Our Educational Philosophy
Our classroom reflects the best thinking and research in early childhood education— children learn best through a play-oriented environment. Young children learn by doing. Active learning takes advantage of children’s natural motivations, abilities, and interests. Children get a lot of opportunities to investigate what interests them to solve problems, discover relationships and make comparisons. Children use all of there senses to make discoveries such as: How heavy is it? Does it smell? Can I find another that feels the same? What does it sound like? How is it different from other items? By using their hands, eyes, nose, ears, and mouths to explore, children gather more information and remember what they learn.
As they interact directly with the environment, children not only gather sensory information, they also refine their senses and motor skills. For example, it takes very refined movement of the hands and fingers to produce the penmanship required for writing. Squeezing clay, picking up puzzle pieces, and lacing thread through beads, these are some of the ways young children practice using their hands and fingers. We organize the classroom environment to promote active learning and we do a lot of things to encourage children to think and talk about their discoveries and
creations.
Research and experience tell us that in order to be most effective with young children, teaching practices need to be developmentally appropriate. What this means is simply that educators need to think first about what children are like and then create an environment and experiences that are in tune with children’s characteristics.
Early childhood, after all, is a time much different from adulthood and even from the later school years. Children 3-6 learn far better through direct interaction than through just listening to someone drill them or talk. They learn extraordinary amounts through exploration. Based on the knowledge on what children are like, we design our program to fit them! It works a lot better than trying to redesign children!
As they interact directly with the environment, children not only gather sensory information, they also refine their senses and motor skills. For example, it takes very refined movement of the hands and fingers to produce the penmanship required for writing. Squeezing clay, picking up puzzle pieces, and lacing thread through beads, these are some of the ways young children practice using their hands and fingers. We organize the classroom environment to promote active learning and we do a lot of things to encourage children to think and talk about their discoveries and
creations.
Research and experience tell us that in order to be most effective with young children, teaching practices need to be developmentally appropriate. What this means is simply that educators need to think first about what children are like and then create an environment and experiences that are in tune with children’s characteristics.
Early childhood, after all, is a time much different from adulthood and even from the later school years. Children 3-6 learn far better through direct interaction than through just listening to someone drill them or talk. They learn extraordinary amounts through exploration. Based on the knowledge on what children are like, we design our program to fit them! It works a lot better than trying to redesign children!