Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) and Eagles Preschool are Community Education programs that offer programming for children and their families from birth to kindergarten.

Our ECFE program held both in-person and virtual parent-child classes for families this fall. We offered four in-person sections, a virtual infant class, and our new Grab and Go bags for families not comfortable coming to the Washington Learning Center for class. In order to offer in-person classes, we limited the number of families in each class and then changed some from a 9-week session to two 5-week sessions in order to serve more families. We had 55 families take part in classes this fall! Registration for our next session of classes opened on Monday, January 10 with the first classes beginning in February.

The Grab and Go bags were a hit! Families could register for a series of five bags…one each week for two 5-week sessions. Each bag contains activities, fingerplays, and parenting information. Activities can be done at home as time allows.

Eagles Preschool was excited to maintain in-person classes this fall using pods and other safety measures to distance the students. While the rooms may look a little different due to COVID safeguards, the students have been accepting of the changes and are ready to learn and play! Students are “reading” books to each other as though they are the teacher, “writing” each other’s names, figuring out how to engineer ramps so items roll the right way, cutting play-doh with scissors to build hand muscles needed for writing, and generally, learning through play!

We are in our second year of a five-year grant from the Minnesota Department of Education to implement the Pyramid Model. Pyramid focuses on the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of our students, ensuring each student has the support needed to be a successful learner. The Eagles 3 staff are fully trained, and the Eagles 4 staff are in the process of being trained this year. As part of this program, parents will be receiving tips and information on how to continue these supports at home.

Preschool registration for the 2021-2022 school year will open on Wednesday, January 20. We offer four sections of Eagles 3 (preschool for 3 year old’s) and six sections of Eagles 4 (preschool for 4 year old’s), which means we have space for 168 preschoolers! Sliding fee scales are available. In-town, mid-day bus transportation is available for an extra fee.