Why Brookstone PK?

“I’m nerve-cited mama,” my little one said to me this morning, quoting a favorite cartoon. “I’m nervous about the first grade play and I’m excited about it!” 

By first grade, my youngest daughter has already spent three wonderful years in Brookstone Lower School and has been part of at least three big class productions (not including extracurricular recitals and other events).It amazes me that she will be able to perform in two productions tomorrow morning with over a hundred audience members.

Pailin celebrating 
Christmas Around The World,
representing Iraqi children.

Brookstone is unique for many reasons but providing an education from Pre-K (now 3-K) to 12^th grade offers some excellent opportunities not found in other schools. I have two girls enrolled now, and while I can’t offer the same expertise as a parent of a senior-lifer, I can tell you that starting my kids at Brookstone in Pre-K was an important decision that helped shape their experiences thus far.

As an anxious first time parent interviewing schools 6 and ½ years ago, a big item on my education wants list was foreign language, another was a sense of community or belonging, and finally a school where my children would be academically challenged. I interviewed with half a dozen schools in our area before I decided Brookstone was where I wanted my girls to get their foundation in education.

Brookstone begins offering Spanish language courses in Pre-K, and while that wasn’t my preferred first language, I found that an early education in Spanish language prompted interested in both my husband’s native language and my second language of proficiency (plus my girls learned the basics of Georgia’s second most spoken language). And really, foreign language is only a part of the greater cultural education available at school; my daughters have a diverse group of classmates with many different language and cultural backgrounds which reflects Columbus’s growing population demographics. The foundation my children got in their first years at Brookstone inspired my oldest daughter to love (yes, LOVE) Latin and my youngest to begin speaking French!

Ankita celebrating
Christmas Around The World.
Christians in Iraq have a
child read from the bible.
A bonfire is started and
if it burns to ashes there will be
good luck in the coming year.

Community is something not to be taken for granted at Brookstone. I could write a book on the number of times our entire school has rallied around families experiencing hard times, or those that suffer a loss. Brookstone means so much more than our Lower, Intermediate, Middle and Upper schools; it’s servant leadership experiences in local non-profits, donations to nations abroad, sunshine baskets, and helping hands. Brookstone community is about honor, character, compassion, and hard work. My daughters have been participating in servant leadership week since Pre-K, they learn that giving back to the community is important. It may sound saccharine and cliché, but that’s a lesson I want them to learn. Even if my girls don’t understand the greater social impact of their time and help right now, they will grow up with a desire to do good, to help, and to improve their hometown.

Brookstone has also offered my girls the opportunity to experience healthy academic challenge.  As a parent, of course I’m convinced my kids are brilliant! I don’t want them to hit a plateau and skate through the rest of their school experience. I can honestly say that every time my children have met a challenge, their teachers have raised the bar. Whether in mathematics or reading, my children don’t want for mental stimulation.

And you know, as a bonus… my kids get on stage at a very young age. An early childhood curriculum that has elementary aged students speaking in public can help reduce the anxiety of speaking in public as an adult. I know it worked for my oldest daughter who went from barely speaking in Pre-K to an acting debut in the Upper School Musical when she was in fourth grade.

Confidence is something tremendously importance in leadership, and whether that’s built through public speaking, academic challenges, servant leadership, or cultural awareness… my kids have had it all in their years at Brookstone. ANY time you can get your kids into this school is a good time, but if you can enroll them in Pre-K, you get the benefit of continuity of curriculum, a foundation in friendship and, the benefit of extracurricular opportunities available throughout elementary and intermediate schools.