With close to half of the state’s children ages 3 to 5 enrolled in preschool and childcare, choosing a place can be downright confusing. Most parents agree that preschool helps their child learn how to get along well with others, and they hope that a program will build basic academic skills needed for kindergarten. And in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District, the pressure to prepare children for a notoriously aggressive academic program can feel overwhelming.
That philosophy is one of the main reasons parents in Danville continue to choose Diablo Hills, a preschool that just celebrated its 25th anniversary Feb. 9.
Mary Bengtson and her husband Dave left Dallas, Texas, a quarter of a century ago and moved to Danville when Dave was promoted in his job with Southern Pacific. Mary worked at another preschool and found that many times her ideas of how to teach children differed. With her husband, and colleague Sherrie Fredrickson, (who is still working as a preschool teacher at Diablo Hills) she opened up her own school, originally in a location behind Golden Skate. That first year there was a waiting list of more than 250.
Shortly after that, in 1981, they purchased the country farmhouse in Danville and began to live out a dream – providing quality care with a focus on including families in their vision.
“This was a family house before we bought it – the previous owners wanted the property to go to a family and were ecstatic to know that it would continue to have children running about,” said Mary Bengtson.
“The success of our school is how we treat parents, children and staff – like family,” Benstson said. “We don’t have a high turnover like other schools and we’re very proud of that.”
Thousands of children have been touched over the years and some return to teach and enroll their own children starting a second generation. Mary and Dave’s own children, Angie and Bryan, grew up helping to cook, teach and clean at the preschool. Bryan is now a practicing attorney in Walnut Creek. And Angie, after earning a degree in child development from Davis, earning her MBA from St. Mary’s College, and working in a consulting practice for many years, is now the director of programs at Diablo Hills Country School and plans to enroll her own 1-year-old daughter next year.
This unique husband-wife-family team has appreciated one of the major changes since running the school – the involvement of dads, due to more flexible schedules and heightened awareness of the importance of involvement from dads.
“We’re seeing dads dress up for Halloween and getting a lot more involved with all the activities offered,” Dave noted, and Mary added, “We need more male figures in child care.”
Another significant change in education has been the shift to encourage a more formalized, structured style of teaching in order to prepare children for kindergarten.
“I still feel children need creative play and should be encouraged to use their imagination,” Mary said. “Our program is developmental and age appropriate.”
The school offers many opportunities for exploration and understanding, in keeping with the fact that 90 percent of brain growth occurs before a child even steps foot into kindergarten. Dramatic play takes place daily with a makeshift kitchen that could later be changed to a post office, lots of drawing, painting and coloring. Children also practice with the alphabet, from forming the shapes of letters in shaving cream on a table to traditional pencil-to-paper practice. Specific activities like rolling out dough and baking heart-shaped cookies for a thematic unit such as Valentine’s Day change weekly.
“High-quality preschool programs help children grow socially and emotionally, as well as cognitively,” said Sean Casey, acting executive director of First 5 Contra Costa. “They learn to share and work in small groups, get along with others and develop a ‘learning is fun’ attitude – skills children will need in school and well beyond.”
So Diablo Hills Country School continues, the result of the founders using imagination and creativity to encourage it in the young ones.
Preschools on June ballot
In June 2006, there is a ballot initiative to offer quality preschool programs for all California 4-year-olds whose parents choose to enroll them. “Preschool for all is an idea whose time has come,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell. “Solid research tells us that investing in preschool is not only the right thing to do for our children, it is an investment that will pay tremendous economic and social dividends in the long run. Preschool for all just makes sense.”
As of 2001, 43 percent of U.S. 3-year-olds and 66 percent of 4-year-olds were enrolled in some form of preschool program. These percentages are three times as high for 3-year-olds and twice as high for 4-year-olds as they were in 1970.
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