Expert article #2

On March 13, 2020, we temporarily closed our doors to the families of MILE Preschool due to the pandemic. It was one of the hardest decisions we made after 15 years of ongoing service and quality preschool to our families as MILE Preschool. However, once we made that announcement to close on that Friday afternoon, the head teachers of our 5 MILE Preschool locations worked diligently on providing a virtual platform for all their students by Monday, March 16th! We never skipped a beat and provided the smoothest transition possible for these children whose worlds changed overnight!  Over 100 MILE Preschool students were given a Google doc that were filled with daily live recordings from their head teacher.  Each day, they were provided with 2 projects, 2 circle times and an extra link to supplement the unit of the month.  The students received project packets delivered to their doorsteps so they could create artwork and individual masterpieces alongside their teacher on this virtual platform. For 3 months, we provided a 100% distant learning of age appropriate activities and instruction to each student as we modified our outdoor setting to meet the safety protocols and modifications for reopening. We never stopped providing videos even during our Spring Break, as our goal was to provide consistency and reliability for our students who were stuck at home.

Finally, on May 16th, we re-opened our doors with a whole new approach of utilizing our outdoor area and created a fully functioning outdoor classroom to provide the safest environment for the children and teachers. During 2020, we learned so many valuable lessons from this pandemic. But the most important was to LISTEN intentionally and equally to all our families.  We LISTENED as they expressed their needs, concerns, anxiety and confusion.  We LISTENED to every story and situation as each one was different from the others.  For this reason, MILE Preschool provided several options such as in person, virtual, and hybrid. We offered 100% outdoor classroom, small group rotations, and even hired more teachers for sanitation and safety of the indoor/outdoor classroom.  After a year of accommodations, we have no regrets and will continue to serve our families based on the needs of each child. 

As the pandemic continues, our professional growth ignites a new passion and our desire to help the children of the community increases.  One of the MILE owners returned back to college to get her Master’s degree in Applied Behavior Analysis. She wants to better understand the behavior of our children and develop treatment plans to help improve the communication and behavior skills necessary for success in their personal lives.  During our monthly virtual staff meetings, she shares with our teachers about how behaviors elicit emotions within us and how it has everything to do with our environment. Each meeting, she dives deeper into the basic 4 functions of our behavior.  Does the child act this way to gain sensory stimulation? Does the child behave this way to gain access to attention or a tangible item? Does the child act this way to escape sensory stimulation? Does the child act this way to escape an aversive event?  We also share our behavior observation reports so we can understand the behavior and functions of our students. Another owner is now being trained in the Barton intervention program which is an intense multi-sensory method used to teach reading to students that struggle with reading and spelling. All the MILE Preschool teachers continue to work on the teaching pyramid module for the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning offered by Quality Count. Our professional growth within MILE Preschool is so important due to the anxiety driven by this pandemic.

In addition to professional growth goals, each MILE teacher has a specific focus word for 2021.  We spend time communicating our monthly self-care strategies and keep each other accountable by checking in and asking each other reflecting questions every 2 weeks.  Our latest mental care question is “What strategies do you use to decompress after a teaching day?” With this question, it generated answers from locking oneself in the closet to drinking a cup of tea and relaxing. The most popular answer was going for a walk and exercising.  So as we give ourselves to the children of MILE Preschool, we also slowly become experts to our mental and emotional wellbeing by LISTENING to our temple, heart and spirit. Our MILE Preschool word for 2021 is LISTEN and we shall continue to do this daily.    

Southport Expert Contributor Article

Fourteen years ago we started on a quest to find a quality preschool in the Southport area and couldn’t find one that would enrich our children socially, emotionally, and cognitively.  The idea came in a dream to start our own preschool and the seed was planted in our hearts forever more.

We wanted to build a program and environment that would build on the individual strengths of each child.  Over the years we have adapted a myriad of effective curriculums to Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence.  Gardner believed that every person possesses 9 different intelligences (nature smart, music smart, number/reasoning smart, life smart, people smart, body smart, word/letter smart, self/intra-personal smart, picture/spatial smart).  Through fun activities and enrichment we are constantly exposing the children in our programs to these nine different areas of their intelligence.

The results were astounding and what we have found is that the children use the confidence in their strengths to persevere and build work tolerance in the areas of intelligence that are not as interesting to them.  It was through these moments of observation that we realized we have the honor of laying foundations not just in cognitive learning but also in life skills.  Perseverance is a learned skill that will serve a child for life. 

Serving the children and families of our community is truly a passion of ours and as we have grown as individuals we have incorporated our new found wisdom into our programs and our teaching.  We have learned along side our students and families the importance of establishing an emotional vocabulary, affirming our feelings, and having solutions in place to move through our emotions.  If the goal is to continually grow as individuals we must learn to let our emotions flow through us and not become stuck in them. 

Our logo is a tree because it represents so much of what we hope to help establish in our community.  The roots represent the strong foundations that we work to foster, the trunk represents the strength and perseverance that we each possess, and the branches represent endless growth and potential.  The MILE tree represents not only what we wish for each child and family in our community but for our corporate body as well.

Fourteen years of learning and growing has enabled us to recently branch out and start offering parent workshops, some child development blogs are coming, and what we are most excited about is our new afterschool program that will serve children kindergarten through 6th grade.  Until recently our children aged out of our preschool programs at Kindergarten and the new acquisition of the Bounce Spot will enable us continue to be a daily part of the children’s lives through 6th grade.  Our excitement lies in the fact that some of those children will find their passion for teaching and learning and will become mentors to the next generation of MILE students.  

The Experts

Pioneering with Adaptability

What does it mean to become an expert or master in a given field?

It takes 10,000 hours of practice according to the author of the best selling book, Outliers by Malcom Gladwell.  He considers the key to success is simply a matter of practicing a specific field/task with 20 hours of work a week for 10 years. By this definition, MILE Preschool has become an expert in its field as we have spent countless hours practicing and gaining extensive knowledge through the years.

The roots of MILE Preschool started in 2004 as a home based preschool with 3 paying customers. In 2005, we took part in the Universal Preschool for West Sacramento (UP4WS program) which connected families to high quality early learning opportunities from those who meet quality standards.  It was such an amazing 1st step to our journey as MILE Preschool.  We were the pioneers that pushed boundaries to advance an idea of developing a multiple intelligence curriculum into the homes of qualified teachers. In 2006, we became a preschool with 2 locations that taught under the MILE Preschool philosphy. By 2010, we grew into our 3rd location with 6 different programs that focused on age groups! During the next 2 years, we established an extended care program which was an expansion to our morning preschool hours. Many programs at this time were only full day or part time.  But with this extended care option, we pioneered the concept of extending our time with the children for our families.  We then adapted and opened our doors to an afterschool program which gave us more time with the alumni students of MILE Preschool.  In late 2013, MILE Preschool opened up their first full day center in a church, located in South Sacramento.  However, our hearts remained in our community so we closed our center in 2017 to open up our 4th location in West Sacramento.   By 2019, there was a total of five locations that offered a multiple intelligence experience to our community! Presently, with COVID-19, we are now offering a virtual classroom and learning hubs for Kindergarten – 2nd grade, in addition to our morning programs.

 

Pioneering and adaptations are the traits that are rooted in MILE Preschool. Through the years, we adapted our programs to meet the needs of our community. In 2014, all MILE Preschool teachers became certified from the Center of Social & Emotional Foundations for Early Learners.  As teachers, we learned so many strategies to adapt to change through this resource.  Oftentimes, we reference practical strategies that parents can use during this pandemic.  Scripted stories for social situations help children (and adults) understand social interactions/situations, expectations, unfamiliar activities, and/or social rules. MILE Preschool loves to reference the Superfriend story about when you feel frustrated or angry, you need to STOP, THINK and DO. So let’s practice this strategy now: When you feel frustrated, take 2 deep breaths and say “I can go with the flow”  If I am still having a hard time, I can ask for help. “Can you help me please?” Just like children, during this pandemic, when given information that helps us understand the expectations of a situation, our behavior within the problem is reduced or minimized.  MILE Preschool loves to let our programs flow naturally and our resilience in life makes us grow stronger as we embrace the change and manage challenges in positive ways. We have pioneered numerous different programs and adapted to the needs of the community for the past 16 years.

During the pandemic, we had to STOP, then we had to THINK about ways to help our community and we DELIVERED by expanding our boundaries.  Becoming more flexible and having a positive frame of mind about our brand new virtual platform called “Our MILE Friends At Home” has become very reassuring. Screen time is limited because we offer engaging circle time with the objective of the day including music & movement. There are 2 projects per day where they get to view a teacher engaging in auditory and visual directions before they disconnect from their screen to create their own masterpiece.  The world is different and with our variety of programs and our new virtual classrooms, we can lead MILE Preschool as an activator of change rather than a reactionary agent.  Knowing what is important to MILE Preschool gives purpose and sets the direction for all the children that are unable to attend a live preschool program.  With this newfound purpose and meaning within our program, it provides us with courage to step out of our comfort zone to provide greater opportunities to the children of our community.

2020-2021 MILE Preschool Open House Tour Information

Hello families!

Below you will find information for the MILE Preschool Open House Tour for the 2020-2021 school year. Also, please go to our downloads section on the top right of our website to find updated pricing information and a new Open House Tour flyer! Thank you!

OPEN ENROLLMENT for

2020-2021 SCHOOL YEAR

Saturday, March 7th

September 2ND IS BIRTHDAY CUTOFF

2-3 PRESCHOOL @MILE III- 3315 Malcolm Island

Tours are between

8:00 am – 9:00 am

Full time 3-4 year old program @ MILE IV- 3775 Caistic Court

Tours are between

9:00 – 10:00 am

3-4 PRESCHOOL @ MILE II-3890 Silverwood

Tours are between

10:00 am – 11:00 am

Stonegate full time program @ MILE V-1744 Chinook Road

Tours are between

11:00 am – 12:00 am

 

AM and PM PRE-Kindergarten @ MILE I- 3885 Silverwood

Tours are between

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

 

West Sacramento State of City Address

On May 3rd,  MILE Preschool was honored to be a part of the West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon annual State of the City address!

This year, the Mayor highlighted the West Sacramento Home Run initiative, our city's signature workforce development initiative and the role that high quality early learning, as well as the other programs play in the initiatives success. He recognized the role that teachers and high quality early learning providers play in maintaining and growing high quality early learning environments across the city and the role of high quality early learning as part of the "1st base" of the West Sacramento Home Run.

MILE Preschool  was recognized as one of the 5 Home Run certified preschool! Watch this video to find out more about the Home Run initiative:

Now that you know your child is part of  1st base for the new Home Run initiative, you will receive a $50 seed deposit in their new city-sponsored college savings account!! Go to wshomerun.com to establish an account. 

Please note that this was just launched as of yesterday, May 3rd so the website may not have the information needed so please be patient.

After your child graduates from MILE Preschool, he/she will go the 2nd base which is INTERNSHIPS & DIGITAL BADGES. This base is for high school juniors and seniors enrolled in a high school in the WUSD. 

Then 3rd base is the COLLEGE PROMIS & SCHOLARSHIP.  All WUSD graduating seniors will be eligible for up to one year of free tuition at Sacramento City College campus and a points (badges based) scholarship of up to $1,000 for college related expenses!!!

Lastly, 4th base is a paid internship with one of the businesses in West Sacramento!!!

The HOME RUN initiative encourages the children to be raised as leaders AND to stay here in West Sacramento!! In doing so, it creates the best place to raise a family, access quality education and find quality talent within our community!!

This HOME RUN initiative is all COMMUNITY BASED which is what MILE Preschool has always been called to do for our children!!! We are so excited as past alumni students who have followed the Home Run path could benefit from this!!!! YAY!!!