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CHARLOTTE—Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools is holding a series of information meetings for parents of prospective pre-Kindergarten students.

The district runs two programs, the state's N.C. Pre-K and Bright Beginnings. Both target 4-year-old children who are developmentally behind for their ages. The programs prepare the students for Kindergarten.

"[We teach the students] how to hold a pencil, how to write your name, how to count to 10," said pre-kindergarten teacher at Thomasboro Academy Ms. Poling.

Poling said students in her class are learning a variety of skills. Lessons she said children often learn at home, but ones many her students are only just developing.

"A lot of those children miss this experience of playing with blocks, putting their hands on manipulative writing with different kinds of things," said Poling.

Currently, CMS runs about 200 classes at roughly 60 sites around the district including Thomasboro; serving nearly 4,000 children. Julie Babb, director of Pre-K Programs at CMS, stresses the importance of the program. Babb said that the children enrolled would otherwise fall behind.

"The children that we target for our program are children who are not at their age level in concept development knowing the letters and having the experiences they're going to need to be able to meet the Kindergarten standards," said Babb.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools estimates there are about 7,000 children in the district who are eligible for the program. However they are only able to accept a little more than half of those students. School officials encourage parents to attend one of the upcoming meetings.

The next meeting is Feb. 16 at University City United Methodist Church on West W.T. Harris Boulevard.