Once upon a time, the Head Start program was more aimed at socializing children than teaching them the skills they need to start school.

But now, with the challenges facing today’s families and with grade-school accountability scores in the headlines, the program is met with the task of being almost all things to all children.

And, it seems, that’s a task the teachers and staff of Concordia Head Start meet with a smile.

At 7:45 a.m., the program’s 155 3- and 4-year-old students begin to disembark the buses that bring them, in some case, from the far corners of the parish to the former Clayton Elementary building.

Students will continue pouring into the school until about 9 a.m. But right now, the program’s administrator is focusing on one child in particular.

&uot;What’s wrong?&uot; she asks Cedric, who is on the verge of tears.

&uot;I want my mom,&uot; he tells Mrs. Thomas in a soft voice full of longing.

&uot;When does your mom go to work today &045;&045; in the morning or in the evening?&uot;

&uot;The morning.&uot;

&uot;Well, then, you’ll get to see her again this afternoon. You’ll be OK.&uot;

Cedric, if still unsure, no longer has a trembling lower lip. &uot;O … K,&uot; he says.

&uot;The first thing they should feel is love,&uot; Thomas explains, turning back to visitors.

&uot;That’s why we greet them at the door with a smile and ask how they’re doing today.&uot;

For Head Start students &045;&045; many of them from low-income working families, some with grandparents or other guardians &045;&045; that’s crucial.

But so is getting prepared for the next step &045;&045; grade school, with its increasingly rising standards.

&uot;That’s why we encourage parents to send their children two years (to Head Start),&uot; Thomas said.

Almost from the minute the students finish breakfast &045;&045; this day, a fruit cup, a biscuit and milk &045;&045; the students are constantly learning even though, to them, it’s play.

Once their breakfast is finished and they’ve brushed their teeth, the 4-year-olds in teacher Rhonda Coleman’s room are allowed to resume play.

Other toys, like dolls and plastic gardening tools, are set around the edge of the room. But they immediately gravitate to foam shapes in different colors and with different letters of the alphabet.

&uot;Wanna play cards?&uot; one boy asks another, brandishing a deck of what are really flash cards.

&uot;What do one and zero make?&uot; another boy asks the girl next to him.

&uot;One? …&uot; the girl said warily.

&uot;No,&uot; he said in an exasperated voice. &uot;Ten.&uot;

And so it does.

Meanwhile, with the help of a teacher’s aide, a few students are learning how to spell their first names, one chunky letter at a time. &uot;I can make a ‘u,’&uot; one little girl calls out proudly.

Down the hall in Mrs. Carroll’s room, 3-year-olds play more with puzzles designed to familiarize them with letters and numbers before they tackle writing, or with such concepts as nutrition and habits, like brushing one’s teeth.

&uot;Where does the 3 go?&uot; she asks one little boy. Furrowing his brow for a second, he takes the wooden number and fits it in place &045;&045; and is rewarded by a warm &uot;good&uot; from Carroll.

Meanwhile, Israel, a boy at an adjacent table, gets creative with his puzzle piece, flying the wooden carrot through the air like an airplane, complete with sound effects, before sailing it into place beside the cabbage.

After all, they’re only 3.

Next, Carroll pulls out plastic letters studded with holes through which the students thread multi-colored shoestrings, teaching them motor skills and letter recognition at the same time.

&uot;What letter does your name start with?&uot; Carroll asks the class.

Some have trouble at first, but Cleonia knows, picking the C from the box.

&uot;Lace up your letter,&uot; Carroll said.

&uot;I’m trying to lace it up,&uot; Cleonia said. &uot;I’m poking it through the hole, see?

&uot;C!&uot; she added, realizing her joke.

&uot;Mrs. Carroll, tell Marcus to play with his puzzle and leave me alone!&uot; another girl calls out.

&uot;If y’all aren’t good, he’s not going to buy y’all nothing,&uot; one student says matter-of-factly.

The &uot;he,&uot; in this case, is Santa Claus &045;&045; for this particular day is very close to Christmas.

Which brings them to their next task.

After playtime, the children crowd into the hall with their teachers, everyone recites the Pledge of Allegiance, sings &uot;My Country ‘Tis of Thee&uot; and bow their heads in prayer.

But then they quickly move into rehearsing the songs they are practicing each day for their Christmas program.

And they’re getting into it, putting special emphasis on the &uot;hey!&uot; in &uot;Jingle Bells&uot; and the &uot;ho ho ho!&uot; in &uot;Must Be Santa Claus.&uot;

In a few minutes, some classes go on a field trip to Natchez Mall to see Santa in person but, for others, it’s back to play with a purpose.

Back in Coleman’s room, students are doing basic math drills and are anxious to distinguish themselves. Today’s question? If I have this many snowmen and take some away &045;&045; or add some &045;&045; how many do I have in all?

&uot;One, two, three,&uot; a boy says, standing on tiptoe and using the end of a wooden spoon to tap on each of the cardboard snowmen attached to the dry erase board at the front. He goes all the way to eight.

If two of the snowmen melt, then there are six, a girl offers, which gets a &uot;very good&uot; from the aide, Chanel Briscoe.

Numbers and letters aren’t the only themes of the day, however, for there are still other life lessons to learn &045;&045; such as the importance of keeping the environment clean.

All classes are learning the importance of recycling, with a board in each room displaying pictures of different items you shouldn’t just throw away.

In some classes, teachers read to students about the way metal is recycled, showing them pictures of cars being crunched into cubes.

Each student is encouraged to bring a recyclable item each day, and some students have a contest to see which can make a &uot;slam dunk&uot; with their plastic and paper items into the recycling bin.

Back in Conner’s room, lessons about nutrition and colors go together. Using blunt scissors, the 3-year-olds are cutting out pictures of a certain color food &045;&045; in this case, green &045;&045; from old magazines.

&uot;Lettuce,&uot; one says absent-mindedly, concentrating on working his scissors around a head of lettuce as the tip of his tongue peeks out from his mouth.

They’ll make a collage of the items they cut out, pasting them on posterboard as they have every day this week. (Tuesday, for example, was yellow food day, as evidenced by a poster crowded with macaroni and cheese.)

In Janice Fletcher’s room, however, the students are having sit-down time of a different kind &045;&045; listening to their teacher read a story about a flea who lives in a barn and sneezes so loud he wakes all the other farm animals up.

&uot;Even the rat, the cat, the black-eyed bat,&uot; Fletcher said in a sing-song rhythm. The flea coughs and sniffles and sneezes and they do, too, carefully following each turn in the story.

Then, however, they get the chance to have some exercise time, dancing in a line around the room to a record Fletcher plays, a song with a message about forming good habits.

In Coleman’s room, they’re doing much the same thing &045;&045; forming a conga line of sorts around the room under the watchful eye of the teacher’s aide.

For the next song, they stop and imitate the movements and sounds of farm animals, putting their energy into it from the first &uot;meow&uot; to the last “roar” before it’s time to lunch.

It’s all a typical &045;&045; and typically busy &045;&045; day in the life of Concordia Head Start.

&uot;We cover reading skills, motor skills, music, socialization, … and some students are learning sight words,&uot; Thomas said. &uot;I ask parents to come in for just one day and see what we do. They’ll see it’s not just a babysitting service.&uot;