“Young graduates in the ECEAP program know there is lots to be learned while having fun at the Playground in the Park.Matt Johnson/staff photoA little known preschool program that is free to families who meet its income guidelines is looking for youngsters to start school this fall. ECEAP — the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program — is state funded and similar to the federal Head Start Program, said Lori Chiarizio, the program’s head teacher. It is run out of Skagit Valley College. The overall goal of ECEAP is to promote health, education and social proficiency among low income children, she said.Chiarizio said ECEAP eases children into kindergarten through a combination of play and learning. We meet the child where they are, she said. Say you see them interested in prisms. We’ll bring prisms out for them to play with. Children learn through play, so we have play manipulatives (such as small pattern blocks) which get them ready for writing. The focus really isn’t on academics. If they’re ready to read, though, we will work on that. Chiarizio said ECEAP also teaches social skills as well as providing health checkups and parent education. Parents get college credits for the education programs, Chiarizio said. It gives them a sense of empowerment and provides resources such as scholarships for daycare. It’s especially good for single parents. The program also addresses the nutritional, medical, dental and mental health needs of the students. The family gets home visits and an education. We want to enhance the family’s dignity, Chiarizio said.With a class size of up to 13, ECEAP is located in a room across from the Imaginable Garden at South Whidbey’s Primary School, and the kids in the program play on the same playground as the school’s kindergartners. They also visit with the class of Debra Davies, who is a special education kindergarten teacher for half the day and a preschool teacher for South Whidbey schools the other half. Chiarizio said she was grateful that her students were embraced so well. South Whidbey made us so welcome last year, Chiarizio added. They let us go through their office on gingerbread men hunts and when the leprechaun came through. Teresa Wheeler works as an aide to Davies and will start this fall in the class taught by either Chiarizio or another teacher, Sara Zabel. ECEAP is a worthwhile program, a wonderful nurturing introduction to the school experience, Wheeler said. The preschool students need to be loved and enjoyed as well as keeping them safe. One parent was at first hesitant to have her very shy 3-year-old son, Jordan, enter the program. My son cried at first because he had to go on the bus, and I thought, ‘He’s so young! said Debbie Hoch. But the teachers are so good. I just fell in love with them. They got him one on one with the kids. At the end of the program, Hoch said, her son had progressed from not talking at all to being asked by the teachers to be quiet. At graduation (last May) there was my son talking and playing with the other kids, Hoch said. He’d come so far. I started out being extremely cautious, and now I would recommend anyone to try the program. They make everyone feel important, no matter the circumstances of the family. That’s the way it should be. While the morning ECEAP class is already full, Chiarizio said she’s looking to fill the afternoon class. The child must be between the ages of 3 and 5 by August 31. For more information, phone 321-0696, extension 5348. There is no deadline, though the sooner one applies, the sooner an afternoon class can be scheduled.ECEAP has similar preschools in Coupeville and Oak Harbor.”