New Laguna Beach Unified program helps parents prepare their kids for kindergarten

Toddlers in a classroom near the Laguna Beach Community Pool on Monday morning had plenty to keep them occupied as parents monitored their every move.

One girl fit large plastic blocks together to create a makeshift train track while a boy — using tongs — plucked small toy dinosaurs and beads from a container and grouped them together onto paper plates set on the ground.

Sandee Bandettini, the Laguna Beach Unified School District’s early-intervention specialist and a licensed marriage and family therapist, oversaw the session, the second of the Learning Link program, which debuted in the district Jan. 4 and also is run in other cities in the county. Learning Link will be held for two hours most Mondays through May and is free for parents.

Funded by the Children & Families Commission of Orange County, the program offers parents of children ages 2½ to 5 tips on how to hone the youngsters’ motor, social and literacy skills before they begin kindergarten.

Kristal Minetzke brought her 2½-year-old son, Saxon, to the first session last week after a friend told her about the program.

“I’m always looking for different avenues [for Saxon] to learn and be active, so I wanted to try it out,” Minetzke said, watching the boy fit foam cones and cylinders through a hole in the lid of a jar. “I love it.”

Earlier in the morning, Saxon worked on his hand-eye coordination by using a pair of tongs on the dinosaurs and beads.

A few minutes later, Saxon held a mug while 3-year-old Gia Zett pretended to pour tea into it from a toy teapot that made a sound like percolating water.

Gia’s mother, Stephanie Schweinsberg, played along with the kids, telling her daughter, “You can keep the change,” as if to demonstrate purchasing the tea.

Schweinsberg will enroll Gia, who also is involved in ballet and soccer, in preschool next month.

“This is a way to prepare her for preschool, to be social, so it’s not just a shocker when she goes to school,” Schweinsberg said.

The value of Learning Link, Schweinsberg said, is that children interact and don’t simply receive instructions from adults.

Bandettini said her main goal Monday was teaching children about feelings that may arise as they play and interact with each other. She didn’t lecture but rather assisted students in need of help and also answered parents’ questions.

“The parent is the first teacher in life,” Bandettini said. “If we can teach [children] to hear, to focus, imagine what that does in the classroom?”

Through the program, Kathleen Knott, the district’s school readiness nurse, is able to screen children for any potential vision or hearing problems and connect parents with an appropriate healthcare provider should the kids need follow-up care. Knott emphasized that she does not make diagnoses.

Interested parents can contact Bandettini at sbandettini@lbusd.org. Parents must fill out a questionnaire and register online before attending a session. Each class is limited to 12 students.