balance is to be maintained between choice and structure (free and directed pursuits), and there will be time and space each morning for stories, music and drama, creative activities and large muscle play … not to mention snacks!

Little Lynx kids must be fully toilet trained and up-to-date with all standard immunizations as determined by the Public Health Act. For more information, interested parents should call 905-363-0289, extension 462.