With the new school year approaching, many parents are searching for local preschools to send their young children. There are many factors that go into deciding on a school such as curriculum, cost, environment and the school’s philosophy. It all breaks down to which school is going to best serve its students personally and academically.
The Chinese Information and Service Center (CISC) is opening a new bilingual inter-generational preschool program at Aegis Gardens in Newcastle.
Driven by the success of the Seattle location since in 2006, CISC wanted to create more opportunities to serve the needs of immigrant children on the Eastside.
Aside from preparing children for school, the preschool strives to instill a love for lifelong learning through cultivating a bilingual, bi-cultural, inter-generational, inclusive and nurturing environment on a shared site campus with seniors.
CISC Program Director Hueiling Chan said bilingual bi-cultural development is key to young immigrant children and their families.
“I’ve seen so many families having issues when the child get older because of the cultural differences, the generational gap and peer pressure, so it creates a lot of conflict, a lot of issues with youth who are growing up here,” she said. “We felt like we can instill these strong bilingual bi-cultural identity and development when they’re young, which would become a foundation for them and would make it much easier for them to navigate all these pressures.”
The CISC Bilingual Preschool integrates HighScope learning into its curriculum — a child-centered, active participatory learning model that develops children’s decision-making skills, social emotional learning and independence.
As part of the program, seniors living in Aegis Gardens would be able to spend time with the students doing various activities, including anything from making dumplings, doing Chinese calligraphy, storytelling, and more.
Helen Wong, the Bilingual Preschool site director, said there are clear benefits to both the children and the seniors in this program.
“We see the benefit of the senior being able to pass on a lot of the traditions, values and cultures to these younger generations,” she said. “[For the seniors,] the children have become their adopted grandchildren, and for the children they have adopted grandparents now. It really helps them understand each other, especially for the younger ones as they learn about empathy for ones who may have a disability, or some limitation. For the seniors, they build a lot of tolerance toward the young ones.”
“They learn so much from each other,” Chan said.
Chan recalled a time a Seattle CISC Bilingual Preschool student demonstrated empathy toward an elderly man.
“In the mother’s mind, he is this 4-year-old who doesn’t care anybody and one time they were at the door and there was a senior walking in with a walker and he held the door for him. Even though the door was so heavy, he told his mom, ‘no, we need to stop and let him go first!’ and the mom came to us and said, ‘oh my gosh, you did such a wonderful job teaching my son!’” Chan said.
The CISC Bilingual Preschool at Aegis Gardens is currently accepting applications for the 2018-2019 school year. Visit http://cisc-seattle.org/ or contact Wong at helenw@cisc-seattle.org for more information.
