Preschoolers have a brand new way to learn at the Wareham Free Library’s main branch, with a new computer program the library recently installed.

The AWE program was founded in 1994 and primarily focuses on early literacy skills. However, the program at the library has 90 different activities, from English and language arts to art and music, as well as science and mathematics.

“There’s a lot of these computers in a lot of libraries and schools and they are pre-loaded with lots of [educational] games,” librarian Marcia Hickey said. “They have everything.”

Hickey said the computer and the program were purchased with part of the $6,000 A.D. Makepeace Neighborhood Grant given to the library this past May. She said reference services librarian Deb Rich saw the program at a library conference and wanted to get it, but, given that the state decertified the library last November and no longer funds it, the organization had to wait until it received the grant from Makepeace.

“We purchased the preschool one, because that’s what we have here – mainly the preschool kids using it,” Hickey said.

Hickey said the program is made as intuitive as possible for the children, while challenging them with age-appropriate games. She said this computer offers a much safer alternative for children to amuse themselves and learn, rather relying on smartphones or tablets.

“It has all pre-approved games … so the parents can know that the kids are not going to go online … and get lost,” Hickey said. “And you know that they are all educational games.”

The computer is set up with two sets of headphones, so a parent and child may work together, or two children may work together.

“We made it kind of like a family center,” Hickey said. “We put in this big table, so even three or four kids could sit.”