As kindergarten preview days begin across Springfield, many families are asking a big question: Is my child ready for preschool? On Community Voices, Meleah Berkowitz, director of Westminster Cooperative Preschool, says spring is the perfect time to explore that decision.
Located inside Westminster Presbyterian Church at Walnut and Edwards, Westminster is a secular, play-based, cooperative preschool that has served Springfield families for more than 50 years. Berkowitz says play isn’t just fun — it’s foundational. Research shows young children learn best through hands-on exploration, and kindergarten teachers consistently look for students who are socially confident, collaborative, and able to solve problems independently.
At Westminster, that means no worksheets and no screens. Instead, children direct their own learning in classrooms filled with blocks, art supplies, dramatic play, and outdoor exploration. Teachers use “conscious discipline” strategies to help children express feelings, resolve conflicts, and build empathy — skills that carry far beyond preschool.
The cooperative model also sets Westminster apart. Families play an active role, assisting in classrooms, serving on the board, or helping with everything from preparing Play-Doh to caring for classroom pets. That involvement helps keep tuition lower and fosters a tight-knit community that often lasts well beyond the preschool years.
Enrollment is now open for the 2026–2027 school year, with tours underway. Families can learn more at westminster-preschool.org or by calling 217-522-4415.
Transcribed by AI with human review for readability.
Jeff Williams:
Welcome to Community Voices, a production of NPR Illinois. In the studio today, Meleah Berkowitz, is that correct? Yep. Okay, we're right on. Welcome to the studio. So, you are here.
Meleah Berkowitz:
I am the director of Westminster Cooperative Preschool here in Springfield.
Jeff Williams:
What would you like to talk about today?
Meleah Berkowitz:
So, I had reached out because I feel like this is the perfect time of year to talk to some parents and families about the idea of preschool and deciding when your child is ready. This is the time of year that the five-year-olds start going to their kindergarten preview days and families start to feel like, oh, my child maybe isn't quite ready yet or maybe an even younger child and they think, oh gosh, maybe we need to start looking at preschools. And so I wanted to talk a little bit about ways that you could tell that your child might be ready or that you might be ready. already as a parent or adult in that child's life and how to pick a good preschool for you and also to share a little bit about my favorite preschool, which is Westminster Cooperative.
Jeff Williams:
Right on. And that's located at Westminster (Church)? That's right on Walnut and Edwards.
Meleah Berkowitz:
Edwards. It's in the Westminster Presbyterian Church. It is a secular program. We do partner with the church, but all our curriculum is secular.
Jeff Williams:
Are there ways to reach out to get a hold of you.
Meleah Berkowitz:
Yep, we have a website, which is westminsterpreschool.org. We are also pretty active on Facebook, and you can find us there. You can call any day of the week. We'd be happy to chat with you. We're doing a lot of tours right now, families coming to see the classroom. It's really fun. You can come at a quiet time if you just want to see the room, but you can also come during class and see what it looks like on a normal, wild, happy day with the kids.
Jeff Williams:
So, A play-based approach to learning. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Meleah Berkowitz:
Absolutely. There's lots of different ways to teach children. And one of the ways that we really believe in is called a play-based curriculum. And as you know, kids, especially two, three, four, five-year-olds love to play. It's the most natural way that they interact with their environment and the world. And research has shown that engaging children in learning through play is the best way to set them up for success, both academically, but also socially. And when you look at kindergartners, and we've spoken with the kindergarten teachers, even right here in town, what they're looking for is kids who can be self-directed, who have a good social-emotional learning, who are used to working in collaboration. And those are the skills that you're most likely going to gain with our play-based program.
Jeff Williams:
Very nice.
Meleah Berkowitz:
So that means that we also don't, we don't do worksheets. We don't sit the children down at a specific center. The kids are in control of how they spend their day. And so they can play anywhere in the classroom for as long as they want with whomever they want. And it's great to watch them explore. explore and gain confidence in learning new things.
Jeff Williams:
Well, here's something that's kind of, maybe this is outside of what you want to talk about. It's kind of a strange thing coming out of, you know, a couple years ago, we had a worldwide thing, you know, so there was social distancing. So, programs like this, I mean, some of these kids would have been almost like too young for that, but still getting kids used to interactions.
Meleah Berkowitz:
Absolutely, yeah. live in a world that has a lot of technology, especially for children. And I get it; my kids have tablets. We use them for doctor's appointments and sick days and all the times that we need them. But being able to bring your child to a place where there are no screens, where the room is full of blocks and paints and toys and dirt and mud and other kids is just so good for them. really focusing on that social-emotional learning is a big part of what we do. And so, we use a tactic that's called conscious discipline. We don't do timeouts. We try hard not to say, stop that, or don't run. We try to encourage the behavior we want to see. And so we'll say, let's use your walking feet, or let's use kind hands. We also really encourage our students to solve their own problems. When we have kids who are fighting over a toy, we try not to swoop in and say, oh, let's set a timer. Oh, let's take turns. We try to come in and say, what's going on? You tell me what's happening. What are some solutions you can come up with. What's something we can try? And then if it doesn't work, we'll try something else. And as a parent, I was a little skeptical of that at first, that I was like, my three-year-old, there's no way. They're never going to do that. But then you watch it in action, and it's magical. You know, they come up with really fun ideas, and it builds those bonds between the kids, which is really wonderful. And that's honestly one of my favorite things about this preschool age, is that it's hard as a parent to navigate that. But if you can find a community of other parents and other families that are going through that, you can and learn from each other and help each other. And that's one of the just truly wonderful things about a preschool family and community is that you support each other through the good days and the hard days.
Jeff Williams:
The interactions between child to child, student to student, along with the... adult, I'm not sure if you call it like an instructor or.
Meleah Berkowitz:
We have teachers and what we call parent assistants.
Jeff Williams:
So we have several adults in the classroom.
Meleah Berkowitz:
But yeah, they're kind of guiding the children rather than. telling them what to do.
Jeff Williams:
Right, But that is good because it's like that sense of self-discovery that a child has where it's like, okay, wait a minute, I have, and I don't mean to put words into the mouth of the program, but not told strictly what to do. It's like they can just kind of learn along the way.
Meleah Berkowitz:
Exactly.
Jeff Williams:
You know, that helps them really develop because they aren't just being told what to do. There are times when maybe that is, it's you learn certain things from that, but also learning the things where they kind of, in a way, are guided, but learn on their own.
Meleah Berkowitz:
It builds a lot of independence and autonomy, which is great because mom and dad aren't always right there. And especially as they move into elementary school, there's going to be times that they're on the playgrounds with their friends and conflicts are going to happen. It's totally natural. And so when they have the confidence and the words to say, hey, I don't like it when you do that, please stop, they're going to be a lot more successful.
Jeff Williams:
Right, I remember when I was in either kindergarten or first grade, and there was a kid who kind of, he just would run around and kind of want to pick on, pick on everybody. And everybody was kind of tired of it, but they also, it's like, what do you do? You know, you weren't sure. I kind of, I remember one point I sort of stood up to him, not in a way, it's like, I'm tired of this, what he's doing to me and to other kids. And the thing was, then once I kind of just said something firm to him, I didn't get into a fight or anything like that, but then he kind of stopped. And so I don't even know if it was that he even noticed that he was doing, but after that, he didn't really do that so much with me or other kids, really.
Meleah Berkowitz:
I have found that most kids naturally want to get along with their peers, and especially when you build a community where they care about each other, they understand if a friend says, I don't like that or that hurts, they understand that. And so being able to give the children the tools to voice those opinions and to listen and to modify their behaviors, it's a lifelong skill. It's something I struggle with in adulthood sometimes, being able to speak up and say, hey, I didn't like that. And so watching these kids go from, you know, fairly shy little toddlers who, you know, brand new to each other to hearing them, you know, for the first time say, you know, I need my space or I would like a turn with that now. It just, it warms your heart to see all these, you know, independent little people growing.
Jeff Williams:
Right, and the same for me too, like being an adult, sometimes it's like, oh wow, I need to check. I need to check myself. Sometimes I don't even realize, Oh yeah.
Meleah Berkowitz:
It's very easy. And so that's one of the things that I love about this program. We get to watch kids kind of grow and learn all of those things. And then our program's been around a long time. We've been here for about 53 years here in Springfield.
Jeff Williams:
Oh, I was going to ask how long it's been. Okay.
Meleah Berkowitz:
Started in 1973 in the same building with the same little tables and chairs. And so it's great because sometimes we even get like multiple generations. So, we have kids now whose parents went to Westminster. And it's great. We kind of joke about, the Westminster effect that no matter where you go, you're going to find someone else who's connected to the school. And that's also really great for community building, you know, when you're going through that age of, you know, going to public school for the first time. and your kids are meeting brand new people, having that community that and that you've built those bonds with really makes it different. We still, our family trick-or-treats with one of our preschool family friends. Every year we vacation with another family friend. It's just really nice to have that. It can be really isolating as a parent. And so having a community that's kind of built in that looks after each other. And that's one of the other things. We're the only cooperative preschool in Springfield. And so as a co-op, we function a little bit differently. Our families are really involved in our preschool. They help with administrative tasks. They help with day-to-day things. We could not keep running without our families. So our tuition's a little bit lower because we do ask our families to help out in other ways, but we also tailor that to what works best for the families. So we have some who help out regularly in the classroom. And so they're there, for instance, you know, every Tuesday afternoon helping out. But we also have families who serve on our board. We have families who make the Play-Doh every month or refill the markers in the art station. We have families that help take care of our classroom guinea pigs and guppies, which is really fun. So we try to match, you know, the family's needs and abilities and what their time, you know, looks like to something that they can do. But by doing that, our families really become invested in their own child's education, but also in the whole class. And it's really fun because then when your child comes home and is talking about a friend, then you know who that is. can make those connections and it really builds a strong community very quickly.
Jeff Williams:
Nice. Now here is something else. How does one go about making Play-Doh?
Meleah Berkowitz:
So we have specific recipes and also we accommodate for whatever children we have in the classroom. So right now we have recently had a child who had a severe gluten allergy that included touch. And so they can't use the standard Play-Doh because it has gluten in it. And so we found a modified recipe that our families very kindly make for us at home. But we also kind of theme it to what we're doing. So if we're doing ocean, we'll have blue Play-Doh. When we have dinosaurs, we have brown Play-Doh. So it'd be kind of like the mud. And so our teachers are really creative. with how they kind of interwork all of those things.
Jeff Williams:
Nice, I didn't know until just now that you could make your own play though.
Meleah Berkowitz:
You can, scents and flavors and all kinds of things.
Jeff Williams:
Wow, okay, very nice.
Meleah Berkowitz:
It's very fun.
Jeff Williams:
So, has it always been like a play-based approach to learning? Was it like from back, it's been around for way longer than I thought it had. Was it always... The same title, the same theme.
Meleah Berkowitz:
Yeah, it's very similar. The curriculum itself changes over time, but we've had the foundation of being a cooperative preschool that is a play-based environment for the whole time. And we've found, you know, that really has stood the test of time. Our children are always ready for kindergarten. They move on to professional success. In fact, we have a gentleman coming today who's an alumnus who works at the statehouse, you know, with the state representatives. And so it's been really fun to kind of connect with those people to see where they've gone on in life and the start that they got in preschool that has allowed them this professional success as adults.
Jeff Williams:
Right on. And so is this like, is this one class or it's like different classes or how does that kind of work?
Meleah Berkowitz:
So we are a part-time preschool, so we have three classes, two that meet in the morning and one that meets in the afternoon. We are kind of a small room, so we have one class at a time. So we have a two-day class that meets Tuesday and Thursday mornings, three day is Monday, Wednesday, Friday mornings, and then four day is Monday, through Thursday in the afternoons. The nice thing about that is that you can kind of adjust to where your child is needing the most. If your child is at the younger age and they're just getting started, 2 mornings a week is perfect. It's a great introduction to the school. As they get older, as they start preparing for kindergarten, they move into the classes where they're going a little more frequently. But it's also nice because then they're still home a lot because you want to cherish those years that they're home before they run off to school. And so you still get that opportunity to spend special time with them, but they also get that structure of being in the classroom. We do also encourage families to be in our classrooms as much as they would like.
Jeff Williams:
That's cool.
Meleah Berkowitz:
We do ask that they attend at least three times a year. So that's usually like their child's birthday, when they're a special friend, that sort of thing. But it's really nice, especially if you have a child who's nervous or families who are a little anxious about their first time allowing their child to be taken care of by someone else. Being able and welcomed into the classroom makes a big difference. Like I said, we partner very closely with the families. We also, it's not just parents. We have grandparents that come frequently, aunts and uncles, nannies, like whoever's around that loves and supports that child, we love to have them in the classroom.
Jeff Williams:
Okay, cool. So is this also, are there like, particular enroll? Like is there certain enrollment periods or how does that?
Meleah Berkowitz:
Yeah, so we are currently in our enrollment period for next year. So for the 2026-2027 school year, we have one of our classes is already full and has a wait list, but we do have openings in our other two classes. So we would encourage anyone who's interested to please give us a call. We would love to talk with you and just see if we're the right fit for you and your family.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah, that's cool. And so when it is, it's like a year-long cycle. Is that how it kind of is?
Meleah Berkowitz:
So we run, we follow pretty close to the 186 school calendar, and so we'll finish up this year in May. But our enrollment opens in March, and it goes typically till the end of April. If we continue to have openings after that time, then we'll continue to take applications.
Jeff Williams:
Right on. And once again, could you let everybody know how to get a hold of you?
Meleah Berkowitz:
Yes. The best way to reach us would be to check us out at our website, which is westminster-preschool.org. You can also e-mail me directly, which is director at westminster-preschool.org. You can find us on Facebook or you can call. Most business hours, we'll have somebody there to chat with you. It's 217-522-4415.
Jeff Williams:
And once again, we're in the studio with Meleah Berkowitz. And she's come in to talk about the programs they have over there at Westminster for their preschool. Before we finish up, anything else that you'd like to add?
Meleah Berkowitz:
The only other thing I would like to add, in addition to being play-based, is that we are pretty child-directed. And so we follow the children's interests. So this year we have a bunch of kids that are very into dinosaurs, which is very common, preschool interests. And so we have done a big dinosaur study. And a lot of times parents ask, well, how does playing dinosaurs all day get my kid ready for kindergarten? And then if you watch in the classroom, we use dinosaurs to talk about the first letter sounds of each of their names. We count dinosaurs, we sort them, we put them in order, we make patterns out of them. We talk about prey and predators. We talk about the different ways that the dinosaurs might have eaten or slept. We do science experiments with volcanoes. So you can take one child's idea and really run with it and teach them in ways that really prepare them for academic success.
Jeff Williams:
Well, the thing is, you know, dinosaurs lived on this planet much like we do. So really, it's like you can bring them alive and talk about Absolutely.
Meleah Berkowitz:
Right now with spring, we're doing a study on gardens, and we have our own raised beds out on the playground where the kids, each class has their own garden bed. And then the veggies that they plant there, once they grow, we'll feed them to our guinea pigs. So we also get a little, you know, kind of circle of life talk from there as well and taking care of our environment.
Jeff Williams:
Well, Meleah, thank you so much for stopping by the studio.
Meleah Berkowitz:
Thank you for having me.
Jeff Williams:
Thanks. I appreciate it. I could talk all day about these kiddos. Community Voices is events you might have missed in conversations with neighbors, artists, and area business people. Suggest a guest or comment at communityvoices@nprillinois.org. Get to know your neighbors with Community Voices at noon and 10 p.m. and on demand at nprillinois.org. Community Voices is a production of NPR Illinois.
