BYU's Child and Family Studies Laboratory gives students opportunities to observe and practice what they learn in their classes in a real, functioning private preschool and kindergarten.

The school operates in a three-layer organization. MFHD 222 students serve as class assistants, students who have been accepted to the early childhood education and/or elementary education majors can serve as student teachers and trained employees supervise and mentor both.

"Each layer has a responsibility to keep track of the layer below it," said Anne Ure, the laboratory director.

Raechel Wangsgard and Jackie Deter, two early childhood education majors who work in the lab as paid teachers' assistants, said that they help provide a stabilizing force for the children as 222 students come and go.

"We know the kids, we know the classroom," Wangsgard said. "We can help everyone adjust."

Although both Wangsgard and Deter had experience working with children prior to taking 222, they said that for many students it is their first time being in that kind of environment.

"It's a chance for them to wet their feet," Wangsgard said.

For Deter, working in the lab is not only a chance opportunity to practice what she hears her professors lecture on, but it's also an opportunity to see social learning firsthand.

"It's hard to see them go through bad days and disappointments that go along with that age... The 'nobody wants to be my friend' times," said Deter, "but you can't protect them from that stuff. They have to go through it."

Deter remembered a time when one boy, who had at first been very shy, jumped up and belted out the lyrics to "Born to Be Wild" during a singing-story activity.

"It completely caught me off guard," Deter said. "He's come so far ... to see the progress each child makes is amazing. Some of them are completely different people. It's so fun to see them grow."

The school's location in the JFSB and its ties to the university provide it with many unique resources.

"There are such rich opportunities for field trips right here," Ure said.

In the past, children have visited the Bookstore, the Bean Museum, the duck pond, the mailroom and the MOA.

"Our philosophy is so much focused on kids experiencing real life things," Ure said. "To just tell them about it doesn't stick."

Teachers and supervisors facilitate active learning. Children have visited construction sites on campus, then actually worked with tools and mixed concrete. They have also visited the Creamery on 9th then learned about pricing by making their own grocery store.

The school also collaborates with other departments and organizations to help children learn about things like physical education, music and drama. Volunteers from the food science and nutrition department make the children's snacks.

"It's just another unique way of involving the campus community," Ure said.

The preschool collaborates with the Communications Disorders Department in offering speech therapy to children.

"We keep trying to build those campus relationships," Ure said. "We do our best to take advantage of the many expertise available on campus."