Kneeling on a furry white rug at Friends Childcare and Preschool in Bremerton, 3-year-old Damari Bowers leans forward as teacher Wanda Selg-Gonzales reads from a book of rhymes.
"Diddle diddle dumpling, my son John," she reads, pausing to look at her students. "What rhymes with John?"
"Lawn! Fawn!" Damari shouts, throwing his hands up in the air.
"That's right," answers Selg-Gonzales, who since 1999 has operated the child care from her home on Cogean Avenue.
Selg-Gonzales runs an independent child care, but her tight connection to the Bremerton School District for the past four years means she receives training and classroom materials from the district.
As a result, her child-care kids are already familiar with the district reading curriculum, called Open Court, and other important academic skills before they hit kindergarten classrooms.
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