The start of school is a rite of passage for young children. They move from being a b-a-b-y to becoming big enough to go to school.

The Pequot Lakes Community Education Family Center on West Lake Street, across the street from the Echo newspaper office, is the place where this transition to s-c-h-o-o-l begins for 80 children currently enrolled in the School Readiness program.

The School Readiness teachers (April Kinney, Patty Durham and Julie Benson) lead 4- and 5-year-old children in class lessons twice a week. Class sessions run for 2 and a half hours a day. These students are one year from beginning Kindergarten - this group will start Kindergarten in fall 2008 and will be the graduating Class of 2021.

The Pequot Lakes School Readiness program also offers cooperative instruction with Early Childhood Special Education taught by Kathy Saxvold, Head Start taught by Diane Boike and AmeriCorps Literacy services led by Marie Williams.

The Pequot Lakes School Readiness teachers have been working for the past two years on formalizing the School Readiness curriculum to meet the Minnesota Department of Education instructional standards known as Indicators of Progress for 3- to 5-year-olds.

There are six domains of learning and 98 Indicators of Progress on the list. The Indicators of Progress are NOT entrance requirements for kindergarten. They are skills that all students will need to acquire to be a successful learner throughout their schooling.

The learning domains for School Readiness are: Social and Emotional Development, Approaches to Learning, Language and Literacy Development, Creativity and the Arts, Cognitive Development, and Physical and Motor Development.

Many skills will be assesed by the teachers as being "in progress" when the students are in School Readiness.

The learning domain skills are important ones that are valuable throughout the school years of each individual.

The Pequot Lakes kindergarten teachers have been working with the School Readiness teachers and the Early Childhood Coalition for Pequot Lakes, Breezy Point and Crosslake to promote effective transitions to kindergarten through a series of "Ready - Set - Go" discussions with area early childhood programs (preschools, child-care centers and family child-care providers).

The major skills set that children need to boost for success in kindergarten have been found to be the Social Emotional Development. Area early childhood programs have agreed to focus on building skills in these areas.

Do you remember learning to line up single file? How hard was it to learn to sit quietly while the teacher gave the directions? Were you able to share your playthings? Can you take turns?

Yes, most of us benefit from using good social emotional skills every day. Where did you learn the cooperative skills that you have? Perhaps you, too, were able to begin the process with an early education program like School Readiness.

Check out the School Readiness program vocabulary list.

T-R-A-N-S-I-T-I-O-N - the process of change or growth.

E-X-P-A-N-D-I-N-G - planning to offer School Readiness in Crosslake for the 2008-2009 school year.

E-N-C-O-U-R-A-G-E - the enthusiasm/curiosity of young children.

C-O-O-R-D-I-N-A-T-O-R - the person to call to sign up for School Readiness is Sarah Tabaka, Early Childhood coordinator, at (218) 568-9224.

E-X-C-I-T-E-M-E-N-T - the feeling you get when you learn something new.