Preschoolers get a heads-up from Head Start

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA -- Hundreds of tiny tots were given a heads-up Thursday

morning as to what kindergarten will be like for them next year.

It was the annual Head Start community event to introduce the preschool

children to the wonderful world of Costa Mesa elementary schools.

Head Start is a child development program designed to meet the

educational, emotional, social and health needs of children and their

families.

“They teach about ‘don’t hit’ and ‘do nice things,’ ” said 5-year-old

Halana Martinez, who graduated from the Head Start program last year.

Halana is from one of several kindergarten classes that joined the picnic

Thursday morning. Preschoolers frolicked in Lions Park with

kindergartners from Pomona, College Park and Whittier elementary schools.

Each year in May, the two Costa Mesa Head Start centers hold a picnic in

the park with all of the preschoolers, their parents, community members

and kindergarten classes from local schools.

One of the purposes of the event is to help make the transition from

preschool to kindergarten easier for children, said Lynn Bach, the child

development supervisor of Costa Mesa Head Start.

There were also a variety of community and social services represented at

the picnic, so families will know where to get help if they need it in

the future, she added.

The program’s services are free of charge to preschool children from

low-income families.

Children who attend Head Start go into kindergarten with an advantage,

said Peggy Engard, who has taught kindergarten at Pomona for 36 years.

“If they haven’t been to Head Start, they are at a disadvantage because

their first exposure to English is probably kindergarten,” Engard said.

“We can really tell the difference with a child who has been to Head

Start.”

But Head Start does much more.

Sarah Martinez brought her children to Head Start nearly 30 years ago.

Her children’s teacher motivated her to go to college and get a degree to

work with children. Martinez is now a Head Start teacher who has been

working with children for 27 years.

“They don’t help just the child,” she said. “If your child is hungry, you

don’t focus on the child -- you focus on their hunger. But if you can

help the whole family, you can meet the child’s needs and more -- the

family’s needs.”