Guidelines for selecting a Preschool in Anderson, SC
It’s all about LOVE!
Finding a preschool that fits your family can be a challenging task, especially here in the Bible Belt where Christian school options abound. As you begin this often-overwhelming process, seek first our all-knowing God for His direction! He will guide you. Second, look for a place with lots of love. As a mother, there is nothing more comforting than sending my children to a place where I feel they are loved. I believe a preschool can show heart-transforming love in the following four ways:
Love for God
Is the love of God evident and clear? Practically this can be seen in bulletin boards and curriculum, but it will also be evident in the classroom environment and staff members’ character. Is the preschool trying to make their students good boys and girls or are they focusing on impacting the hearts of their students with God’s love? Are they addressing all things through the lens of scripture by living and teaching that ”We love because He first loved us” (1 John)?
Loving Teachers
A preschool where teachers are consistently pointing the students back to the gospel is where you want to be. We are all in need of a Savior and nothing is more valuable than for our children to learn solid truth regularly at a young age. Also, a place where the teacher is teaching to the whole student (i.e. academically, spiritually, mentally, physically); addressing the behavioral issues as valuable teaching moments and teaching them to love their neighbor as themselves (Luke 10:27). Is the teacher guiding the students in serving one another and showing them how to interact with each other in a loving way? Does obedience in the classroom flow from love? This is the gospel exemplified, that ”if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11).
Love of Learning
You want to find a preschool where learning is fun and viewed as a delight. Find a place that develops life-long learners and equips students to enjoy the calling God has for their lives. During these crucial early years, letter and number recognition along with color and shape recognition should be a part of each day. You should also see lots of books in the preschool classrooms. Quality puzzles and manipulatives should be used regularly to allow for motor skill development. A preschool is more than babysitting or quality childcare, so there should be structured learning time. However, playtime is very important for preschool-aged children, so you will want to see when and how often the students have playtime in the classroom and on the playground.
Loving Environment
A loving environment can look different to each individual based on different personalities, but some “must-haves” for a preschool would be: organization, structure, safety, discipline, peaceful, welcoming, clean and joyful. A preschool whose primary goal is loving God and equipping His children will automatically blend and overlap the above categories beautifully. In your process of finding a preschool, seek the Lord for wisdom on what is best for you and your family. Doing research on preschool websites is a valuable tool. Then schedule a tour to preview the school with and/or without your child. Have a list of questions ready when you go for your tour.
Come and see how New Covenant Preschool aims to meet these guidelines every day!
At New Covenant Preschool we assist parents in teaching and training their students to be faithful followers of Christ and daily acknowledge their need for Him. Academically, we start our students at the first level of the trivium of classical Christian education…Grammar or Pre-grammar. We are a morning program and offer 2-day (K2 only), 3-day and 5-day (K3 & K4 only) classes for K2, K3 and K4. Each classroom has a schedule they follow every day, which helps keep consistent structure to our school mornings. Class time includes learning letters, numbers, colors, shapes, motor skill development, Bible stories and memory verses and these are done through arts, crafts, manipulatives, and teaching time. We also have age-appropriate, high expectations for our students in the way they should behave while at school. As part of our commitment to the mission of New Covenant School to ”present every child complete in Christ” (Colossians 1:28), our preschool department is helping our students acquire and sharpen the skills they will need as they begin their education journey. These skills include: sitting still for long amounts of time, raising their hand to speak, walking respectfully in the hallway, loving their friends by sharing toys, loving their teachers by obeying, self-control to sit on their spot during rug time, and much more.
Click here to contact our Preschool Director, Liz Pearson, for more information or to schedule a tour. You can also learn more about our school on the New Covenant School website!
We are a morning only program; our hours are from 8:05am until 11:30am. Drop off begins at 7:40am and we offer a Late Stay program from 11:30am to 12:00pm. The Late Stay program is ideal for families with a preschooler and a half-day Kindergartener or a family who needs their preschooler to be at school 30 extra minutes. We offer 5-day classes (Monday to Friday) for K3 and K4 students. We offer 3-day classes (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) for K2, K3 and K4 students. Our only 2-day class (Tuesdays and Thursdays) is for K2. See below for more helpful information regarding our Preschool.
Some helpful links:
Parent/Student Handbook (the preschool section begins on page 41, however the whole handbook still applies to preschool families)