Eureka Head Start
What four year-old wouldn't want to spend some easy hours playing with other kids, learning neat new things and getting a healthy lunch? This is what Head Start offers to children. If a child is three to five years old, their parent can submit an application now to enroll the child in the upcoming 2015-16 school year.
As the Head Start program in Eureka only takes 18 children, parents should submit their applications soon so that their child is eligible when the program begins in September. Eureka's Head Start follows the district's school calendar. In fact, the Head Start program here in the Tobacco Valley collaborates with the Eureka school district and is based in the elementary school. The goal for the program is to help young children develop social, emotional and cognitive skills necessary to succeed when they enter kindergarten. They will learn language and reading skills, math, social and emotional development, creative arts, science, and participate in physical activities. The Head Start schedule is a bit easier though the regular school day going from 9:30 - 1:30 Monday through Thursday. Besides giving the children an interesting program that develops skills, the Head Start in Eureka is also able to provide transportation for most children who attend. It offers vision, dental and hearing screenings as well. And it provides resource referral so that parents and families can get different types of support they might need at home. What's not to like about this great program? And its free. Yes, that's right - it doesn't cost a parent anything to have their child attend Head Start. To learn more about the program and to see if your child is eligible to participate, call the Head Start office in Kalispell (as they are open in the summer) at 406-752-7011.
You can also download an application online at Northwest Montana Head Start.
About the Author: Rita Collins. I am a believer in the power of community and for now I call the Tobacco Valley home. I have lived in nine states and three counties and this community here amazes me - how people reach out to neighbors and even travelers. I've never lived in a place that demonstrates people caring for each other so well. And I've never lived in a place that has such a high percentage of talented musicians and artists. I work with the the Sunburst Community Service Foundation, a nonprofit that began in Eureka twenty years ago and now serves numerous communities in western Montana. And I just started a new business, St. Rita's Amazing Traveling Bookstore and Textual Apothecary. I never could have imagined life being this exciting in my sixth decade.
