Strong Museum to Open Preschool
It will begin enrolling 3- and 4-year-olds for in-house program
Katy StechStaff writer
(November 27, 2005)
A city children's museum is about to turn into a classroom for about 50 kids. On Thursday, Strong Museum will start taking applications for a preschool it's creating where children will learn in the environment officially deemed "The National Museum of Play."
"Essentially, the whole museum will be their classroom," said Betty Bordner, Strong's early childhood educator.The children will spend time learning among the downtown museum's first-floor exhibits as well as in two exhibits that are under construction as part of a $33 million expansion of the museum.
The expansion will include a multilevel play area decorated to match five book genres, including a fantasy forest and a Nancy Drew-like mystery mansion.
"Being a museum and not a school, we're able to involve kids in learning that is a little more out of the box," Bordner said.
Opening in September, the preschool's sessions will last 2½ hours for several days each week, depending on the child's age and the time of the session. Each class will have 14 students; fees range from $1,325 to $3,230 a year.
Teachers will lead the classes under the theory that children learn through play, a philosophy the museum adopted in 1997 when it opened an interactive Sesame Street exhibit, said Susan Trien, spokeswoman for the museum.
Since then, Strong has moved from a traditional, austere format to a more interactive one that children can visit repeatedly.Tuesday marked the third time that 5-year-old Liam Lidie of Shortsville, Ontario County, visited with his mother, Emily.
His enthusiasm has been high each time, Liam's mother said as she watched him make a monster out of a paper plate, purple construction paper and a green crayon. "Just when you think you've done it all, the kids always find something fresh," Lidie said. METRO@DemocratandChronicle.com
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