The Wilmette Park District's Pre School and Kindergarten Enrichment program emphasizes community awareness and social development. This group of youngsters spent one sunny afternoon sending off balloons trailing message cards to unknown destinations.

INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS IN WILMETTE

Stories and Photos by Rita Kallman

A Pre-School and Kindergarten Enrichment program sponsored by the Wilmette Park District has been designed to supplement community pre-schools and kindergarten classes.

Pre-school and kindergarten programs offer beginning adjustments to more formal school experiences where students develop a curiosity about reading, numbers, colors and shapes.

In the Pre-School and Kindergarten Enrichment program, the emphasis is more on community awareness and social development.

Children are involved in a variety of activities, from gymnastics to cooking, music creativity to arts and crafts. Many field trips are scheduled to places of community interest including behind the scenes visit to a dentist's office, library, post office and a grocery store. Rides on local modes of transportation are also included.

The summer enrichment program allows children to participate in various outdoor activities from nature walks to sand castle building. Unique field trips to nature preserves, farms and botanical gardens are also slated.

While youngsters are having a great time in this multi-faceted program, they also are learning suitable etiquette for the various activities.

The class is offered two days weekly during the school year from 12:30 to 3 p.m. with many children coming directly from their pre-school or kindergarten classes. The summer program meets three days weekly from 9 a.m. to Noon.

Wilmette Park District's youth art program, Woodbuilders, combines a child's joy of building with his or her natural creativity.

A young woodbuilder creates a fantasy city in the Wilmette Park District's popular class for first through fourth graders.

Youngsters learn how to properly prepare wood for construction. They learn the basics of using hammers, nails and saws while benefiting from the practice of eye and hand coordination.

Found objects, scrap wood and better grades of lumber are used in the creation of fantasy cities and functional bird houses.

Woodbuilders was introduced to the park district's visual arts programming last year. Its immediate success demanded the addition of an unscheduled section to accommodate the many registrants.

The class is offered to boys and girls in grades one-four. Youngsters meet weekly for one hour during 8-9-or 10-week sessions.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 38 September/October 1982

Irina Vdovets, Moscow Champion of Modern Rhythmic Gymnastics, works with a student of the new Olympic sport. Classes are being offered to girls,5-17 years old, at the Wilmette Park District.

The Wilmette Park District has added Modern Rhythmic Gymnastics to its activities. Irina Vdovets, Russian Master of Sport and the modern rhythmic gymnasitcs Moscow champion, is instructing a class for girls, ages 5-17.

Though relatively unknown in the United States, the sport is extremely popular in the Soviet block and western Europe and popular enough to prompt its addition to the 1984 Olympics.

Vdovets describes modern rhythmic gymnastics as a combination of movements, including floor exercise, acrobatics and ballet done to music. "It is sport, music and grace," says Vdovets. "Without music there is no meaning." Routines are performed with ropes, balls, clubs, hoops and colorful 10-foot long ribbons. Unlike gymnastics where performers compete on bars and beams, rhythmic gymnasts perform without gymnastics apparatus. Up to five people can perform in the intricate drills.

Modern rhythmic has traditionally been a female sport since its inception in Russia 25 years ago. The recommended age for beginning the sport is between 5 and 7 because children are most flexible and adaptable at these ages.

The sport is strongest on the West Coast where the 1981 national championships were held. Even though the sport has not gained great recognition in America, a 16-year-old from a Detroit team earned 3rd place in the nationals and went on to be a world competitor.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rita Kallman, publicist for the Wilmette Park District, is a graduate of Andover Academy in Massachusetts and Northwestern University (Bachelor of Music in Applied Piano). She formerly was a model. Ms. Kallman turned to the recreation and leisure profession after becoming a curling instructor.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 39 September/October 1982