Great Beginnings Preschool is a ministry of Girard First United Methodist Church. We believe in offering a variety of challenging discovery and learning centers that will stimulate a child's interest and curiosity. We are interested in developing their awareness of the world around them and to build a good foundation for later learning. We are a developmental preschool, demonstrating that children
learn best by doing and by taking an active role in the learning experience. Being a ministry of the church, we are distinctly a Christian school. The atmosphere of Great Beginnings is Christian. A no time, however, will we make any attempt to prejudice a child against his/her parent's faith or beliefs. Biblical values shall be shared with then children through songs, Bible stories, everyday application stories, simple prayers, and by principles of sharing and social behavior. One of our main goals is to build up each child's self-esteem and feeling of self-worth and importance. We want the children to see themselves as special and unique. As an extension of the home, we seek to show the same type of love and care and understanding that the home offers. We recognize the parents as the primary caregivers and we would desire to be a positive supplement to the home. Through language development activities, pre-math and pre-reading activities, science, music, arts and crafts, sensory training, introduction to sign language and/or foreign language, physical education, creative play activities, cognitive development, visual and auditory discrimination lessons and by providing the environment to encourage social and personal growth, we ar attempting to build a strong foundation if or learning and a good sense if the world around them. We want the children to show an interest in the world around them and to not be afraid to make mistakes in order to learn new things. Great Beginnings desires that our preschoolers be active learners and to have a well-balanced educational experience.
