Ten FAQ’s about Learning Bug Preschool

What is your Philosophy, and how does it help support the curriculum?

Learning Bug Preschool is a Reggio Inspired educational program. Children will be introduced to diverse cultures through educational units, food, music, language, and students backgrounds. We are an inclusive classroom. Toys and printed material will reflect many ethnicities and cultural diversity. Children are active learners who learn best from activities that they plan, carry out, and reflect on. We set up intentional play activities and explorations that meet the needs of individual students. We provide high quality instruction, and care for every student who comes into our classroom. We intentionally plan, and organize the classroom so students have the opportunity to develop in the areas of social/emotional, language, literacy, math, science, creative arts, fine motor, and gross motor. It is our goal for students to develop the dispositions and skills to become lifelong learners, and be successful in both kindergarten and their personal life (socially and academically).

Conflict resolution and discipline: How is the behavior handled?

At Learning Bug Preschool, we practice natural and logical consequences for behavior management. We give the children choices to help avoid power struggles. Children are allowed to have input on their choices. We have combined two different visual methods to aid in these choices. These include; red and green choices, and fill your bucket. Children earn warm fuzzies for following our 6 classroom “Bees”. We focus on praising children for good behavior and redirect negative behavior. We have no time out area in our classroom. Children can choose to sit out of activities until they are ready to join us. There is no time limit and no specific space in our classroom that is for “time outs”. If a child is being excessively disruptive and every method to redirect the behavior is exhausted, a call to mom and dad may be required. Sometimes you may see a heart stamp on their hand. This means they were missing you and they needed a “kiss” from you (“The kissing hand” book).

Teacher to student ratio: How many teachers per student?

We have 2-3 teachers in our preschool classroom. We are limited by the state of Michigan for enrollment of fourteen children with two teachers. Children are split into groups and assigned a key teacher who is in charge of that group of 5-7 children. Low ratio allows your child’s teacher to focus on the goals of the classroom, and individualize the curriculum. We like to keep our ratio low to allow for the children to get the most out of our program.

Technology and screen time: Is technology used?

We use iPads in our classroom. Children are restricted to educational iPad time that is an extension of our unit study. The children are limited to 15 minutes twice a week with the iPads. We use Osmo little genius, square panda, and handwriting with out tears. All of the apps we use are interactive (children can manipulate the material used with these systems).

Family involvement: How are families involved at Learning Bug Preschool?

Families are welcomed at any time in our classroom with notice. When a parent is in the classroom they will be responsible for their child’s care and never the care of the other children. We love volunteers, so if you have a special talent and like to share with our classroom, please sign up for a volunteer day

Other ways we include families in our classroom is that we keep a family photo on our family tree, and we include each child’s culture and language in our curriculum.

Hours and schedule: What is drop off and pick up time like?

Drop off: School starts at 8 am. Please respect our routine and learning time by not dropping off your child after 8:30 am. Parents will use the brightwheel app log in to to scan the QR code on the gate to electronically sign their child into school. Please ring the door bell, and staff will come to the door to welcome your child to school and assist with any winter/rain gear. Please keep drop off short so your child has an easy drop off.

Pick up: Using your Brightwheel app, please scan the QR code on the gate to sign your child out of school and ring the door bell on the gate to let us know you are here. Please be aware of the train and avoid crossing the tracks. See the parent handbook explaining our late pick up policy.

Half day or early pick up: Pick up is the same as listed above with the exception of a 11:45-12pm pick up time. If your child is enrolled in our half day program, please pick up your child between 11:45am-12pm. Please be respectful of our routine and be on time. If you are late for any reason, you will be billed for a late pick up and it will be due on your next tuition payment. Please see your parent handbook for more information about our late pick up policy.

Meals and snack

Learning Bug Preschool will provide breakfast, and afternoon snack. Parents are responsible for packing a cold lunch Monday through Friday using a waste free lunch kit. Our menu is available on our website. If your child is a picky eater and does not like our menu, please feel free to pack additional food for them. We try very hard to get each child to eat a balanced diet at school.

Vacation and Sick Policy

Families are responsible for paying tuition for their child’s enrollment not attendance. Learning Bug preschool schedules breaks around major holidays at no cost to the families. If you need to take additional time off, you will still submit tuition for any vacation days you take off. Sick days: when your child is sick, please keep them at home so it does not spread to the rest of the children. We will do our best to prevent children with symptoms from sharing their germs with other students by cleaning, and washing hands. If your child misses school due to illness, you will not be reimbursed for missed days due to illness. Please see the parent handbook for our illness and COVID policy.

Payment and Tuition: What are your rates? When is it due, and how do I pay?

Please reference our calendar and schedule that is posted to our website. Tuition is due on the first of each month for that month. Tuition is based upon how many days the school is scheduled to be open, and tuition is based on enrollment status, not attendance. Tuition ranges between $110.00 and $250.00 per week. Please see our current tuition rates under the enrollment tab on our website. You will submit your child’s tuition using Brightwheel. See parent handbook for further details explaining this process.

Enrollment: How do I enroll my child?

After you tour our classroom, parents can secure their child’s placement by placing a non-refundable $100.00 enrollment fee, first week’s tuition, and select a start date no further than two weeks out (with exception of fall enrollment). Children may start school on a Monday so they can be introduced to our lesson for the week without missing anything. Each child needs to have a current physical, and emergency card on file (see forms tab on our website for these forms), all release forms filled out, and parents agreement form in the parent handbook.