Horizons Unlimited Academy Graduates the Future Class of 2033: COVID-19 Made Them a Closer Family Unit
When Horizons Unlimited Christian Academy planned its 2020 graduation of pre-schoolers, COVID-19 was nowhere in sight. The pandemic brought about a number of changes including bringing the 3, 4 and 5 year olds closer together.
The instructional team at Horizons has a tradition of celebrating their student’s developmental milestones as they transition to kindergarten by way of a preschool graduation. On Saturday, July 25, 2020 cars lined the school’s parking lot extending onto Martin L. King, Jr Way, as Sylvia Paulk, the school voluntary prekindergarten (VPK) teacher, and her colleagues greeted cars loaded with families paraded around the facility where their child’s educational foundation began.
The families were forward-thinking for the future high school graduating class of 2033 with continuous inquiries of how it would be done, thus resulting in this celebration. Some children had two to three car loads of family and friends parading behind them cheering them on. Each child relished in the pomp and circumstance of the moment as horns blew, families in their vehicles celebrated and employees of the non-profit cheered them on.
COVID-19 forced the school to close for eight weeks back from March 19th to May 18th. During the closing the leader revamped how this small business would function as an early childhood education program providing much needed services as essential workers for essential workers. The program implemented new systems focused on social distancing within a setting heavily centered around socialization. Surprisingly these 3-5 year olds were able to effectively embrace the enhanced practices of more hand washing, sitting at a distance from their peers with mindfulness of enhanced health and safety practices.
“The focus of instruction for these very young learners is their social and emotional development mainly through stories, art, music and play,” said Elma J. Browning-McKay, the school’s new Administrator.
“Focusing more on that level of development during this time with health and safety as the center of conversation has brought our families closer together. Some of our young children and their families are participating in Facetime, Zoom and other social media platforms as a means of communications. The families realize the importance of close connections their children had with their fellow playmates by day and have nurtured those relationships. During the school shutdown three-year-old Ian, an only child said to his mother, “I have not seen my friends in forever”.
The school recently hired Cicely W. Salem in a part-time role to lead in facilitating the curriculum and education needs. Salem has a bachelor degree in Speech and Language Pathology and a master degree in education. In this position she will train and mentor employees using her nineteen years of past experience as a Voluntary Prekindergarten and elementary school teacher.
The school is in the process of enrolling children for the 2020-2021 school year with limited availability. Located at 2674 Martin L. King, Jr. Way in Sarasota, FL, the center is open Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Call (941) 957-0409 for additional information. Horizons has been a standing pillar in the early childhood education community. Attached is the link for the Horizon Academy website: http://horizonsunlimitedchristianacademy.com/
