EARLY LEARNING ACADEMY
The Early Learning Academy of LCA meets or exceeds the Indiana Early Learning Foundations in every area of concentration. Our well-established program incorporates a best-practice curriculum and developmentally appropriate activities that engage the whole child and offer a nurturing environment that challenges and supports young children within a Biblical worldview.
Our Early Learning Academy offers a quality experience that is unique to Kosciusko County in a calendar year and full-day schedules, academic and curriculum content, and overall excellence in staff, resources, and parent/teacher communication.
All of these components make the Early Learning Academy of LCA a valuable investment for families with young children.
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The Early Learning Academy has added more teachers to offer additional preschool classes with a lower teacher/aide/student ratio in order to bring a richer academic rigor and culture to the program.
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The Early Learning Academy has a custom-built weekly STEAM curriculum for both PS3 and Pre-K.
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The Early Learning Academy has a custom-built movement maze based on the Minds in Motion program for both PS3 and Pre-K.
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The number of school days in the early learning program will match the all-school calendar.
Tuition prices are based on a fair-market value reflective of the quality of our professional teachers, researched-based and relevant curriculum, and appropriate teacher/child ratio classrooms.
The Early Learning Academy is a well-recognized yet growing early learning center that is continuously implementing best practices and updated research to ensure the best early childhood experience for children in the area. For any questions, please email Angie Lambert, the Early Learning Academy Director, at alambert@lcacougars.org
PRESCHOOL 3
Our students are introduced to basic concepts such as shapes, colors, letters, counting, and exploring their world through play. More advanced concepts including sorting, patterning, sequencing, and recognizing letters are introduced starting at age three. Creative art projects fuel the child’s imagination while developing important fine motor skills. Music and movement, combined with free and organized play give growing children healthy physical activity they need. This is when children start to understand routines and schedules and develop friendships.
Day and Time Options
2 Day Schedule (Tuesday & Thursday)
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Half Day: 8:15am - 11:30am
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Full Day: 8:15am - 3:15pm
5 Day Full Day
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Full Day: 8:15am - 3:15pm
Cub Care (after-school care) is offered daily from 6:30 am - 5:30 pm Monday through Friday for an additional daily fee.
PRE-K
We encourage a child’s creativity with more complex art activities and materials. Their mathematical thinking is expanded through sorting, grouping, patterning, and estimating. Children will learn upper and lower case letters as well as specific letter sounds. Advanced motor skills like skipping, hopping, balancing, catching are reinforced through outdoor play and a daily movement maze. At this age, children begin to engage in cooperative play and are becoming more independent.
Day and Time Options
3 Day Schedule (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
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Half Day: 8:15am - 11:30am
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Full Day: 8:15am - 3:15pm
5 Day Full Day
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Full Day: 8:15am - 3:15pm
MEET THE EARLY LEARNING STAFF
Angie Lambert
Angie Lambert has a degree in Early Childhood Education from Indiana Wesleyan University. She has been teaching in the early learning classroom for over 9 years with experience writing curriculum and organizing children’s musicals for over 20 years. Angie’s passion is music, party planning, children’s books, and teaching. She went to college straight out of high school pursuing her degree in Manual Communications to become an interpreter for the Deaf but after getting married and staying home to raise her children, she went back to school to pursue her teaching degree after subbing in a preschool classroom and realizing her passion for the early learning classroom!
Being in the preschool classroom and helping other preschool teachers impart to little ones brings joy to Angie! She loves seeing children try and learn new skills all while their heart is filled with joy and happiness as childhood should ensue! One of Angie’s fondest memories is of a little boy who came to school one morning showing her his running shoes. “Mrs. Angie, look at my fast shoes! They’re my Mikies! And I’ve had them for years.” He was 3 years old at the time. 😊
Carly Morales
Carly Morales is passionate about teaching Pre-K and considers it her dream job! She met her husband at Grace College where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. She had planned to go into medicine, but after starting a family and watching her daughter grow and develop as a toddler, she fell in love with early learning. She has two daughters and a son who bring her joy daily!
Carly has experience supporting children’s ministry programs and writing sensory play curriculum for early learning classes and has been active in the preschool classroom for more than 5 years.
Carly couples her love of science with early learning as she is a crucial part of the development of the LCA Preschool STEAM program. One of Carly’s favorite things is helping 3 and 4-year-olds embrace their curiosity and channel it to explore the world God made for us! Teaching them to say big science words like “reaction” and “density” and then hearing them use them while they are playing together is pretty great, too!
Monica Eshleman
Miss Eshleman graduated from Bluffton University in Ohio, with a Bachelors degree in Early Childhood Education. She has been teaching for four years in both public and private settings. Some of her passions include singing, crafting, and sound booth technology. Her quiet and gentle spirit make her a warm and safe place for preschool students to join a nurturing classroom setting for the first time. Her love of music and hands-on activities make for an interactive classroom that puts best-practice early learning into an experience that is impactful!
Miss Eshleman chose education because she wanted to be a teacher who made learning exciting, just like the teachers she had in elementary school did for her. One of her favorite memories from teaching is watching her students take what they have been taught and teach it to others. She remembers a particular student who took a toy from another student. This student who had their toy taken away responded, “You have to ask!” The students used their self-regulation skills that had been modeled in class to problem-solve and collaborate!
Bri Hickman
Bri Hickman has a Bachelors degree from Olivet Nazarene University and has been involved with Early Childhood Education for 7 years. She is passionate about teaching children the beauty of God’s love! Having been a part of Christian Schools for most of her life, she understands the importance of the foundational effect of a Christian education. She enjoys seeing the children have light bulb moments of learning how something works, seeing words that start with certain letters, or even realizing they can do something all by themselves. One of Bri’s favorite memories from the classroom is when one of her students, who was 3 at the time came up to her and said, “Jesus, the one who died on the cross for me and lives in heaven. He is my best friend!”
She and her husband are co-pastors of a local church and have lived in Warsaw for a year and a half. Bri is passionate about Jesus, music, nature, adventure, coffee, and the Detroit Tigers! You can almost always catch her whistling, smiling, or humming away!
Kristen Roth
Kristen Roth is a licensed early childhood teacher with over 10 years of classroom experience. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from The University of Texas at Tyler and is certified to teach any subject in Pre-K through 8th grade, P.E., and English as a Second Language. Prior to teaching pre-k, she taught kindergarten and first grade in both Texas and Indiana.
Kristen was a biology major in college for 3 years before switching to education. She felt the calling to change her major after spending time working with children through camps sponsored by her collegiate dance team.
Kristen’s favorite teaching moments include when she is able to see skills learned in the classroom applied to real-life situations. Getting to witness students pray together or write notes to each other is more rewarding than anything else in the world to her.
Kristen is passionate about cooking for family and friends, Dateline documentaries, Dallas Cowboys football, and traveling to warm places - especially the beach or anywhere in Texas!
