Preschool teacher Kim Huffman gets emotional this time of year, when her students start the transition from the First Baptist Church Child Development Center to kindergarten.

“It’s like my own children. You learn the good as well as the bad and I’m with them for a whole year, sometimes a little over a year, and it’s just a bond you create with them and the parents,” Huffman said. “You become a family in your classroom.”

The Child Development Center has offered its services for more than 25 years by providing care, education, moral and spiritual guidance for each child enrolled. The year-round center is open from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and accepts children ranging from 6 weeks to 5 years old.

Vicky Donelson, minister of childhood ministries and center director, said the center offers a developmentally appropriate curriculum, Bible stories, chapel once a week during the school year for ages 3 to 5 and a school-age program for kindergarten to fifth grade during the summer called Camp Kaleidoscope.

“I think it’s important to have a Christian-based facility for not only child development, but for Sunday school and children’s ministry so that kids can begin learning at that foundational level about who Jesus is and how much they’re loved and have a safe environment,” Donelson said. “Our goal is to partner with parents as they raise their children both from an educational and developmental stand point, but also from a spiritual standpoint.”

The center, which only offers full-day care and is licensed for 175 students, currently has about 150 children. Some age groups have a waiting list for slots. Tuition for all families is $165 a week for nursery to toddler 1 and $145 for toddler 2 to preschool.

The center has been successful, with kindergarten readiness scores usually 30 to 40 points higher than the state average. Huffman said some of the things she teaches in her classroom include the alphabet, states, numbers and a little Spanish.

“They’re more than ready when they attend kindergarten. We make it fun,” Huffman said. “It’s not all about the curriculum. We have snowball fights, we incorporate baking for measurements. Yesterday, we let them draw with chocolate syrup and caramel. They did more eating.”

Preschool teacher Chelsea Hale said in her classroom, students have been learning about the Olympics this week by discussing a different sport and a different Olympian each day.

“We did swimming today. We talked about Michael Phelps and about how he’s the all-time winning Olympian,” Hale said. “Then, we did an activity and had all the kids lay on their bellies and act like they were swimming.”

Hale said the center is a good program to have in the community because it provides children the stepping stones for preparing them for kindergarten and elementary school.

“I think that we give them the tools that they need to succeed. We teach them the basics so they already have a step ahead of other kids who aren’t in preschool,” Hale said. “We give them an opportunity to learn in a fun way where they get to use their hands and they get to be creative.”

— Follow faith/general assignments reporter Simone C. Payne on Twitter @_SimonePayne or visit bgdailynews.com.