Saturday’s fair designed to be one-stop source of information for parents.

When a group of mothers who joined the Benicia Moms Group began asking the same questions about getting their children prepared for preschool, Ann Brooner soon decided there had to be a better way to get answers than to call each school and wait for a response.

For the third year, she has organized the organization’s Preschool (age) Fair, where any Benicia mother and guardian can get the information they need at a single event.

Benicia Moms Group, which has a membership of about 170 mothers who are in the first few years of parenting, has a private online forum, she said, and mothers began asking similar questions online— “What’s the best preschool? Does my child need to be potty trained to attend preschool? When do we register?”

“I heard that other moms groups put on fairs,” she said. “You can take hours calling each school and getting your questions answered.”

Brooner was the logical person to organize a fair for the Benicia moms. “I’m a stay-at-home mom,” she said. But before that, she was a media event planner.

The organization also decided to open the event to the public, as a community service.

The original Benicia Moms fair was a chance for Benicia preschools’ representatives to tell parents what they and their children need to know to do before enrollment, Brooner said.

But last year, Brooner asked the Benicia Unified School District to provide advice on preparing children for kindergarten, too. That also prompted the group to modify the event’s name to Preschool (age) Fair.
Superintendent Janice Adams “was excited,” Brooner said. So was June Regis, BUSD program manager of preschool and child development, she said.

Through Adams, the fair heard Christy Henning, a transitional kindergarten teacher, who is returning this year to talk about what pupils are expected to know before they start kindergarten, and how parents and guardians can help prepare their children.

Through encouragement from Regis, the Moms Group was awarded a Solano First 5 grant both last year and this year in order to expand the fair so that parents can learn about child care, recreation opportunities and other services for children from birth to 5, as well as to provide encouragement to parents and guardians to enroll their children in preschool.

Brooner said that during the recent recession, attendance and enrollment in preschool dropped. “It’s costly,” she said. Meeting those costs was a challenge when one or both parents were unable to work.

But preschool classes help children learn to take direction from other adults and help prepare the youngsters for kindergarten, she said, and as the economy has recovered, agencies such as Solano First 5 are striving to convince families to send children to preschools to prepare them better for more advanced classes.

“The goal is we are helping teachers,” she said. That’s because teachers don’t have to train their pupils about appropriate behavior or what to expect in class, she said. Instead, the teachers are free to start teaching the subject matter for the school year.

Besides Henning, those attending the fair this year will hear about Brickspace, a LEGO learning center at 946 Tyler St., and how using those little plastic bricks can teach children about science, mathematics and multiple other subjects while they have fun.

Also speaking are representatives of Starlight Montessori Preschool, and Benicia Public Library, who will have a story time for children attending the fair.

Solano Family and Children’s Services will provide information on such services as free child care referrals, subsidized child care programs, food programs and free training about parent-completed developmental, social and emotional screeners that provides guidance to educational professionals.

Parents and guardians can use the fair to arrange tours of preschools that might be good matches for their children, and learn about other resources and services for children up to age 5.

The Preschool (age) Fair will take place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Benicia High School gymnasium, 1101 Military West. “We’ll have balloon and signs,” Brooner said.

Admission is free and open to the public, and children are welcome.