Thank you for your interest in Aldersgate Christian Preschool!

Aldersgate Christian Preschool is a nondenominational Christian preschool operated as a mission of the Aldersgate United Methodist Church.  We are located on a spacious campus across the street from the Newport Way Library in Bellevue.  ACP is staffed by dedicated teachers with extensive professional training and/or experience.  ACP classes offer each child optimum learning enrichment within a nurturing, Christian environment.

PHILOSOPHY AND GOALS

At Aldersgate Christian Preschool we believe in the education of the whole child.  The ACP staff strives to promote each child's positive self-concept, to teach group responsibility and sharing skills, and to offer opportunities, which will enhance each child's educational, spiritual, emotional and physical growth.  

The Aldersgate Christian Preschool staff is committed:

1.    To nurture each child in developing and/or maintaining a positive self-concept as a child of God.

2.    To offer all children sound educational and social opportunities at an age appropriate level.

3.    To use positive reinforcement to create a warm, friendly, and well-managed learning and social environment.

4.    To promote and stress Christian values throughout the teaching and management of our program.

5.    To maintain a loving Preschool environment, that stimulates educational growth, offers a variety of learning activities, enhances social awareness and responsibilities, provides positive individual and group interaction, and promotes self-assurance.

All classes at Aldersgate Christian Preschool are planned and taught following the belief that we are all God’s children.  We believe that a child’s religious education begins in the home with the parents and is nurtured through family participation in church.  The staff of Aldersgate Christian Preschool nurtures and supports the belief in Jesus Christ as God’s son by providing a warm, caring preschool program, which fosters Christian values and beliefs.

Unlike the public schools, classes at Aldersgate Christian Preschool can celebrate the Christian holidays: Christmas and Easter.  In addition we celebrate the traditional and patriotic holidays such as Halloween/All Saints Day, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Valentine’s Day, Presidents’ Day, and St. Patrick’s Day. 

All Preschool classes are curriculum based emphasizing the developmental needs of the whole child: social, mental, physical, emotional and spiritual.  The children participate in a variety of activities during their day, including circle time, concept/story time, music, art, snack and freeplay, both indoor and outdoor.  Preschool classes for two-year-olds and three-year-olds are two days a week.  Four-year-olds have the option of a two-day or three-day per week program.  All of our ACP teachers have extensive experience working with preschool children and/or degrees in education and early childhood education.

CLASS DESCRIPTIONS AND PLACEMENT

All 2/3 Preschool classes are 2½ hour 2 day per week classes for children who are 2 years old by August 31^st and will be turning 3 during the year.  It is ACP’s policy to enroll students in only one 2/3 class – either M/W or T/Th, a four day a week option is not available at this age.

First Step (2/3) Preschool classes are for younger 2 year olds (physically and/or emotionally), Spring and Summer birthdays and /or 2’s who would do better with less structure.  (Extended day option available.)

2/3 Preschool classes are for more mature 2 year olds, Fall and Winter birthdays who can handle slightly more structure. (Extended day option available.)

3/4 Preschool classes are 2½ hour 2 day per week classes for children who are 3 years old by August 31^st and will be turning 4 during the year.  (Extended day option available.)

3/4/5 Preschool classes are a 4 hour 2 day per week mixed age class for children who are 3 and 4 years old and will be turning 4 and 5 during the year (all 3/4/5 students bring lunch from home).

Pre-K classes are for children who are at least 4 years old by August 31^st and will be turning 5 or 6 during the year.  There are 2 options for Pre-K: M/W/F  2 ½ hour per day (Extended day option available) or T/Th  4-hour per day (T/Th students bring lunch from home each day).

Children who have summer birthdays are often more appropriately placed in a younger age class (example: A child who turns 3 years old on July 5th may do better in the 2/3 class as opposed to the 3/4 class.)  This is an option for the parents to decide.

ACP does not enroll children in an older class if they miss the August 31^st cut off (example: A child who turns 2 years old on September 1^st will not be enrolled in a 2/3 class until the following year.)  There is no exception to this age requirement.  Children remain with their age grouping until the following year.  We do not move a child mid-year when his/her age changes.

There is an Extended Day option available to all children registered in the 2½-hour Preschool classes.  Extended Day is an optional hour and a half extension to the preschool day.  During this time the children will eat their home provided lunch, relax with a quiet music/story video rest time and have additional playtime with their friends.  Your child’s teacher and aide staff the extended day time.   Children may stay for extended day as often or as little as the parent desires.  Just notify the teacher on the day(s) your child is staying, and be sure to bring a lunch from home.