Parkview Christian Academy kindergarten teacher makes learning fun

Parkview Christian Academy kindergarten teacher Karen Lanehart knows the importance of kindergarten in the academic life of a child.

“At this age, what their brain is absorbing and learning is really critical to how they’re going to view school the rest of their academic years,” said Lanehart, who is in her ninth year at Parkview. “They come in as babies and they leave as first graders. It’s magical how they walk in and they don’t really know their letters or numbers and they leave knowing how to read.”

Yorkville-based Parkview Christian Academy is a fully accredited Christian school serving students in prekindergarten through 12th grade. It serves Yorkville and the surrounding communities.

“It’s just really a blessing to be able to get to spend my days with them and walk alongside them.”

—  Parkview Christian Academy kindergarten teacher Karen Lanehart

Lanehart started out at Parkview teaching preschool for three years. For the past six years, she has been a kindergarten teacher.

Lanehart said she loves teaching kindergarten students.

“I couldn’t imagine doing any other grade. It’s just really a blessing to be able to get to spend my days with them and walk alongside them.”

Lanehart said she feels privileged to be a kindergarten teacher.

“I don’t even feel like it’s work. I feel like I’m walking alongside them in their academic journey. It’s their first real experience of full-time school. So it needs to be extremely positive.”

Parkview parents appreciate the dedication that Lanehart has to her job.

“Mrs. Lanehart always goes above and beyond for her students,” said parent Courtney Wright. “She makes learning so fun and memorable. My daughter counts down the days every weekend or break until she gets to go to school. She has grown so much academically, as well as emotionally. She has come out of her shell and her confidence has bloomed and she feels so comfortable at Parkview. It’s truly a blessing.”

Parent Danae Russ agreed.

“Mrs. Lanehart is an amazing selfless, loving teacher who genuinely cares and loves her students,” she said. “She goes above and beyond to make her students and their families feel special and noticed. We were blessed to have her for both our girls for kindergarten. She will always be a favorite.”

Lanehart realizes that students’ attitude toward school starts in kindergarten. As such, she emphasizes to them that learning is fun.

“I will tell them, ‘When you learn to read a book, every year, you’re going to become a bigger, better reader,’ " Lanehart said.

She also takes the emotional and social well-being of a student seriously.

“It’s very important to me that they feel loved, they feel safe and they know that learning is fun,” Lanehart said. “Because if any of those three components are missing, the other two can’t develop.”

Lanehart knows what it takes to connect with a child, having raised five children herself. Her oldest is 28 years old and her youngest is in 12th grade at Parkview Christian Academy.

She also has experience home-schooling her kids. Lanehart not only walks alongside her students academically, she also walks alongside them on their spiritual journey.

“Being able to add that component into their kindergarten year is really important,” Lanehart said. “On the very first day of school, I’ll ask the kids, ‘Does anybody think they’re here on accident?’ And then we talk about how God knew before he formed the world that they were going to be in this classroom. All year long, we talk about that each and every one of us has a different gift from the Lord and the reason that we’re all together is to know the Lord better.”

Lanehart is proud of the fact that she has been able to prepare all of her students for first grade. In fact, her students are even ahead of where they need to be academically.

“I’ve never had a child not be first grade ready,” she said. “We don’t require our students to be reading by first grade, but I’ve never had a child not reading by first grade. You want them to have a strong entrance into first grade.”