Research continues to indicate that early childhood Learning initiatives like preschool give kids a definitive advantage when it comes time for kindergarten. Children who attend preschool start kindergarten with stronger pre-reading skills, better math skills, and bigger vocabularies. Kids are exposed to letters, numbers, and shapes, as well as the non academic areas of class room life, like morning meetings, circle time, and show and tell. Every child has different needs and every school offers something a little different, but the best locations in Oakland, regardless of learning and teaching philosophy, offer the following: