Photo by Miranda Pederson/Daily News Teacher Terri Cleaver hands out crayons Thursday during Mothers Day Out at Greenwood Park Church of Christ.

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Turning 2 years old seemed to be a somber occasion for Trace Stivers.

As his teachers and classmates at Greenwood Park Church of Christ’s Mothers Day Out Program sang “Happy Birthday” to him on Thursday, he looked very serious.

Then his grandmother - Teresa Stivers, who is also director of the church’s preschool and Mother’s Day Out program - asked him to say “hot dog” as she snapped pictures of him, and a big smile broke across his face.

“(Mothers Day Out) is wonderful. His mom and dad wanted him here,” she said as the children enjoyed Juicy Juice and Elmo-shaped cookies. “He has learned so much. When his mother starts singing (the ‘Clean Up’ song), he’ll just pick right up.”

Greenwood Park’s Mothers Day Out is a Christian-based program for children ages 18 months to 4 years. The program, with about 20 children, has three sessions - Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons for children ages 2 to 4 and Thursday mornings for ages 18 months to 3.

“It’s more for kids to get to play with other kids and have interaction before they start preschool and kindergarten,” Mothers Day Out teacher Joanna Ballard said. “It gives moms a break to have some free time.”

The program started about 15 or 20 years ago, Stivers said.

“We’ve had it as the need arises,” she said. “It was started to give mothers a longer day.”

Now the program has one opening and a waiting list, Mothers Day Out teacher Terri Cleaver said.

“Last year, we had one session,” she said. “This year, we could’ve added a fourth session if we needed to.”

Part of the reason may be because of the program’s reputation in the community. At one time, it was used mainly by church members and parents who had children enrolled in the church’s preschool. Now, many students are children of parents who have no other ties to the church.

“We try to assess the program to see if we need to tweak it,” Cleaver said. “We tailor it to what the needs are of the community.”

The program also tailors activities to the needs of the children. The older ones have more educational activities, such as crafts, nursery rhymes, coloring, numbers and letters and they bring their lunches. The younger ones sing and play various games and are provided snacks. For all the children, material relevant to the season or holiday is used.

“We don’t do as much educational activity (as preschool). We do activities to prepare them for preschool,” Cleaver said. “We have structure, but we don’t follow a specific schedule. If the kids get tired of an activity, we move on to another one. Today, they were pulling at the puppets so we did puppets.”

Mothers Day Out also encourages children to learn to relate to their peers. Cleaver has seen it in her daughter, 3-year-old Allison, who used to be in the program and is now in the church’s preschool, and her 2-year-old son, Garrett, who is now in the program.

“I’ve watched my daughter go from not being able to share to being able to understand the concept and be able to share and play with others,” she said. “We want to encourage children to share.”

The teachers also want to ease fears children may have about being away from parents for a few hours.

“We encourage parents to stay and get comfortable,” Cleaver said. “We’re willing to help with separation anxiety.”

It also helps the parents, Ballard said.

“These days, people don’t feel comfortable leaving their children,” she said. “I feel like this is a safe program.”

Tuition varies because some of the children go to preschool. Older children who attend in the afternoon must be potty trained or nearly potty trained.

— For more information about Greenwood Park’s Mothers Day Out program, call the church at 781-0700.