The Carbon County Early Care and Education LEARN Team will be offering Gearing Up for Kindergarten this fall at the Jim Thorpe School District Office, located at 410 Center Ave., Jim Thorpe.

Gearing Up for Kindergarten is intended for Carbon County families with a child who is entering kindergarten in the fall of 2012.The classes run for an hour and a half, with four sessions. The program offers parent/child activities, as well as separate child preparation and parent education classes.Parent topics include brain development, early literacy, guidance and discipline, responsibility and self-help skills, numbers/math/shapes/colors, social and emotional development, nutrition and school success.Preschool topics include math activities, science exploration, motor development, sensory development and reading/literacy.The program is free of charge to Carbon County families from all five school districts. Spaces are limited and are offered on a first-come, first-served basis.Gearing Up for Kindergarten will be held on Tuesday evenings beginning May 1 and will continue for four weeks. The sessions run from 6-7:30 p.m. each week.Parents and children attend together and child care is available for siblings on-site.Funding for Gearing Up for Kindergarten is provided by the LEARN (Local Education And Resource Network) grant, awarded by the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) and administered by Lehigh Carbon Community College as grantee.An application can be downloaded at

www.carboncountyece.com or contact Carbon County Early Care and Education LEARN Team by calling (570) 325-2771 to register or for more information.