By Traci Newell

Preschoolers at Los Altos Christian Preschool enjoy snack time in their class Thursday.

Brenda Milhem was hired as director of Los Altos Christian Preschool in 1999, just after her move from Portland, Ore.

“My initial training was, ‘Here are the keys and this is the office,’” Milhem said. “That was a good thing - I didn’t have any guidelines and I didn’t have any hindrances.”

Milhem’s dedication to Los Altos Christian Preschool has led to an increase in enrollment, from 17 children in 1999 to 147 children this year.

“I think great teachers are primarily born and not made,” Milhem said. “I think I was just born to be a teacher - and I love it.”

The preschool prides itself on noticing the differences in the way each pupil learns; the teachers do not subscribe to one style of teaching.

“Although we are primarily developmental, we’re not afraid of doing things that are emergent, academic or Montessori-based,” Milhem said.

One of the emergent aspects of the preschool is the French program. Milhem, who previously directed her own home-run preschool in Portland, said she taught French to her students in Oregon and used her supplies to begin the program when she came to Los Altos.

“The language portion of the brain is most active between the ages of 2 and 5,” she said. “It’s essential to be introduced to a foreign language at that time.”

The first thing Milhem did at the preschool was to limit the number of children in each classroom. The school still maintains 12 children per class with a full-time teacher and a full-time assistant or 10 children per class with a full-time teacher and part-time assistant.

“If you have too few students in a classroom, you lose the dynamic,” Milhem said. “If you have too many students, you lose control and the ability to get to know what the child really needs.”

Also unique to the preschool is the program for 2-year-olds that meets twice a week. A year after implementing the 2-year-old class, there was a line out the door for enrollment.

The school also offers Zoophonics, a developmental approach to reading that allows

young children who are ready to read to do so.

As a child progresses from one age class to another at the preschool, he or she will participate in similar activities each year.

“We share ideas between each age group, but the expectation between each age group changes,” Milhem said. “The outcome is different.”

The preschool offers circle time, music lessons, open- and close-ended projects, science lessons, children’s literature, cognitive play, Bible circle, free play and outdoor play.

“We are unapologetically evangelical,” Milhem said, noting that teachers try to teach the children the love God has for them and the difference between doing what is “good” and what is “bad.”

Milhem said the main problem the preschool faces is size. The preschool currently operates out of five classrooms on the Los Altos Christian School campus. When they need to run other programs, such as science or gymnastics for the preschoolers, they use separate rooms on the campus.

“It’s a 7-acre campus with a lot of rooms, but what you can use in order for everyone to grow independently becomes difficult,” she said.

Los Altos Christian Preschool is located at 625 Magdalena Ave. For more information, call 948-2907.