As Clarkston Community Schools go online to start the 2020-21 school year, area daycares and preschools are also making adjustments.
Lil’ Peoples’ Place has decided to run both a school-age distance/virtual learning program and a Young Fives/Kindergarten program for the fall.
“We are hoping by offering these two programs that we can relieve some stress from our current families in making this school year a little easier,” said Lil’ Peoples’ Place in a communication to the community. “This is all new uncharted territory for us, but we feel extremely confident that if we limit the number of children we service, that we can offer a program that will provide a sense of both security and success.”
The Young Fives/Kindergarten program will not follow any online platform as used in the schools but will be implementing its own curriculum with the guidance in requirements that the Clarkston school district would follow.
“Our goal is to have a small class size, which will allow for maximum face-to-face learning,” Lil’ Peoples’ Place said. “We will complete three assessments throughout the school year to ensure the children are succeeding and on track. We will be offering both full-time and part-time for this program. We are asking that you give us a full-year commitment, as we will have to staff appropriately.”
Lil’ Peoples’ Place’s school-age distance/virtual learning program will provide the schedule, curriculum, and classroom set-up to ensure that staff can assist in the guidance of online learning through CCS. The schedule will follow their platform of logging in daily on each child’s personal tablets from 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
“We will have dedicated support from our caring teachers and staff, who will assist in the whole process of logging in, having the correct materials needed for the day, and following the daily schedule of each child,” reads the communication. “We will ask that each child bring in personal tablets provided by the schools, headphones, a personal pencil box (labeled with your child’s name) with No. 2 pencils, an eraser, a pencil sharpener, a glue stick, a bottle of glue, a box of crayons, a box of washable markers, and hand sanitizer. We will have assigned seats and cubbies for each child in the classrooms.
“The children will be sectioned off by table partitions and we will continue following our COVID-19 health and safety procedures as recommended by the CDC. We will be limiting the number of students we will enroll in each program.”
Lil’ Peoples’ Place is located at 6475 Waldon Center Drive.
The Acorn KinderHouse will return to in-person school on September 8 as the school continues to move to a 90 percent outside classroom experience for the preschool and Golden Acorns (Jr. K/Young Fives) programs.
“We have always spent over 50 percent of our time outside” said Abigail Lee-Wright, lead teacher. “So transitioning outside for classes was an easy decision to make. We will be outside for as long as the weather permits utilizing our expansive outdoor space, garden and woods.”
Outdoor work spaces and increased shade structures are being created, a hand washing station, tents, and individual storage for each child have been obtained, and the teachers have developed creative ways to social distance during group activities.
Everything can be done outside from painting, handwork, circle time, world language, story time, snack, nature study, and, of course, free play.
When inside, the limited class size is beneficial to maintaining COVID-19 safety standards without becoming burdensome to the children. COVID-19 policies and procedures are all based on the school’s commitment to surround the children with a safe, worry-free, and creative place to learn, freely express their developing imaginations and grow. The COVID-19 policies are also in keeping with Oakland County and the State of Michigan guidelines while still maintaining what is developmentally appropriate for the children in the program. 
The Acorn KinderHouse utilizes a Waldorf curriculum, meaning it was already posed to embrace the move out fully into nature. 
“Most children in America don’t spend large chunks of their day catching butterflies and exploring tracks in the snow, but Waldorf Education believes that this is an important part of the young child’s development,” said Lee-Wright.
“We live in a nation that spends more and more of its time indoors in front of screens. Why is it odd for 3, 4 and 5-year-olds to spend the bulk of their time outside? When did America decide that preschool should take place predominantly within classroom walls?
“At the KinderHouse, we teach letters and numbers outside with practical activities that apply to a child’s life in the here and now.”
Acorn KinderHouse is located on the grounds of the Sashabaw Presbyterian Church in Clarkston.

— Matt Mackinder