LYNN — The REAL (Reading and Educational Assistance for Learning) Program, which has installed 80 Little Free Libraries and provided family-centric after-school programs and English courses for speakers of other languages throughout the city, will open a preschool this fall.
The facility is located at a medium-sized house at 17 Atlantic St. With a gigantic purple octopus tentacle on the lawn, a yellow and blue Little Free Library out front, and a small playground out back, it is hard to miss.
Executive Director Jan Plourde said the preschool is something the program, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, has always wanted to open.
“I think that Lynn’s biggest resource is its children,” Plourde said. “If you have resources, you play to your strengths. And Lynn needs to be able to understand, to play to their strengths, and to really nurture and provide the growth and opportunities for this incredible resource.”
Plourde said the preschool will offer comprehensive literacy integration, focused language development, and engaging activities to its young students.
She said approximately 50% of children do not attend preschool before entering kindergarten, so half of the students who do enter kindergarten start learning three years before their peers.
“Kindergarten teachers in Lynn are superheroes in my opinion,” she said. “Many of them have a lot of children, many of them do not have a lot of support.”
To start, the preschool will teach 15 students in the East Lynn area. The REAL Program already serves Brickett Elementary School children with an after-school program called Before Home.
Tammie Galland will be the preschool’s director and Autumn Kane will be the lead teacher, Plourde said.
“They’re people who are dedicated to school,” she said. “They’ve had experience with a lot of different fields and they still want to be right here.”
Plourde, who teaches early education at North Shore Community College, said the REAL Program provides early-education students the opportunity to observe best practices for teaching and caring for young children.
She added that there might be opportunities for some of the NSCC students to help teach, but because the school is small, there will be limited space.
Plourde said one of the initiatives the program is working on is buying the Atlantic Street house. Currently, the program rents the space, with other tenants living above. She said if the program owned the house, it would provide more flexibility to utilize the space, and renting out the spaces above would bring in additional revenue.
She added another goal she would like to accomplish is providing NSCC students with a quiet space to go to during evenings and on Sundays.
The hope is to have somebody there as a tutor for the students, while providing a welcoming and home-like space for students, she said.
“Just sort of be in a space like you would at home because they don’t have that space at home,” Plourde said.
