Athens Bible now offering pre-K

Published 6:00 am Saturday, July 20, 2019

Athens Bible School officials recently announced the latest addition to the school’s new campus — prekindergarten.

The pre-K program will be led by Caroline Lee, an Athens Bible graduate with 16 years of experience teaching in the Decatur City Schools district. There will be one class for the 2019–2020 school year, and it will be open to 4-year-olds and those who turned 5 after the cutoff date.

Lee said the class will serve as a typical kindergarten prep program in a lot of ways, teaching children how to recognize colors, write their name and spell and recognize letters and some words. Children will also learn how to work independently and handle being in school, away from their parents, for large portions of the day.

“If they go to kindergarten and they don’t have a lot of experience with those things, there’s just that much more to overwhelm them when school starts,” Lee said. “… There are a lot of big growth things that these kids need to learn to help them be successful during the school year.”

However, Lee said her classroom will be different in that children will have a spiritual aspect to their education not found in public pre-K.

“We’ll have a Bible lesson every day, and we’ll go to chapel with the rest of the elementary classes,” she said. “It’s just a totally different atmosphere with the spiritual aspect being involved. We’ll have a prayer before lunch, and it’ll get incorporated into a lot of our lessons.”

Students will have the option of attending full-time Mondays through Fridays, for half the day or on certain days of the week, Lee said. Athens Bible is waiving the $250 registration fee for students and offering a tuition discount for new students.

Parents and guardians can visit www.athensbibleschool.org to download the application packet. There will be a welcome party and orientation 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 23, in the Rollings Lovell Auditorium and pre-K classroom of the new campus on U.S. 31, across from the new Athens High School.

“This is a really special place,” Lee said. “I am so excited to join this faculty and be in this environment. Four of the best years of my life were the years I was here in high school.”

Lee is the married mother of two sons. Her oldest is a current student at Athens Bible.