There's a lot for Mandy Leas' students to learn before they get to kindergarten.
While the Head Start teacher can lead her students through the world of reading and printing, there's one area where she knows they don't need help -- their creativity.
"They talk about going out into outer space and what it's going to look like," said Leas, a teacher at Northgate-Avalon Head Start in Bellevue. "They use their own imagination. Once we get them started with the basics, they just take off."
Both Pre-K Counts and its federal sister for children from lower-income families, Head Start, provide youngsters with a play-learning atmosphere that introduce education and socialization. However, local specialists and teachers fear some children are enrolled in the program before they're ready.
"Some children can handle being in a group of 10 or 20; for some, it's too overwhelming. All children are very different," said Julia Williams, program director for the Early Childhood Programs at Duquesne University, Uptown.
"If you know your child is not socially and emotionally there, if they can't separate from you for more than an hour without crying, then this isn't for them.
"Too many people think these programs are glorified baby-sitting."
That, however, is exactly what they aren't. While playtime is incorporated throughout the day, both Pre-K Counts and Head Start provide learning in a semi-structured manner.
Children choose what activities they want to do, but each has a learning component. They range from reading to educational computer games to creative play scenarios that allow the children to set up their own store.
Leas said the key is giving the children the tools they need to allow their imagination to take off, such as giving them a refrigerator box and encouraging them to turn it into a space ship.
"They talk about going out into outer space and what it's going to look like," Leas said. "They use their own imagination. Once we get them started with the basics, they just take off."
The goal is to prepare these youngsters for kindergarten, where they will interact with dozens of students from all socioeconomic and educational backgrounds. While Pennsylvania doesn't require that students attend kindergarten or even attend school until age 8, the average child begins school around age 5, Williams said.
"We're really trying to promote the idea that kindergarten readiness begins at birth," said Chris Rodgick, director of the Early Childhood Education/Head Start Program for the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, which oversees 165 early childhood education programs in the county.
"No child should be without preschool in this day and age because they would be so far behind."
To enter this year's Pre-K Counts or Head Start, students had to be 3 by Sept. 15, 2007. Each classroom has a different demographic makeup. For instance, Amy Resetar's Head Start class at Rankin Christian Center consists of 15 of 18 students moving on to kindergarten next year and three 3-year- olds. The mix of maturity is a challenge for teachers who plan the day's activities.
"Some are really young 3s, but then you have your 5-year-olds," said Amanda Schomer, a Pre-K Counts teacher in the Quaker Valley School District. "It's hard to gauge what they can do, especially with that younger level."
But one thing is certain -- they can play. There's no end to the children's creativity, teachers said. Rather than worksheets for homework, teachers such as Kelly Hamilton use anecdotal observations to help students get the most out of their interactive homework.
"It's something the parent can work together on with the child," said Hamilton, a Pre-K Counts teacher in Penn Hills. "We've done things like sending home tiny cups with numbers written on it so they work with their parents to count things into it."
Overall, an early childhood education experience is about more than learning the ABCs and 123s. Stephen Bagnato, a professor of pediatrics and psychology at the University of Pittsburgh and the director of the Early Childhood Partnership at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, said the most important aspect of these programs is encouraging socialization and creativity.
Whether a child is put in a play group or a structured creative play and learning program is up to each individual parent. However, parents need to remember a child isn't necessarily ready to be bombarded by academics at age 3 or 4.
"It's about balance," Bagnato said. "In some settings, it's too much play, but in others, there's not enough time for creative play that is unstructured."
Children can use creative play to learn how to get along with one another, as well as start learning basic concepts in the classroom, he said.
Local teachers have learned that just because children can print their names at age 3, it doesn't mean they're ready to enter into the world of kindergarten.
In some cases, teachers such as Nicole Speca, a Head Start teacher in the Wallace Building in the Baldwin-Whitehall School District, see children who could complete basic tasks -- such as cutting their food, zipping up their coats or tying their shoes -- on their own but aren't mature enough to realize they should be doing it themselves.
Hamilton tries to make sure the youngsters are engaging activities that show them how much they are able to do. As a result, they realize that self-care activities are just as important as reading, writing and arithmetic.