St. Elizabeth gives toddlers their time

Soft music played in a room lined with white Christmas lights strung above student paintings and posters when Christian Trampas and his mother, Donna, arrived at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Regional School on Oct. 1. Christian smiled at his teacher, Sabina Lamb, before sitting down at a table and working on a fall-themed craft project.

Christian is only two years old, but thanks to the “Our Time” program for toddlers at the Bellmore Catholic school, he is one of dozens of youngsters who are becoming acquainted with the ins and outs of a school day.

Lamb, who is also the family music director at St. Barnabas Roman Catholic Church, has headed the Our Time for program for five years. She explained that classes are designed to help toddlers get acclimated to a classroom environment, with family members by their side.

The St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Regional School serves parishioners at St. Barnabas in Bellmore, Curé of Ars in Merrick, St. Raphael’s in East Meadow and St. Francis DeChantel in Wantagh. The Our Time program, which is open to anyone, was formerly housed in Wantagh, Lamb said.

After working with St. Elizabeth’s after-school program and serving as an aide in pre-school classes for several years, Lamb said she thought she could do a good job with the Our Time classes when they moved to Bellmore. St. Elizabeth Principal Leeann Graziose said she has done just that: Our Time has grown from two to three classes in the past five years.

This year’s classes, which are held on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday for one hour, have eight or 11 students each. The program began on Sept. 22 and will continue through mid-June.

Our Time participants take part in classroom activities, including crafts, music, playtime, prayer and storytime. Children sing songs about cleaning up their toys, listen to stories about riding the bus and learn how to share their toys.

Parents and guardians, Lamb said, would surely notice changes in their children when they complete the program. They are better prepared for preschool, she said, so they are less anxious when they arrive in the classroom full-time. 

“If they wind up going to [St. Elizabeth], they already know how to behave, and it really helps them adjust,” she said. “They’re not fearful when they come here.”