Alternate School

If you are a dreamer, come in,
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer…
If you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in! Come in!
(“Invitation” by Shel Silverstein)

The Community Action Program for Children (CAPC) is a pre-school head-start program for children ages 2 - 5 from the community of Point St. Charles. This program seeks to help children acquire basic literacy, second-language and socialization skills. It also focuses on helping parents to assume their role as key educators in their children’s lives. The program offers a nutritious daily meal to children, weekly parent meetings as well as several parent-child activities throughout the school year. The program has three important components: The Parent-Child workshops; the Alternate School; and Parent Involvement

The Parent-Child workshops

The Parent-Child workshops for 2-3 year old children and their parents is a series of 20 weekly activities that introduce children to a routine in a class setting. The workshops are divided into a discussion period for the parents and free play for the children followed by a parade of homework, a word game, a fine motor skill activity, a snack, songs, gross motor skill activity and finally story time and cuddle up time. Our main goal is for the parent and the child to share fun moments together.

The Alternate School

The “Alternate School” is a preschool program 4 days a week for 3-5 year olds in a safe and fun environment where parent involvement is crucial and where children can prepare for their entry in the regular school system. We want to stimulate children so as to promote their social and emotional development as well as the development of their cognitive, fine motor, gross motor and language skills.

Parental Involvement

The program provides an opportunity for parents of the Alternate School to learn and cooperate as a team in parent meetings. The goal of these meetings is to empower parents to know that their interest and involvement matters in their child’s present and future education. It also gives them knowledge of the basic functioning of a school environment. Last but not least, parents have the opportunity to meet new people and increase their network of friends.

In both the Alternate School and in Parent-Child workshops, we try to increase parent’s knowledge about their child’s development in a safe and non judgmental environment, giving parents tools to help their child further his or her development.