By Julie Slama | [email protected]

Grace Lutheran School opened its doors this year to two-year-old preschoolers, offering enriching activities to fill their day.

The day is not only filled with finger painting and Play-Doh, but also with books, puzzles, songs, and a set liberal arts curriculum.

“We use our faith curriculum through Concordia Publishing House for Bible stories that are geared toward two-year-olds,” school principal Shelly Davis said. “We go through literacy and numeracy. We have our STEM program which goes through our preschool so even the littles are in building and creating and engineering, coming up with their own little design. They’re just having a great time.”

If that’s not enough, the two-year-olds also have P.E. time where they have activities such as crawling through tunnels or playing with a parachute, she said.

And then, there’s nap time. 

In between activities, items are sanitized and cleaned as part of the precautions against COVID-19, Davis said.

“Right now, it’s super easy. They’re playing, we’re wiping. We only have nine kids enrolled,” she said.

However, there are openings available for five additional students, with the hours, included extended before and after-school care, being from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Those interested can call the school for enrollment information.

Davis said that when the school opened, it offered small classes for preschool three-year-olds through eighth grade, which this year’s enrollment totals about 90 students. Every year, they talked about adding two-year-olds and it was decided about two years ago, that would be the year. Then, COVID-19 hit, and the opening was delayed until this year.

“I’m so glad they’re here,” she said. “We are a school where we care for children, the whole child, emotionally, socially, academically, and of course, spiritually. We are going to love them in ‘loco parentis,’ a phrase we use in Lutheran education—we are in place of the parents while they are here with us. So, we love them, care for them, guide them while they’re in our care.”