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Community Corner

Christ Lutheran Church Throws Moving-Up Ceremony for Two-Year-Old "Little Sprouts"

After the graduation, both tikes and parents were reluctant to say goodbye.

The walls of Christ Lutheran Church’s Epiphany Room reverberated with song Friday morning when the “Little Sprouts” program’s two-year-old graduating class put on a show for the proud audience of parents and teachers in attendance for the children’s Moving-Up Ceremony.

Twenty-six tots displayed the artistic skills they have cultivated over the program’s October-May term by showing off some painted bear cutouts complete with glitter and stickers.  Their musical prowess was relayed in the form of singing and moving along to the songs “Skinnamarink,” “Teddy Bear,” “The Bear Went Over the Mountain,” and “Rock-A-Bye Your Bear.”

If you haven’t guessed yet, the theme of the ceremony was bears.

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“We like to come up with different themes for each week,” teacher Dorienne Moser said of the curriculum that includes “art, playing, story time, musical and movement activities.”

Although the three-year-veteran admitted she enjoys watching the children transition from coming in with their parents to being independent and “still coming into class with a smile,” she does have reservations about the exercises involving coloring, painting and using Play-Doh.

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“You can’t really get a manicure after that!” she joked.

“The curriculum was wonderful,” said pleased parent Soo Yeon Park. “I am glad they mixed education with fun because at that two-year-old age, they tend to get bored otherwise.”

The two-year-old arm of the “Little Sprouts” program - which also includes three-year-old and four-year-old branches - has been in effect for seven years and features separate groups of 10 children split up by day and time.  Parents have the option of enrolling their kids into Monday/Wednesday classes, Tuesday/Thursday classes, Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes or even a Monday-Friday class.  The two-hour-long sessions were formerly conducted exclusively in the mornings but, as of last year, afternoon classes are being offered as well.

“My children loved it,” Park continued. “I have a girl in the two-year-old program and a boy in four-year-old program and they want to sleep-over.”

“The teachers are warm, loving and they teach the kids so beautifully in a nurturing environment,” added Lisa Frey, also mother of a two and four-year-old. “I had the option of sending my four-year-old to public school but chose this place after walking in off the street and meeting the teachers.”

It is a decision she is thankful of making as her children “have made nice friends and so have I.”

Although “Little Sprouts” does not formally begin again until October, Christ Lutheran Church holds a summer camp starting June 21.

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