WORTHINGTON -- Four weeks from today, the new Hi-Ho Nursery School will bustle with children pretending to make food in the play kitchen, building cabins with Lincoln Logs and learning the alphabet on a colorful new rug adorning the floor.
The nursery school, forced to move following last spring's retirement of Julie Kuiper, has been purchased by Worthington Christian School and now inhabits a corner of the Christian school building, located at 1770 Eleanor St. The facility will begin classes Sept. 6.
Open to children ages 3 through 5, the preschool offers classes Monday through Friday. Children, however, may attend up to three days per week, with a schedule of Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday.
Friday is an option for parents who want their children in the preschool setting for three days per week. Parents may enroll their child or children in either the morning session, from 9 to 11:25 a.m., or 12:15 to 2:45 p.m. Classes are limited to 20 children in each session.
Gloria Widboom is the Hi-Ho teacher and is assisted by Alisa Russell. Both women had children of their own attend Hi-Ho and said it was the experiences they had with the preschool that led each of them to careers in the classroom.
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"My husband went to Hi-Ho, and our boys went to Hi-Ho," said Russell, who often helped with transportation when the children went on field trips. Now, with her youngest son entering kindergarten this fall, Russell said the opening at Hi-Ho was ideal. She has five years of experience working in the preschool setting.
As for Widboom, she's been a teacher at Hi-Ho for six years, and before that spent 15 years as a substitute. She also has teaching experience in an elementary school setting.
The preschool offers children a wide variety of activities -- from free-choice activities and group play to more structured activities such as learning the days of the week, the alphabet and counting. Children are served a snack and take part in art projects. During the year, they get to meet the local DARE officer, tour the fire department and go on various outings.
Widboom, who enrolled her oldest son in Hi-Ho because she wanted him to experience interaction with other children, said that for many children, preschool is their first experience in learning to share or play with others.
"We really encourage them to be self-sufficient," Widboom said of the teaching at Hi-Ho. "They learn to hang up their own coat and bookbag."
The preschool even hosts parent-teacher conferences twice each year -- in November and March -- to discuss how the children are progressing.
Widboom and Russell are pleased with the new location at Worthington Christian School.
"What's nice is we have the gym, and we can use the playground -- that's all accessible," Russell said.
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Cindy Vogel, principal of Worthington Christian School, said that when the gym was added onto the school in 2000, board members had planned the extra room with the idea of someday opening a preschool center. Hi-Ho's need for a new location fit well with those plans, she added. Hi-Ho will have its own entrance on the north side of the school's gymnasium, making it easy for parents dropping their child off for preschool.
Hi-Ho will have access to both the gym and playground equipment, scheduling around times when the facilities would be in use by the Christian school students.
"I don't see it impacting our students," Vogel said of the addition of a preschool. "I think it will be a big benefit. A lot of the parents have been really pleased to have that service here with their other kids and also for other families looking for preschool."
Hi-Ho follows the traditional school year, offering classes from September through May. To enroll a child in the preschool, parents may call Widboom at 376-3375. An open house for families enrolling their children in Hi-Ho this year will be from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 24.
