The Headstart program has been helping children and parents for a long time. The teachers at Headstart, like Kuko Means, teach the children to develop age-appropriate skills. Keeping in contact with kindergarten teachers at local schools helps to keep the teachers and kids on track. Means has been teaching at Headstart for ten years. She wanted to do social work, but started working at Headstart because it is like social work in that it works with whole families. Headstart is a daycare for parents who go to school. It is located on the Yuba College campus near the police station. All families qualify and nobody will be turned away, except when Headstart is full. Priority applications are for students that are carrying 12 units, and those who are training andor working. “We offer social services, education, health nutrition and parent involvement,” Means said. Patricia Schweitzer, another teacher at Headstart, says that they teach skills but they also take care of the children’s emotional well-being. “We promote their self-esteem, encourage them to be self-sufficient, prepare them for school by teaching them motor skills, cognitive development. We teach them to take charge and share,” said Schweitzer. Means and Schweitzer also love working with children and enjoy seeing the kids’ faces light up when they have grasped something. The teachers are very creative in trying to make learning fun, playing music and teaching songs that make the children want to learn, like the ABC song. You can contact Sue Johnson of the Headstart program at (530) 743-8486 for additional information about the program or to enroll your child in Headstart.
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